Word: breads
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Surely this must be a joke, I thought. People have been toasting bread for centuries, and they've never needed a computer to get the job done. Like answering machines, microwaves and VCRs before it, even the humble toaster seemed to have become too smart for its own good. To find out for sure, I put to the test four of the fanciest models I could find...
...their first cup of coffee. Krups' ToastControl Digital, which sells for $70, packs in even more options, including two for saving your favorite settings, like the bookmarks on your Web browser. Two glass-sealed quartz rods replace the usual wire heating elements inside and are supposed to toast your bread faster without drying it out. A built-in digital timer tells you precisely how many seconds are left...
...resulting toast proved to be merely ordinary. While bagels came out nicely and white bread toasted almost evenly, both took longer to brown in the Krups than in the three other models I tried. And for some reason, frozen English muffins came out slightly soggy, even on the defrost setting...
...Perfectionist also proved less than perfect. One side of my toast tended to come out darker than the other--fine for bagels, but not for bread. And while I had 63 options for browning, the short, 20-in. cord gave me too few options for where to put the thing...
...Ultra Power Plus, which comes in fun colors like green, blue and red, and Cuisinart's Custom Control Total Touch, which typically sells for $70. The KitchenAid was cute and compact, but I finally settled on the slightly bulkier Cuisinart because it consistently turned out the most evenly browned bread, bagels, Pop-Tarts and muffins with the least amount of thought or effort on my part. Now that's what I call a smart toaster--not that I'll ever get near a piece of toast again...