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Braun KF-510 Coffee Brewer
Kevin Sinnott
Braun has always been an unusual player. Known for electric shavers as much as coffee brewers, they always seem somehow overshadowed by Krups, although in ingenuity, they are equal if not more innovative. However, both these companies release so many products, I might easily miss either’s best designs, so I’ll refrain from any sweeping judgments. Let’s just say that Braun is a company that sometimes surprises me. Some years back, they introduced a water bypass that I thought cleverly dealt with the problem most consumer coffee brewers have of too long contact times between the grounds and water. So, when I noticed when I was in Eastern Europe last fall, I found a large number of Braun machines in houses and it made me curious.
The latest Braun machines are, for the most part, made in the Czech Republic. While I’m open to coffee brewers from any industrial corner of the world, I’ve grown tired of testing mostly Chinese appliances lately, especially since so many share the same puny heating systems. It’s as if the world has kept a secret from the Far East manufacturers and that secret is a maximum contact time of six minutes between the ground coffee and hot water. Yes, there are exceptions, such as the now-defunct Presto brewer and yes, I know that brewer was Chinese-made. But, I admit I was curious to see if Eastern Europeans, which if my trip was representative, surely enjoy and know how to brew coffee, would build a brewer to meet our standards.
I decided to test the very basic Braun KF-510. This unit had no frilly features. It’s a Ford Focus. It’s got one large button that you simply push in on the right to start it and turn it off when you’re done drinking coffee. As you move up Braun’s line they offer a thermal carafe, which is unnecessary and a permanent gold filter which I also find unnecessary. I was impressed that Braun went minimal. Maybe the designers aimed it at serious coffee drinkers who really don’t tend to want clocks or other nonessential features.
It really is a seven US cup (6-ounce cup) machine. There is a water filter, which claims it can reduce minerals and delay maintenance procedures such as deliming. I didn’t test how much it reduced minerals but I would not expect it to be that much. Usually carbon filters are great at reducing chlorine but far less effective at reducing calcium, the great cause of coffee maker circulatory problems.
Here are my results.
Time – The Braun brews a full batch in 6 minutes. This is just about perfect for drip grind coffee.
Temperature – The Braun starts off a little low. It slowly chugs up the temperature hill to reach 190, which it reaches at just about the 3 minute mark. Another minute to rise to official extraction temperature of 195, where it stays put for the duration. A note about this: I can drink coffee brewed at 190. I know the official Specialty Coffee temperature is 200, but I’m unconvinced. After all, the French press brews at under 195 for most of its contact time, and it seems acceptable.
Grounds saturation – The Braun KF 510 does a credible job getting all the grounds wet. Even using fresh roasted, fresh ground coffee, it gets them all wet. Fresh roasted coffee can be problematic for auto drip makers. Hot water hits the grounds and they swell up as they still de-gas carbon dioxide. Often the very top grounds float high enough that they don’t even get wet, causing the coffee to be weaker than it should be. While the KF 510 has only a single hole as spray head, it does an okay job in spite of it.
Cup quality – The cup quality is very good, considering the just okay sprayhead and lackluster temperature performance in the first few minutes. I’ve written before, it is my observation that brewing temperature standards are too narrow. As long as a coffee brewer reaches 195 Fahrenheit for a portion of its brew cycle, it seems to work fine. This was borne out in my cup samples. Since the unit brews approximately seven 6-ounce cups of coffee, I used 70 grams per batch, which worked out fine. I tried a pre-ground Café Rojas blend from Boyd’s Coffee that tasted as good as I’ve had it. Okay, the very high temperature Krups Moka might have brought out a tad more acidity, but I seriously doubt that anyone would miss it. Meanwhile, the body and overall flavor index was fully satisfying. The most important thing it did, or didn’t do, was over-extract the coffee flavor. I also brewed a pot of Kaffeeklatsch’s Colombia Mesa de los Santos, not their usual vintage blend. This coffee was overall fine as well, but I would tell you that I’ve brought forth the acidity one notch higher with higher brew temps in other machines.
Conclusion – Don’t kid yourself, for around $50 this is a really credible machine. It has a serious heating element to achieve its numbers and someone at Braun was paying attention to brew within six minutes. If you’re shopping for a decent machine within a budget, I’d seriously consider the Braun KF 510.
Acidity 7
Body 8
Ease of use 9
Ease of cleaning 8
Total Flavor 8
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