In my mind, GE is a manufacturer of large, square appliances. They are the reliable and relatively affordable stove people and the makers of the silver monolithic refrigerator from the Monogram line that I once carried around town with my brother-in-law. That kind of things.
I don’t normally consider them competitors to Mr. Coffee, but their new coffee maker is. As part of the company’s artistic and technological Café line, it is also one of a small group of coffee makers that are approved by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), a sort of Seal of Good Care for coffee nerds who fairly guarantees a good cup for consumers. It’s a pretty attractive coffee maker, but for the price, it’s just not a very interesting cup.
Worn out of white
At first glance, it’s easy to like the GE Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker. Take it out of the box and you can make a flower pot without looking at the instructions. The GE Café has an app and you can connect it to your Wi-Fi network, but all the key features are accessible on the machine, so you can leave the app in the App Store if you’re not interested.
There are four brew intensity options: light, medium, bold and golden; the latter is configured according to SCA specifications. The water temperature for the non-Gold settings can be adjusted between 185 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing you to fine-tune your brew. (On GE, the Gold setting is the same as the Medium setting, but the temperature is set at 200 degrees.)
It’s attractive, available in stainless steel, matte black and what I would call “Tatooine Kitchen” white. My review unit was one of the matte white models, and while that finish looks nice, it’s a peculiar choice considering coffee’s ability to stain.
Plus, with a rectangular footprint and controls on the long axis, it forces you to place it on your countertop in a space-hogging way, a pitfall that my personal favorite, the OXO 8-Cup Coffee Maker (9/10, WIRED Recommends) avoids. . And while the OXO has dishwasher-safe parts, the GE has none.
Photography: Amazonas
Playing with taste
Good coffee is the result of a number of factors such as bean and roast quality, grind size, brewing time, temperature and water quality, to name a few. Start from a good foundation and you can modify your path to perfection, one variable at a time.
In my test kitchen, comparing it solely to itself, that foundation felt solid: SCA approval in action! The coffee was good, but I wanted to go deeper with my friends from Olympia Cafe in his Seattle laboratory. I met co-owner Sam Schroeder and retail trainer Reyna Callejo, who had brought their Breville Precision Brewer Thermal (7/10, WIRED Review) from home, which was a big help. It is an excellent machine and direct competition for the GE Café, perfect for head-to-head testing.
Sam and Reyna immediately did what coffee nerds do with a new appliance, hovering over it, excitedly pressing all the buttons, opening and closing everything that could be opened and closed, marveling at the little replaceable water filter, appreciating the nice and spacious shower. head, the part where the hot water emerges above the ground, and wondering aloud if it would really distribute the water evenly. Looking back, it was here that little metaphorical cracks began to appear in the matte plastic.