I never in my life thought that I'd be able to create the coffee masterpieces that I have made with this machine in my house, EVER!  I'm not at all a coffee wiz and I get very confused when I go to coffee places.  This machine takes the fear of looking weird in front of others completely out of the equation.  The touch screen makes it very easy to know what your going to make and how it should look.  I've only used k-cups before so having fresh ground beans is mind blowing to me and so much better!  I'm definitely a coffee "addict" now!!