Coffee connoisseurs have different likes and dislikes, but all of them have strong opinions on their favorite gear. As a coffee geek myself and co-owner of Lake City Coffee Roasters, I’m always looking for different brewing gear. For decades, I’ve loathed drip machines, therefore I never even considered a MoccaMaster. Then one day, a customer told me how much he loved his MoccaMaster. I said I loathed drip machines. He told me this was no drip machine. So, today, we’re going to compare the MoccaMaster vs. drip machines and see which is better? If you’re not ready to dive deep into the MoccaMaster and drip machines, then take a quick look at our coffee gear primer page. It’s short and sweet and full of helpful advice.
MoccaMaster
MoccaMaster vs. Drip Machines
- Technivorm MoccaMaster
- Made In Netherlands
- First Produced in 1969 – 10 Million Sold
- Model: KGBV
- Cost: $350 – $500 (I got mine on Amazon for sale for only $197)
- Paper Filters #4
- Cuisinart’s Grind-n-Brew
- Made in China by Slave Labor
Cuisinart Grind-n-Brew
It’s All About Taste
As Lake City Coffee Roaster‘s co-owner, I’m rather picky about my coffee. I’d rather go without than drink bad or even mediocre coffee. BUT, sitting back and enjoying a great cup of coffee, now that’s an entirely different story. For me, I expect my morning coffee to be awesome. It’d better taste smooth as silk with both prominent and subtle tasting notes.
Our review today is going to be about the coffee. The only components of the MoccaMaster vs Drip Machines that we’ll discuss are those that directly relate to the coffee’s taste. If you’re like me, you really don’t give a rat’s butt why the coffee is good, you just want great tasting and repeatable coffee.
Drip Machine
When the drip machine was invented in 1908, it caused quite a stir. Why? It certainly wasn’t from the quality of the coffee. It wasn’t even better than its forerunner the percolator, which had been ubiquitously around since 1819. Even the percolator brewed better coffee than the drip machine. The drip machine’s only redeeming feature is that it’s easy.
Here’s the rub. A drip coffee brewer drips hot water in the very middle of a pile of coffee grounds, passes through those grounds, and finally collects into a pot. The problem is the water keeps passing through the same spot in the pile of the grounds, leaving ¾ of the pile of grounds barely wet. Thus, the drip coffee machine brews bitter nasty coffee. Generally speaking, you’d be hard pressed to find a brewing system that produces worse coffee than a drip machine.
That being said, I own what is perhaps one of the best drip machines made, the Cuisinart Grind-n-Brew. As you might guess from the name, it grinds the beans, then immediately starts dripping hot water. Even with this, high-end brewing machine, the coffee sucks.
MoccaMaster’s Reputation
Frankly, I don’t care that the MoccaMaster has been around for over half a century. I don’t care that they’ve sold over 10 million units around the world. In comparison, McDonalds has sold over 300 billion of the worst hamburgers on the planet. So, what.
OK, I’ll give Technivorm credit for being one of the top-ranking brewers of all time, such as:
- America’s Test Kitchen’s Top Ranked Brewer Year After Year
- Specialty Coffee Association’s Golden Cup Award
- Product Report Card’s Top Brewer
- Gear Patrol ‘s Best Coffee Maker
- , etc., etc. the list of brewing competition wins goes on and on.
MoccaMaster Models
The basic MoccaMaster hasn’t changed much in the last half century. The difference in models is mostly in the type of coffee pot. There are a few basic options:
- Glass Pot With Warming Plate
- Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel
- Single Cup
I would have gone for the vacuum insulated pot. I’ve always been told that coffee pot warmers screw up the taste of the coffee. Makes sense, right? Apparently not. Several reviewers have reported that the glass pot tastes better than the stainless-steel pot. Go figure. After several months of using the MoccaMaster, I can attest the reviewers were right. The second cup of coffee from the glass pot, which was sitting on top of the builtin warming plate, an hour later is just as good as the first cup.
Manual Slow Pour Over Brewing
I know this looks like a rabbit hole, but it isn’t. Bear with me for a moment. Generally speaking coffee brewing can be categorized into two major camps. Single cup brewing methods and pot size brewing methods. Also, generally speaking, the single cup brewing methods produce much better coffee; coffee that’s smoother and with more flavor.
One of the most popular and best brewing methods is the “slow pour over”. Basically, it’s a cone with an inserted paper filter, filled with coffee grounds, set on top of a coffee mug, and hot water slowly poured over the entire bed of grounds. The operative words here are “slowly” and “entire”. This brewing method produces something just short of heaven in a cup.
Automated Slow Pour Over
Here’s how the MoccaMaster works, what makes it different, and more importantly why its coffee is so damn good. The MoccaMaster very quickly boils water, yet very slowly pours the hot water through a bunch of holes in a metal arm extended over the entire length of a miniature pond of coffee grounds. Because the hot water is constantly moving over all of the coffee grounds, that water mixs with the grounds for a longer period of time.
So in essence, the MoccaMaster is NOT a drip coffee machine. In reality, it is an automated slow pour over brewing system. The difference in taste is huge. In a bit, we’re going to taste test coffee brewed in the MoccaMaster and see how its taste stacks up.
Best Beans For MoccaMaster
Many people think that each brewing system brews better coffee given a steady diet of a specific kind of bean. That’s just not the case. The question really comes down to what bean do you like? If you like a specific bean in a French Press, there’s no reason that you won’t also like it in a MoccaMaster.
I’m partial to beans that are smooth as silk, that also have distinctive flavors, such as chocolate, cherry, berry, nut, or bark, etc. If all you taste is charcoal, then you’d be drinking poor quality coffee, that’s probably months if not years old, not to mention it’s burnt.
So bottom line, what bean should you use for your MoccaMaster? Well, that all depends on whatever bean you like. I personally love coffee beans from the Tarrazu Region of Costa Rica. Drink whatever coffee bean that you like.
Best Roast For The MoccaMaster
So, what roast will make MoccaMaster coffee taste better? Again, it all depends on what you like. Generally speaking the darker the roast the more “burnt” flavor you’re going to taste and the less coffee flavor you’re going to taste.
On the other hand, the less dark the roast, i.e. medium roast, the more coffee flavor you will taste. Additionally, with a medium roast, you’ll also be able to taste other non-coffee flavors, such as chocolate, cherry, berry, etc.
Lastly, with a medium roast, you’ll get more caffeine, more bioflavonoids, more antioxidants, aroma, and flavor.
MoccaMaster Taste Test Results
I’ve been using my MoccaMaster for several months. Overall, I can say that it beats any drip coffee machine on the market. Secondly, the coffee tastes almost handmade. As a general rule, single cup, or hand pressed coffee tastes far superior than from a machine. Nothing against machines, some of my best friends are machines.
As for tasting notes, a lot of that is going to depend on the beans that you select. Today, I’m using San Rafael beans from the Tarrazu Region of Costa Rica. These beans are notoriously smooth as silk with plenty of flavor, particularly in the area of Chocolate and Cherry.
Through the MoccaMaster, the coffee is smooth; not as smooth as hand made, but still certainly leaning on the smooth side. Secondly, I can taste Chocolate and Cherry, but only if I concentrate on it. That over subtlety is just the nature of the mechanical beast. Bottom line, it’s still “good” coffee, in fact it is the best machine made coffee that I’ve ever had.
Conclusion – MoccaMaster vs. Drip Machines
There just is no comparison. Which is better a Ferrari or a Bull Dozer. Well that all depends on what you want. Same here. If you’re looking for fast and easy coffee and you don’t care about the quality, then any drip machine from the thrift store should suffice. On the other hand, if you’re looking for quality AND easy, then the MoccaMaster can’t be beat.
Lake City Coffee Roasters
Maybe you can tell from the attitude of this review that we’re a small mom-n-pop company. We make our living by selecting the very best coffee beans that money can buy. We’re experts at selecting just one bean a year which tops the Quality to Price Ratio list, i.e. best bang for your buck.
We bring in 20-25 samples of beans from the Tarrazu Region of Costa Rica, taste test all of them, then select the very best bean to pass along to our discerning customers. The testament that we’re doing something right is that over 95% of our sales are from return customers. That should tell you something.
So, if you’re looking for a coffee roaster that knows how to select, roast, ship (the same day) the very best bean, and then do whatever it takes to keep you engaged and happy, then you’re in the right place.
Sincerely,
Russell & Alisha Volz