GE Profile Smart Grind and Brew Review: Just the Basics

Situated at the top of this 16.5-inch caffeination station is a removable hatch that covers up a sloped bean hopper, which maxed out at about 100 grams of whole-bean light-roast coffee in my tests. To the right is a grind size dial with six detented positions that are easy enough to land between with a slight twist. The finest setting on the Profile is nowhere near the finest setting on my Bodum Bistro grinder, but this isn’t an espresso machine, so it’s hard to say this really matters. The onboard grinder is often the weakest link on all-in-one machines, but the burr grinder in the Profile feels solid and takes well to adjustments despite urging users to pick one of six preset grind sizes. A short turn of the chute cover inside the hopper reveals the burrs for ease of access when the machine tells you it’s time to clean the grinder.

Behind the hopper is a detachable reservoir with markings for 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 ounces, along with its 90-ounce recommended maximum. It’s outfitted with a replaceable filter that’s included in the box, and it’s easy enough to remove the entire tank for refilling at the sink without dripping water all over the place. A removable lid cover allows refilling while the reservoir remains attached to the unit.

Photograph: Pete Cottell

At the top of the unit’s front panel is a black-and-white LCD display surrounded by 11 soft-touch buttons that provide quick access to features and settings with minimal menu diving. Before applying our standardized testing, I submitted the Profile to a test similar to the Aiden’s, in which I did my best to brew a cup of coffee as quickly as possible without reading the manual. I was pleasantly surprised by the intuitiveness of the controls relative to the variety of brewing options on offer. The GE Profile passed the “can I get a cup of coffee out of this thing in under 10 minutes without teaching myself how to use it properly?” test with flying colors. I plugged it in, filled it with water and beans, pressed a few buttons, and in five minutes, a 10-ounce cup of coffee was ready to go.

Convenience Over Craft

The first fork in the road for your workflow is whether you want to brew a large batch into the included carafe, or the “podless single serve mode,” which is industry-speak for brewing straight into your mug of choice without a K-Cup. There’s a button for each option that scrolls through various output volumes–4 to 10 cups for carafe mode, and 6 to 24 ounces for mug. Strength can be adjusted among light, medium, bold, extra bold, and “Gold” (more on this later) with the titular button, and brew temperature can be adjusted from 185 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit with the Temp button.

Press “Brew” to brew now, or press Delay Brew to open a sub-menu where the custom brew time is dialed in with dedicated hour and minute buttons. The My Brew button will save your current brew setting into memory for later use. Press it again any time to load your My Brew preset, then press Brew to brew with that preset. The “Grind Off” button disables the grinder during the next brew cycle, and the gear icon scrolls through a trio of maintenance options: descaling, filter replacement, and a grinder cleaning process.

As such, the proverbial levers one can pull to adjust the final outcome are grind size, brewing temperature, and brewing strength. I started with the “Gold” option, which functions as a “start here” preset for people who are OK with taking the machine’s advice on what counts as a tasty cup of coffee per the Specialty Coffee Association. With my trusty Kirkland Signature Organic Ethiopia on a 5 out of 6 grind setting as the input, this yielded a smooth cup that averaged around 202 degrees Fahrenheit after the brew cycle. The typical tasting notes of the beans—mellow tannic flavors with hints of orange pith and white wine—were sanded down into an understated, earthy cup that finished with flavors of fresh grass and the aroma of a woodworking shop. Passable, but I can’t think of a single coffee professional who would give this product a gold medal. Thus is the yin and yang of convenience and flavor.