REVIEW – My wife and I are lifelong coffee drinkers—3-4 cups a day each. That’s a lot of coffee over time. As a result, we’ve gone through different types of methods of how to brew coffee. For a long time, we used regular drip machines like Mr. Coffee before graduating to Keurig machines. It took a few years to finally wean ourselves from the unreliable Keurig maker with its substandard coffee. We returned to good ‘ole drip coffee from top-rated OXO 9-Cup Coffee Maker. We like to grind our own coffee, so I would grind coffee every few days in a separate grinder and leave the unused portion in a container where it would go stale. The OXO machine is great, but when Gevi offered their GEVI Programmable 10-Cup Grind & Brew Coffee Maker review – Coffee and guilt trips for review, it was the answer we were looking for. Coffee and a grinder! Does it live up to its claim? Let’s look at it.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $179.00
Where to buy: GEVI and Amazon
What is it?
The GEVI 2-IN-1 Smart Drip Coffee Machine is just that, a coffee maker with a built-in grinder. It comes with the usual perks: A 10-cup water tank, basket with filter, glass 10-cup carafe, built-in carafe heater, and timer (coffee ready when you wake up!). At the top of the Gevi coffee maker sits a grinder that grinds beans of your choice as powdery or coarse as desired.
The machine is 17 inches tall, so it may not fit under certain upper kitchen cabinets, but it fits ours with one inch to spare. The Gevi is mostly plastic with brushed silver accents The carafe is glass with a flip-top lid. Parts are easily removed for cleaning.
What’s included?
- GEVI Coffee Machine
- Coffee Carafe
- Swing-out Filter Basket
- Filter Insert With Drip Stop
- Filter Ring
- Measuring Spoon
- Manual
Tech specs
- Coffee Maker Type: Drip
- Style: Grind & Brew
- Material: Plastic
- Filter Type: Reusable (or #4 paper)
- Power: 120 Volts/60Hz
- Wattage: 900W
- Capacity: 1.5 Liters
- Item Weight: 9.9 lbs
- Dimensions: 12”D x 10″W x 17″H
Design and features
After unboxing, the most complicated part about brewing that first cup is finding the grind/brew strength settings preferred. Fortunately, for us, my wife and I were happy with our first choice. We figured we would stop while ahead. There are 8 grind settings to choose from, from fine to coarse. In addition, there are 3 brew strength options. If you like Starbucks’s strength (we call it “Tarbucks”), go with the fine grind with the Strong brew setting. We like a milder taste, so we use the Mild setting with a finer grind. There are no “wrong” choices—it’s however you like your coffee to taste.
One thing the manual does not mention is that the brand of coffee can significantly alter what settings work best. We already ground our own Costo Blue Mountain Blend beans in a separate grinder with the OXO machine and the transition to the Gevi was seamless—except the coffee now tastes even better!
Once I figured out how the machine works and what settings to use, I could now leave everything as is, refill the bean hopper and water tank, and let the Gevi take over. It’s that easy. Granted, eventually, it will need to be de-scaled for a thorough cleaning (about every 100 uses), but every coffee machine requires that.
The front panel of the Gevi is fairly straightforward. There are two columns of buttons. On the left column, the Program button sets a time for the machine to come on in the morning. So when you rise, the kitchen has that aroma calling you like an Arabica siren on a rocky shore. Okay, that’s a bit hyperbolic but coffee drinkers understand.
Next is the Grind Off button. Not everyone wants to grind their own coffee—or may want a quieter morning (grinding is a bit loud). This turns off grinding, which is on by default. The Strength Control button offers 3 choices, strong, medium, or mild.
The right column of buttons features a Powder button. This allows the powder (grounds) quantity to match cup quantities. More simply, if you’re making 10 cups of coffee, the Gevi will grind 10 cups worth of grounds—and so forth. Since we always brew 10 cups, this is set at 10. The separate Hour and Min buttons set the time. That’s it.
In the center is a monochrome LCD that shows the settings chosen with those surrounding buttons.
Grinding size is set by a knob at the top of the Gevi. Gevi states that the grind size can only be set when the hopper is empty. The knob will not turn when coffee is in the hopper. Forcing it can damage the machine. You’ve been warned.
Using the grinder function is easy. The manual states to not overfill the bean hopper. That’s kinda impossible since the lid won’t fit if it’s overfilled. My new nighttime routine is to fill the water tank and hopper (if it needs it). I place the filter into the filter insert. I then place the filter ring on top of the filter. The ring seems silly at first, but it prevents steam escaping from the top which can add moisture to the overhead cabinet. So I now appreciate it. Once these easy steps are done, when I wake up, I just press the On/Off button once and Gevi takes over. About 5-10 minutes later, we have 10 cups of just ground, fresh coffee.
A nice feature of the Gevi is something called “blooming”. Blooming moistens the coffee grounds just before brewing. According to Gevi, this swells the grounds a bit releasing a more intense flavor. Blooming can be turned off, but I don’t know why anyone would want to.
Now let’s talk about cups. 10 cups is only 10 cups if you live in a doll house. We drink coffee in mugs, not dainty cups. So we get about 4-5 mugs of coffee from a full carafe. I don’t blame Gevi for this, OXO and other makers play the same cup-counting game.
I brewed some coffee from pre-ground coffee in the Gevi. It was good, but not as good as just ground before brewing. There is no comparison. I highly recommend always using the grinder with each carafe.
Coffee is brewed at about 197°F. The temp drops to 170°F for the final coffee. The carafe sits on a heated plate set at 140°F for two hours before shutting down.
So how does the coffee taste? Note that I am not a coffee snob. I joke that I put the sewer in connoisseur. Having said that, I think it’s the best coffee I’ve ever had. My wife—who is way more discerning—agrees. However, with her, it’s a love/hate relationship. She loves her coffee from the Gevi so much, she’s drinking more than she usually does. She does not like drinking more coffee because she thinks it’s unhealthy. She’s wrong, but I’m not telling her. 😉
Final thoughts
My wife and I are happy with the GEVI 2-IN-1 Smart Drip Coffee Machine. As I said, we drink a lot of coffee and are thrilled at how much better our favorite brand tastes. Now, if my wife could work on her coffee-drinking guilt trip.
What I like about the GEVI 2-IN-1 Smart Drip Coffee Machine
- Makes great-tasting coffee
- Easy to use
What needs to be improved?
- Grinding can be loud
- Not all parts dishwasher safe
Price: $179.00
Where to buy: GEVI and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Gevi. Gevi did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other coffee maker reviews!
- PINKAH Stainless Steel French Press Coffee Maker review – a great daily driver for a caffeine fiend!
- FREE VILLAGE 20 BAR Espresso Maker review
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I don’t see what type of grinder it has on the company site? I went through several expensive coffee makers in the past years. One I bought because it would bloom the coffee beans. After the last one died eventually I kept using my burr grinder but bought a very cheap Mr Coffee and have been very happy-and with much more money in my pocket. I have found how you grind your coffee is key to good coffee.
It looks like you are storing some of your coffee in the hopper. If you want to achieve maximum freshness you need to have all of your beans except for the ones that you are going to use that day stored in a sealed dark place. You then take out just the beans that you are going to use that day. That is what I do w my espresso drinks and it should be the same for all coffee beans,