Cuisinart DGB-550BKP1 Automatic Coffeemaker Grind & Brew, 12-Cup Glass, Black
$129.95
Price: $129.95
(as of Oct 11, 2025 10:11:22 UTC – Details)
Grind and Brew Coffeemaker
Retire your alarm clock and wake up instead to the rich aroma of freshly ground, just brewed coffee, with the Cuisinart Grind & Brew Automatic Coffeemaker. One of the Premier Series, this deluxe 12-cup model offers the best of Cuisinart’s expert coffeemaking technology to deliver unsurpassed ease of use and rich full-bodied coffee flavor. With streamlined European styling and a graceful carafe, it’s a beautiful addition to any kitchen.
The Grind & Brew Coffeemaker features a separate grinding assembly and filter chamber to make beans easy to add and used grounds easy to remove. A convenient “grind off” control turns the grinder off when preground coffee is used.
A nice addition to any modern kitchen, this 12-cup automatic coffeemaker automatically grinds whole beans right before brewing to produce a fresh and flavorful pot of coffee. The 24-hour fully programmable unit allows for “wake-up” coffee, plus its brew-pause function makes it simple to enjoy a cup of coffee before the end of the brewing cycle. The included 60-ounce glass carafe offers an ergonomic handle, knuckle guard, and dripless pour spout for graceful serving. Other highlights include adjustable auto shutoff for up to four hours, a grind-off option, a charcoal water filter to remove impurities, and a separate grinder chamber and filter area to ensure simple cleanup. Housed in elegant Italian styling, the coffeemaker measures approximately 12 by 10 by 17 inches and carries a three-year limited warranty.
A charcoal water filter and a permanent commercial-style gold tone coffee filter allow only pure flavor to flow through, and the popular Brew Pause feature lets you sneak a cup before the cycle is finished.
Dishwasher safe parts. Separate grind and filter chambers for easy cleanup. The freshest tasting coffee outside a coffee bar. What more could a coffee lover as for?
Product Parts and Benefits
- Reservoir Cover
Flips back for easy filling, Removable for easy cleaning. A safety Interlock System prevents operation of the unit if the Reservoir Cover is open. - Showerhead
Distributes water evenly over coffee, reducing temperature loss as water passes through grounds. - Filter Basket Compartment
Contains filter basket, filter basket cover, and Cuisinart gold tone commercial style filter - Brew Pause
Stops flow of coffee from basket when carafe is removed from heater plate so a cup can be poured in mid-brew, if desired - Heating Plate
Scratch resistant with nonstick coating - Carafe
The easy-pour, no-drip 12-cup carafe has an ergonomic handle and brewed coffee markings for two to twelve cups - Measuring Scoop and Brush
- #4 Basket Paper Filters
- Grinder Basket and Lid
Use the recess on each side of the lid to remove lid for easy addition of beans - Cord Storage
- Charcoal Water Filter
Charcoal water filter eliminates chlorine, bad tastes, and ordors from tap water - Control Panel
- On/Off/Set Auto-Shutoff Switch with LED Indicator: Audible Tone which will sound 5 times when the coffee has completed brewing and Auto-Shutoff Tone which will sound twice at end of programmed auto-shutoff period
- Low Cups Setting with LED Indicator: set to 1-4 cup to imporove extraction and flavor when making fewer than 5 cups of coffee
- Hours Set/Minutes Set: press and hold either hour or minute button for approximately 2 seconds to enter Time Set Mode
- Clock Display
- Grind Off with LED Indicator: use to turn off the grinder when using pre-ground coffee
- Program Setting with LED Indicator: press to display program setting or to set programmed brewing
Product Features
- Elegant Italian Styling
- Automatically grinds whole beans before brewing
- 24 hour fully programmable
- Brew Pause™ feature lets you enjoy a cup of coffee before brewing has finished
- Adjustable auto shutoff – 0-4 hours
- Grind off feature
- 1-4 cup feature
- 12 (5 oz. each) cup carafe with ergonomic handle, dripless spout and knuckle guard
- Gold tone commercial filter
- Charcoal water filter removes impurities
- Separate grinder chamber and filter area make for easy cleanup
- Limited 3-year warranty
Easy Operation
Fully programmable, this is the ultimate user-friendly coffeemaker. Simply add beans and water, set the flavor control to 1-4 or 5+ cups, and program start time up to 24 hours in advance. An auto-shutoff feature even lets you set the unit to turn off up to 4 hours after the brew cycle ends.
The Perfect Cup of Coffee
Element 1: Water
Coffee is 98% water. The quality of that water is as important as the quality of your coffee. If water doesn’t taste good from the tap, it won’t taste good in your coffee. That’s why Cuisinart has added a water filter to the Grind & Brew Coffeemaker. The charcoal filter removes chlorine, bad tastes, and odors, for the purest coffee flavor, every time you brew.
Element 2: Coffee
While coffee is 98% water, all of the flavor comes from the beans. To achieve the same great taste you enjoy at a coffee bar, you need to use the same quality of coffee.
Buy the beans fresh and whole, only about two weeks’ supply at a time for maximum freshness. Once the coffee bean is broken, its flavor degrades very quickly. That’s why the Grind & Brew grinds your coffee just prior to brewing. If it is not practical to buy small supplies, separate larger amounts of beans into one to two week portions immediately after purchase, and freeze them in airtight containers.
The best way to maximize freshness is to minimize exposure to air, light, and moisture. So, once beans have been removed from the freezer, maintain them in a sealed container at room temperature, since damaging condensation occurs every time the beans are removed from the freezer or refrigerator. Note that some coffee experts advise against freezing dark-roast beans, because freezing can cause the oils to coagulate. Other experts disagree. We suggest you experiment and decide for yourself.
Element 3: Grind
The grind is critical for proper flavor extraction. If the grind is too fine, over-extraction and bitterness will result. Too fine a grind may also clog the filter. If grind is too coarse, the water will pass through too quickly and the maximum flavor will not be extracted. The Grind & Brew is preset for a medium grind, the optimal grind for this type of coffeemaker.
Element 4: Proportion
Coffee that is too strong or too weak is always a disappointment. Follow the recommended portions of ground coffee in the instructions included with every Grind & Brew, and later adjust the amount to suit your taste. The Grind & Brew makes up to twelve (12) 5-ounce cups of coffee
- Charcoal Water Filter
- Grinder Basket and Lid
- #4 Basket Paper Filters
Please refer to user guide or user manual or user guide (provided below in PDF) before first use
24-hour programmability with 12-Cup glass carafe featuring an ergonomic handle, dripless pour spout and knuckle guard
Grinds whole beans right before brewing to produce fresh and flavorful coffee. Grind off feature for pre ground coffee
Brew-pause feature, auto shutoff from 0 to 4 hours, and 1- to 4-Cup feature
Please make sure the 1-4 setting button is pushed on. This setting does make a stronger cup of coffee due to the slower brewing process
Product Built to North American Electrical Standards. Separate grinder chamber and filter area make for easy cleanup
Customers say
Customers find this coffee maker produces great-tasting coffee and appreciate its ability to make fresh ground coffee. The grinder receives mixed feedback – while some say it grinds beans perfectly, others report it grinds too fine. Customers disagree on the ease of cleaning and functionality, with some finding it simple to clean while others say it has many parts to clean, and some report the grinder stops working. The noise level is criticized for being rather loud, and opinions on value for money are divided between those who find it well worth the price and those who think it’s not worth the cost.
7 reviews for Cuisinart DGB-550BKP1 Automatic Coffeemaker Grind & Brew, 12-Cup Glass, Black
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RockyTech –
Excellent Coffee Maker, A Few Quirks
This review is for the 10-cup DGB-850 with Thermal Carafe (stainless steel).After using this coffee maker for over 10 weeks, we are quite happy with it overall (after learning a few lessons). Perhaps this is an updated version of the model, but we have not had any of the issues some reviews mention, like problems cleaning the grinder burrs. In fact, this version does not even have user-access to the grinder parts, based on the videos and descriptions from others with problems. This model advertises that the grinder assembly auto-rinses all the grinds from the grinder – there is no disassembly to get to the grinder itself, and it appears to work fine without access. All we do to clean it after each use is rinse out the permanent filter itself (or toss the paper filter), and wipe moisture from the holder and the housing above the coffee carafe platform.PROS:* Coffee tastes very good – grind/strength controls allows pretty good control over desired taste, by adjusting the amount of water used with each grind range (see my grind testing chart image, and table below). My wife likes coffee a bit weaker, so we use 7-8 cups of water with a 6-cup Grind, for instance, adjusting Strength as needed for the exact amount of water used.* With the thermal carafe, the heating plate below the carafe warms the stainless steel carafe as the coffee is brewed, so there is no need to pre-heat a cold carafe (which we had to do with our previous coffee maker). Works well – the heater is turned off automatically after the coffee is brewed, so it does not over-heat the coffee. The thermal carafe keeps the coffee pretty warm for an hour or two.* At least so far, we have not had any issues with cleaning the grinder burrs – easy clean-up.* We really like the ability to use either the permanent filter basket, or a paper filter. With a septic system, we cannot rinse grounds down the drain, and it is sometimes a pain to dump grounds outside in bad weather (so the paper filter is handy in heavy snow). We did not have this option with our old blade-grinder coffee maker.CONS (Lessons Learned):* Pouring water into the reservoir is a pain with the coffee maker under a cabinet. You need access to the back of the coffee maker to pour from a bit behind, since pouring from the front can let water spill out the overflow slots at the back of the reservoir.* As some reviews mention, pouring from the carafe can be a bit tricky with the lid on, if you are not careful. A full pot pours fine, but steeper angles of pour as the carafe gets emptier can make a mess. I remove the lid for pouring as the pot gets emptier.* To get just the right coffee strength for your personal tastes, it helps to understand exactly how the coffee maker adjusts the grind for the settings (Grind and Strength). I could not find this information in the manual or any on-line reference. See my “Strength Notes” below – between knowing what each combination does, and adjusting the amount of water for each setting, you can get pretty much just what you want, without wasting coffee.STRENGTH NOTES:At first, we found it a bit limiting to have fixed settings for only 4, 6, 8 & 10 cups of coffee. And I could not find any good description anywhere about exactly what the Grind control and the Strength control do – does one adjust the fineness of the grinding mechanism, and the other the amount of coffee beans ground (based on the amount of time the grinder runs)? If so, which controls which? All the manual really says is “The burr grinder will grind the correct amount of beans, and automatically adjust the coffee/water ratio for low cup settings.”So, I started experimenting with different settings to see what each does, based on the weight of the ground coffee put into the filter. I weighed the grounds after brewing each pot at different setting combinations, letting them drain quite a while first (wet grounds, but well drained). The chart in the image attached to this review (also shown in the table below) shows my results – not every setting available, but enough to figure out what is happening, I believe. From visual comparisons, I could not see any apparent differences in the coarseness of the grounds themselves with any combination, so I assume that the grinder does not change the coarseness/fineness of the grind itself, only the amount of beans ground, for both the strength and grind (# of cups) settings. But with the information in the chart, and by adjusting the amount of water you put in the reservoir for each brew, you can get pretty close to the strength you want.Ground Coffee Weights, Cuisinart DGB-850 CoffeemakerGRIND STRENGTH GRAMS (avg.)=============================4 Cups Extra Bold 756 Cups Regular 916 Cups Bold 1026 Cups Extra Bold 1208 Cups Bold 1228 Cups Extra Bold 140So, for example, we brew a slightly weaker-than-recommended pot by setting the Grind (# of cups) to 6 cups, adding either 7 or 8 cups of water to the reservoir, and setting the Strength as a kind of fine-tuning adjustment to get just the strength we want for that batch (my wife likes it a bit weaker, I like it a bit stronger – we alternate!).Hopefully this will help you fine-tune your perfect cup of coffee. Happy brewing!
Elizabeth Bennett –
Delivers Perfectly Brewed, Freshly Ground Coffee When You Want It!
I love this coffee maker! It delivers freshly ground coffee, perfectly brewed, exactly when you want it. It is simple to operate but you will have to use it a few times before you get it. It’s not intuitive but neither is a food processor the first time you use it. You will need to read the instructions and carefully follow the steps to set up the clock (remember to set AM or PM) and the timer.Using it is easy: pour water, install a disposable unbleached paper water filter in brew basket, measure coffee, and push SET. Nothing to adjust. Start with filtered or bottled water. My experience: I fill the water reservoir level to 10 cups and add 6 TBS coffee beans to the grinder basket. This makes 4 large mugs of robust-but-not-spoon-dissolving coffee.Beans: I use dark roast like Peet’s Major Dickason’s or Starbucks Cafe Verona or medium roast Lavazza Espresso. They all make a robust cup that stands up to warm milk or froth. Let experience will be your guide.Care: I put the removable parts in the dishwasher every day. This may be counter to the manufacturer’s instructions, but it’s what I do. I’m not telling you to try this at home… but, after 18 months, it’s fine. Once a month, I clean the coffee maker, per the manufacturer’s instructions, and replace the little water filter in the reservoir. That’s it.One quick caveat: the grinder is loud. You will think Krakatoa is erupting the first time you hear it, but you get used to it because the coffee is so good. I don’t hear it go off any more; I awaken to the aroma of the freshly ground brewed coffee, not the noise.There are other fancier, more complicated auto grind coffee makers, but for a delicious, reliable, simple to use and clean coffee maker, at a reasonable price, the Cuisinart 12-cup Grind & Brew is the best!
Los Detalles –
El café que disfruto es perfecto
Rocío Aponte –
Es la mejor cafetera del mundo ! Fácil de usar y muy resistente . La amoEl modelo nuevo de esta marca no es buena .
Mike Potter –
It’s a well made coffee brew/grinder combination. However, like many of the glass pot coffee makers on the market, the hot plate isn’t adjustable.
Viviane Visser –
Adorei ! Estou encantada com a cafeteira. Se tivesse que falar algo negativo , diria que ao usar o moedor do café ela faz um barulho durante o processo .Atentar para que se for usar só a parte do pó do café é necessário ativar o botão que desativa o moedor (grind off).
Nancy Coulombe –
J’adore faire mon café fraîchement moulu.