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Category: Tech Trends

February 9, 2025

Don’t Buy your Next Coffee Maker without Considering these 3 Features

I needed to buy a new coffee brewer for our kitchen. But none of the top choices were built with the key features I needed. Here’s my journey to find a model that did.

As you may know, I love my morning cup of Joe. I take it in a big, pear-shaped mug so it doesn’t tip over and soak everything on my desk. (That’s happened…once.) I want fresh coffee ready for me in my kitchen at 5:20am sharp. Then, I’m done with my fix by 7:00am.

My mug of early-morning coffee grounds me for the rest of my day. Without it, I feel out of phase, as if I’m stranded in another part of the multiverse.

Red Alert
So, you can imagine how I felt when my old Bunn coffee maker recently conked out. But its demise wasn’t entirely a shock as I’d been hearing occasional ‘zapping’ sounds coming from the 2018 Bunn Heat N’ Brew during its brewing cycle. Clearly, the electronics were failing.

Still, I wasn’t ready for the moment, and my thoughts shot to where my next morning’s coffee fix was coming from. Fortunately, I had a retired Braun coffee maker stashed away in our basement, in case of emergency. Yes, this certainly qualified, and the Lester coffeehouse opened for the next sunrise.

But my old Braun was barely operational, as I had to flick the switch twice to activate it. So, my solve was tenuous at best, and I knew I needed to quickly buy a new drip coffee maker.

Simplicity Vs. Quality
I’ve never aspired to be a home barista. That said, I do recognize that a coffee maker with one on/off switch will only get you so far.

I’m absolutely willing to do some work to generate a better cup of Joe with more extracted flavors. But I don’t want to go to school to figure out how to use an overly complex brewer.

So, as I considered my next coffee-making device, I wanted one that just offered a few more brewing settings.

How Much Do You Need to Pay?
As much as my Bunn was a workhorse, I was not entirely impressed with the coffee it made for $126.96. So, I knew I would likely have to spend more for a better device. And that was okay.

If you’re also looking to upgrade your home coffee experience and starting your research, there are three price points to consider.

  • Inexpensive, but gets the job done = $100 or less
  • Expensive, but gives you better coffee = $200 – $300
  • Crazy expensive, but provides the most control = over $300

You may notice I skipped over the $100 – $200 price point. You might call this the ‘reasonable’ category. (My old Bunn falls into this group.) But I believe this dollar amount is just not enough to get you noticeably better coffee. (I’d be happy to be proven wrong on this.)

Three Features my Coffee Maker Must Have
As I went through my online research, all the reviews handed out gold stars to coffee makers in the crazy expensive category. And I was happy to invest in one of those. But surprisingly, none of them met these three critical requirements I can’t do without.

  • Programming mode for auto-start in the morning
  • Front/back space-saving design to minimize horizontal footprint
  • Relatively simple interface

#1
I’ve Got No Time to Wait
Ironically, lots of the ‘best’ coffee makers in the market require you to flick the ‘on’ switch. You can’t program it for a specific time. Sure, it may only take a few minutes to brew, but I’d prefer not to wait, thank you very much. (How hard is it to add a clock?)

#2
Must Fit on my Kitchen Counter
Can anyone ever say they have enough counter space in their kitchen? I don’t think so. Even if you have a larger kitchen, there are just too many ways to clutter it up with cool culinary devices.

Our 1920s-era home has a galley-style kitchen. It’s not huge. So, when we recently added an Instant Pot, that amazing pressure cooker redrew the boundaries on our kitchen counter. And I realized that trying to expand my coffee-making footprint wouldn’t be a reasonable option.

#3
Please Don’t Scare Me Away with Too Many Settings
Look, I know the basics, and I’m willing to learn and tinker a little more. But I just can’t handle a device that will stare at me disapprovingly for not accessing its full potential.

Remember, I don’t want to make the ‘perfect’ cut of coffee. Just a noticeably better cup.

SCA Certification
A good place to start your research is the Specialty Coffee Association, which awards certain coffee makers with a gold-star designation that meets ‘rigorous requirements of brewed coffee quality.’

The SCA website lists all the coffee makers that meet this standard. Unfortunately, each of the SCA Certified Home Brewers ran afoul of one of my three must-have needs.

Technivorm, which is arguably the Hertz of coffee makers, failed two of the three. It has no auto brew function, and its form factor is too wide for our kitchen counter space. It may make the best cup of coffee, but it just won’t work for me.

Water Tank on Top
So, as you can imagine, I fell into another research rabbit hole. I just couldn’t find what I wanted.

And no, I wasn’t interested in trying another Bunn model. That said, I always liked the Bunn’s space-efficient form factor with its water tank on the top of the device. Every other manufacturer puts the water reservoir on the side or in the back, which significantly increases the footprint.

Did I just say no other company does this?

Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0
Have you ever heard of Behmor? I certainly didn’t know of this brand.
It’s a relatively new company in Nevada that sells home coffee roasters, coffee grinders and yes… brewers.
I ran across the Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0 ‘Customizable Temperature Control Brew System’ quite by accident, as I was skimming through YouTube reviews.
The Behmor’s form factor with the on-top water tank design immediately caught my eye. Plus…

  • It offered an eight-cup brew, which is more than I need.
  • There are custom settings to help maximize your coffee flavors.
  • It comes with a gold filter, which is nice.
  • It meets SCA brew quality standards.
    (Though I don’t think it’s SCA certified.)
  • And it’s actually slightly smaller than my old Bunn.

I should also mention it comes with a thermal carafe, which I was interested in trying.

Minimal Online Recognition
I did more googling, and the Behmor did show up, receiving a couple solid reviews. But it was entirely absent when I googled ‘best coffee makers.’

The Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0 seemed perfect for me, but it was clearly flying under the radar. Plus, it wasn’t available in the usual online shopping locations. No Amazon.

Was this all too good to be true?

Old-School Shopping
Behmor’s website explains they sell the Brazen Plus 3.0 in only fourteen specialty coffee shops around the United States (plus in others around the globe). This ‘small-batch’ distribution plan wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I figured these little coffee houses have their reputations on the line. They’re probably not going to sell a bad coffee maker.

I zeroed in on Willoughby’s Coffee, which has a few shops around the New Haven, CT area. Their website was selling the Brazen Plus 3.0, but I still picked up the phone to speak to a human being.

Ring, ring.
“Hello?”

I talked with a real person who confirmed… everything.

  • Yes, Behmor is a real company.
  • Willoughby’s Coffee is also a real place that sells coffee… and the Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0.
  • And the barista I spoke with had good things to say about the Behmor.

I hung up.

Click.

I had my Brazen on our doorstep the next day with free shipping and a free pound of coffee.

Sweet.

Trust
Happily, this wasn’t too good to be true.

But I had trouble buying a product from an unknown company, because I couldn’t find lots of other people documenting their approval on a known and ‘trusted’ website. (Sound familiar?)

And then some part of me also had to find a person to talk with to reinforce my reality check. What did I think was going on?

Nevertheless, today and everyday… you’ve got to pay attention online. If something doesn’t feel right, I think it’s okay to double check.

And if I may offer a suggestion to Behmor: Please budget a few more dollars in your marketing plan. You absolutely need it.

Setting Up my Behmor
So, I eagerly opened the Behmor box and placed the gleaming Brazen Plus 3.0 on our kitchen counter next to our Instant Pot.

There were some initial set up tasks, which took the machine through a calibration and a rinsing cycle. But it was quick.
Then, the Brazen Plus 3.0 offered three setting options to help maximize the coffee.

  • Pre-soak time (to allow your coffee to ‘bloom’)
  • Brew temperature
  • Altitude (of your kitchen)

I really enjoy having this additional control, without feeling overwhelmed.

It’s the perfect next step of brewing control for me.

Brazen Plus 3.0 Results
My Brazen Plus 3.0 clearly pulls out more nuanced flavors from the coffee blends I’ve previously been using. (It’s ‘pulse water delivery’ system is designed to help with that.)

Overall, I’m totally satisfied with my new Behmor. With its additional settings, my coffee instantly tastes better than what my old Bunn could spit out.

I should mention that this device does project three little beeps when it’s done brewing. (It also beeps whenever you press any of the buttons.) The beeps are not annoyingly loud, like my GE microwave or Breville toaster oven (which both sound like the screaming goats from “Thor: Love and Thunder”). But the Brazen Plus 3.0 doesn’t run silent. On the other hand, no gurgling coffee maker in brew mode is entirely quiet.

My Runner-Up Choice
If you’re wondering, yes, there was a runner up from my research.

But this OXO model was still a bit big. But honestly, what really held me back was the fact that OXO also makes a smaller version that would have been perfect in every way for me. (It’s the 8-cup model.) But that one doesn’t have a clock for morning auto brew.
(“Khaaann!!”)

So that gap drained my enthusiasm for the larger version. (But I think the 12-cup OXO is still a good choice.)

Coffee Conclusions
Is the Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0 the best coffee maker out there? Well, I’ve decided that’s not the right question to ask. It’s really about what’s best for you.

My Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0 fits nicely on our kitchen counter.
It brews tasty coffee that’s ready for me when I wake up. And it gives me more control in how I brew my coffee.

And at $199.99, the price point is also just right.

I’d say that’s perfect for Barrett.

Happy but Exhausted
I know, this may seem like a whole lot of effort to buy a simple coffee maker. And it was.

Hopefully, my experience can be useful as you go through your own process to identify your next coffee maker.

And if all else fails, there’s likely Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts down the street.

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February 2, 2025

How Found Memories from Forgotten Media Can Affect your Own Story

Today’s tech easily enables you to meet your younger self through countless photo and video moments, many of which you may have forgotten about. How does that awareness change your personal history, and what are you supposed to do with all your media files in the decades to come?

What would it be like to time travel and experience your younger self? This is not an impossible dream. Today, we all leave multimedia breadcrumbs for our future selves. Our thousands of user-generated photos and videos is the resulting digital wake in the virtual ocean of our lives.

Your past will always be there for you to see and hear. It’s never further away than your smartphone’s media library.

This clear view into so many moments from your own history will likely anchor many of your memories that would have otherwise evaporated or organically shifted across time.

Is that a good thing? Well, it certainly isn’t ‘natural.’ Our minds aren’t built to maintain a photographic memory.

But thanks to digital tech and cloud storage, we now effectively have that superpower.

It didn’t always used to be so easy.

Digitizing my Parents’ Photo Albums
I grew up straddling the technology transition between analog and digital. When I was a kid, it was all analog. Today, trying to access any of my family’s 20th remaining century media is almost impossible.
Thankfully, our collection of physical photos, including this college graduation photo with me and my parents, is an exception. (A pile of disorganized photos in a lost shoe box in the back of a closet can serve as a great time machine.)

Of course, old photo prints are easy to scan and convert over to digital duplicates.

For the past couple of years since my father passed away, I’ve been digitizing parts of his old photo collection, which includes some of my grandfather’s pictures. (This multi-generational project has been complex and time consuming. So, I’ve been chipping away at it.)
Yes, that’s baby Barrett with my dad and grandfather in Central Park.

When I brought home all my dad’s photos, they included albums that my mother had originally curated. And those collections contained my own history from birth through college.

Yes, I knew these albums existed, but I had never taken the time to digitize most of the photos. I figured I could do it ‘next time.’ But my mom passed in 2006 and then my father in 2022.

So now I’m finally dealing with it.
I’ve realized there is no next time. No next time to save this cool photo of my mom and me. If I put these pictures in boxes on a basement shelf, that will likely be their final resting place.

Or perhaps they’d be uncovered by ‘Lester: The Next Generation.’
And I absolutely don’t want that for our son.

The good news is every photo doesn’t need to be converted. It’s just the ones that help fill out the story I’m curating for my family’s history… as well as my own. What was important then, may no longer have relevance.

So, you have to put a critical eye to what’s digitized and what gets discarded.

Finding Forgotten Audio Moments from the Past
An old photo can tell you a lot. But it can’t compare to experiencing a piece of old audio or video. Now, that can really bring the past to life.

While going through my father’s things, I uncovered an audio cassette tape my parents had recorded when I was in high school to document their vacation to Turkey and Greece. (I was away at boarding school.) These recordings were designed to accompany the photos my dad had shot (and displayed on his massive slide projector).

I don’t know that I ever listened to this tape. Of course, I wondered what it contained.

So, I pulled out an ancient cassette player I had stashed in our basement and my long-retired MacBook Pro with an analog input. I tethered them together with an audio cable with mini connectors and completed my popup sound conversion station.

I crossed my fingers, and happily, my Macgyvered solution worked. And as I clicked on ‘play’ and the still-functioning cassette began to turn, I heard my parents’ voices as they went through their travel log. It was as if I were sitting right there with them again at our dining room table. It was remarkable.

I successfully digitized my parents’ conversation… and I felt a bit like Doctor Frankenstein.

Hearing Myself as a Kid Again
As I celebrated my time machine, I knew this tenuous technical tether to my past wouldn’t hold. (Either my cassette player or ancient Mac would conk out.) I knew I had other deteriorating cassette tapes representing early Barrett history in our basement. They contained nothing earth shattering, but I had felt their mere existence with my younger voice was worth holding onto. (Yes, I know my logic is debatable.)

I started generating audio recordings when I was a kid. It all began when my mom bought me a Sound Design cassette recorder when I was seven years old. That gift was life changing. And it put me on a path that eventually led to my career in video production.

So, I finally saved my old audio recordings from oblivion.

I listened to myself as a silly kid. I heard my teen self in high school, and then college. I even had audio as a young adult.

Whoa. Hearing myself throughout these decades was a huge head trip.

Facing your Younger Self
We know that life experience affects us all.

I’ve always thought of myself as essentially the same person across my life. And I believe that largely holds true, but each version of Barrett I listened to was slightly different. And I’m not just talking about age. There were subtle differences that only I would be able to pick up on.

My phrasing. My energy. My attitude. Yes, of course, we change over time, and I was witnessing this firsthand through my popup time machine.

I felt like I was listening to multiple Barretts from different multiverses. Many of the moments I heard I don’t even remember. (It was all a bit freaky.)

Do You Want to Remember Everything?
Which leads me back to the slingshot effect your archival media can have on your brain. For better or worse, your memories will get jolted with an instant upgrade. It certainly happened to me.

So, if you uncover and revive long lost audio and video files from your past, you should proceed understanding that you may not find what you remember. That should be a good thing. But you never know…

As we all travel into the future, we will remain tethered to countless digital memories and moments from our past. It’s all there. Nothing to forget.

But it’s really too much to remember, and why would you want to?

Sure, the many access points to your past via your ever-expanding media library have some value for occasional reference.

And experiencing a deep-dive ‘review’ like I did helps to offer perspective and center yourself.

Anchor your Memories that Matter Most
Otherwise, the opportunity is not to swim in a sea of disorganized digital memories. Instead, it’s to mindfully select which pieces belong in your story and then put them in their rightful place as you travel through life.

It’s just like building any valuable album of memories, which is to anchor the ones that really matter.

The trick is not to wait for years or longer to do this. You are the author of your own story. And you can best curate it as you experience it.

Actively Curate your Own Story
Imagine being able to reference all the personal media highlights from your past. Consider how many of the smaller moments are the sweetest ones. Think about how many might have been lost if you didn’t curate them along the way.

This takes a lifetime of ongoing attention and some work. But it’s your story.

Yes, it can feel overwhelming. But doing a little at a time will help.

And it’s never too late to get started.

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January 19, 2025

How to Catch Urgent Calls when your iPhone is on Mute

Occasionally, you’ll simply miss a call, because you’ve misplaced your iPhone. Otherwise, here’s how I silence calls I don’t want while also allowing the important calls in my life to get through.

I sometimes feel like the Grinch. “All the noise, noise, noise… noise!” With all the unwanted phone calls and emails, I want to scream, “Stop! Go away!” It’s disruptive, increasingly overwhelming, and I want none of it. (Sound familiar?)

The biggest source of disruption was my trusty iPhone which interrupted me throughout the day with calls from unknown numbers and people (or robocalls) I instinctively knew I didn’t want to speak with. (Sure, my iPhone is forever in vibrate-only mode, but too much of that silent-but-buzzy haptic sensation can make you twitchy.)

Contacts Only
So, I shut it down. No, not the phone. But I restricted the list of numbers that could get through to just my contacts. (If you are anyone else, you’re welcome to leave a message.)

Yes, it a was draconian step, but necessary.
Here how to set up this communication limit on your iPhone:

  • Go to ‘Settings.’
  • Tap ‘Screen Time.’
  • Tap ‘Communication Limits.’
  • Tap ‘During Screen Time.’
  • Tap ‘Contacts Only.’
  • Then ‘During Downtime’ can be restricted further if you want.

The result created more serenity in my life, and I was grateful. But there was still another problem waiting for me at the other end of the equation…

You Can Still Miss a Haptics Call
I realized that it was sometimes difficult for my family members to reach me on my iPhone. Of course, their calls and texts got through via haptics mode, but it was still easy for me to miss those important moments.

The fix would be if I could set up a ringtone bypass that would allow my wife and son’s calls/texts to gain back their audio oomph.

Well, as it turns out, Apple gives your iPhone that exact capability!

Ring and Text Tone Emergency Bypass
In your Contacts app, you can set up individual contacts to be able to reach you with the power of full audio ringing or pinging, regardless of how your iPhone is otherwise muted.

Here’s how to do that:

  • Tap ‘Edit’ for a specific contact.
  • Tap on ‘Ringtone,’ which is set to ‘Default.’
  • Then on the next page, tap on ‘Emergency Bypass’ to turn it on.
  • Repeat these steps for ‘Text Tone.’

That’s it.

Your Updated Communications Plan
When you’ve finished tweaking these iPhone settings, you will have more effectively tuned out what you don’t want while enabling the important people in your life to better connect with you.

Sanity restored.

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