Coffee time.

• Position: What's New? Small Appliances, Tools, And Gadgets - Melitta Perfect Time Coffeemaker - Evaluation

* You're one of those people who can't get going in the morning without that first cup of coffee, so you load your coffeemaker the night before and set the timer to have it ready when you stagger out of bed. Okay, but there's a power outage during the night that knocks the timing out of kilter, leaving you to confront--shudder--instant coffee for your caffeine fix if you've got it in the house.

Thankfully, there is an alternative to facing this scenario--the Melitta Perfect Time Coffeemaker from Salton, Inc., Mt. Prospect, Ill. Equipped with an internal timepiece tuned to the U.S. Atomic Clock in Ft. Collins, Colo., it automatically resets itself as soon as the power comes back on. Considering that the Atomic Clock is accurate to one-millionth of a second per year, your coffee should be perking exactly on time. The machine even adjusts to day-light savings time and leap year, so you never have to set the clock once you've selected the time zone in the continental U.S. that you re-side in.

If this coffeemaker had nothing going for it but the time gimmick, it would be merely an interesting curiosity. However, it comes with a patented Fast Brew technology designed to produce up to 12 cups of coffee in about half as long as a standard drip coffeemaker, requiring merely 35 seconds per...