Well...it used to be white. Sadly, I have abused my coffee maker. I cannot imagine how, over 6 years later, this thing is still running like a dream. Someone told me recently that you really should clean your coffee maker regularly. I think I cleaned it once about three years ago....is once every three years "regularly"? Doubt it.
Apparently coffee can leave oils that can turn rancid and make your coffee taste gross. I love my coffee way too much to allow this to happen.
Some quick research on the internet resulted in lots of coffee maker cleaner kits like this one. Seeing as how I don't feel like leaving this house or spending money, I found a way to clean it with my standby helper: vinegar.
Here's the before picture:
I hadn't realized how bad it had gotten. In my defense, when I see the coffee maker in the morning, I am usually in my bleary-eyed, grumpy, pre-caffeinated state, so you could probably smuggle a gorilla into the living room and I wouldn't notice it. Unless it did something annoying. Then I'd say something snarky and glare a lot.
To clean a mess this horrible here's what you do:
1) Fill your carafe all the way with a 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar (for a 12 cup coffee maker, six of water and six of vinegar).
2) Run it through as though you were making a pot of coffee, filter and all (but no actual coffee, for obvious reasons).
3) Dump the water, allow the coffee maker to cool
4) Wipe down every grubby part with a wet washcloth.
Lookie!!
5) Use cotton swabs to get into any hard to reach spots.
6) Run through a pot of plain water.
7) Celebrate your much cleaner coffee maker! Possibly by brewing a pot of coffee!
P.S. I have to add "clean the coffee maker" to the monthly chore list, because in the muck on the underside of the lid, I unearthed this writing. It says, "IMPORTANT: CLEAN COFFEEMAKER AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH. SEE INSTRUCTION MANUAL"
Um...whoops.
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