In the spirit of things, I blew a hefty amount of dough recently on a high end coffeemaker. I was a bit skeptical that it was really worth it, but now that I'm actually using the thing I have to admit it is. Far superior flavor to my old Mr. Coffee and better than I can get at Starbucks. I love the thing, despite the slightly higher level of maintenance it wants. Way simpler to operate than I expected, and it makes the best coffee I've ever tasted.