Coffee Maker Buying Advice

Whether you enjoy a cup once in a while, or can't face the morning without a caffeine fix, your next cup of coffee is only as good as the coffee maker that brews it.  A delicious cup depends on the right mingling of ingredients, temperature and timing. With so many coffee makers out there, how do you know which one to choose? Understanding your options and focusing on your needs will help you select the right coffee maker for you.

Brewing Method
While automatic-drip coffee makers are by far the most popular choice for home brewing, there is a wide variety of brewing methods to suit the tastes of casual coffee drinkers and aspiring home baristas alike.  To make the best selection, you'll want to consider the coffee maker's efficiency, the quality of coffee it can produce and how much clean up it requires.

If you've got your heart set on an automatic drip, you're not alone. Since its introduction in the 1970s, the automatic coffee maker has found a home in millions of kitchens.  The biggest advantage of this machine is efficiency.  Once you add coffee grounds and water, the automatic drip coffee maker does the work for you.  If you crave convenience and consistency, this coffee maker is a solid choice.  It works by distributing water over the grounds either through a single hole or by a shower method. 

As the hot water passes through the grounds, it extracts flavor.  In general, the shower method is more successful at evenly dispersing water over the grounds, which produces a more flavorful batch of coffee.  You can use either paper or permanent filters to prevent grounds from falling into the finished product.  Daily clean up is simple, but you can extend your coffee maker's longevity by performing periodic maintenance, such as running a pot of water and a decalcifying agent through the machine.

The first alternative to the automatic drip is the French press, which produces flavorful coffee in smaller batches.  This coffee maker is designed to extract maximum flavor from the coffee grounds by allowing them to steep with hot water for four to five minutes in a canister.  A plunger is slowly depressed to filter the grounds.  Making coffee this way requires more effort than an automatic drip machine, but the result is one to two cups of rich-bodied coffee.  If you have the time and you love your coffee, a French press will be a welcome addition to your morning routine.

If you are seeking robust flavor and are brewing only for yourself, consider a stovetop or vacuum coffee maker.  Both systems are composed of two containers that are stacked one on the other.  The bottom bowl contains water, while the top bowl holds the coffee grounds.  When placed over a heat source, the water boils and the resulting steam combines with the grounds in the top bowl.  Like the French press, these techniques yield smaller batches of coffee, but for the coffee-drinker with a discerning palate, the results can be worth it.

How Much Coffee is Enough?
When selecting a coffee maker, it's important to pay attention to how much coffee you think you will brew in each batch.  Unless your method is designed to produce small batches, brewing coffee for one or even two may sacrifice flavor. This is because less water passes through the grounds, resulting in a weaker extraction.  Does that mean you're limited to a French press or other method if you're making coffee for yourself? No. Just limit your selection to models that have flavor-enhancing features. 

In automatic coffee machines, you can find single-serve coffee makers, as well as 4-cup and 5-cup varieties.  You will also see pod coffee makers, which use pods of pre-packed coffee grounds.  Some newer automatic drip machines are pod-compatible, so they can use pods or traditional loose coffee grounds. Conversely, if you prefer the French press method, it doesn't mean you can't make larger batches of coffee. French presses come in a variety of sizes to serve anywhere from one to five people. You may find that you prefer to use the French press for yourself and rely on an automatic drip machine when you have guests.

Keep Your Coffee Fresh
Have you ever returned to your coffee maker for a second cup only to find bitter swill where balanced and flavorful coffee once sat?  Coffee tastes best when it is consumed immediately after it brews.  When it is exposed to high levels of heat as it rests on the hotplate, the flavor begins to break down and turn bitter.  Look for automatic drip coffee makers that offer adjustable hotplates.  However, your best bet is to remove the carafe from the heat source immediately after the coffee has brewed.  By pouring the coffee into a thermal carafe, you can preserve freshness.  If flavor freshness is a concern for you, some models even brew directly into a portable thermal carafe instead of the traditional glass variety.

Time Savers
Many mornings prove to be a struggle to get out the door on time, so there certainly isn't time to make coffee.  Programmable drip coffee makers give you a head start on your day by allowing you to set an automatic brewing time through the LCD or LED display.  For those coffee-drinkers who can't wait eight to ten minutes to take their first sip, this feature is a necessity.  Some machines also allow you to program a shut-off time so you don't have to worry about the temperature of the hotplate when you leave the house.

If you multitask, consider a built-in grinder as a time-saving feature. Some coffee lovers say this is a must because it offers convenience without sacrificing the flavor. Coffee begins to lose its flavor not long after it is ground, so shortening the time between the grinding and the brewing will improve the quality of your cup.  While the price of coffee makers with built-in grinders is not necessarily higher than standard coffee makers, whole bean coffee is generally more expensive than ground.  Additionally, machines with built-in grinders require more frequent cleaning, take longer to brew and generally take up more counter space than standard coffee makers. If budget, space or time to clean is an issue for you, purchase a separate grinder.

Additional Features
Modern coffee makers do a lot more than they used to. All of these extras are designed to make your coffee-making more enjoyable and your java taste better.  One feature to keep an eye out for is -pause and serve.' In automatic drip machines, the typical brewing cycles take eight to ten minutes.  For those of us who have a hard time waiting for our first cup in the morning, the pause and serve feature is perfect because it allows you to remove the carafe from the hot plate before the coffee maker has finished brewing. 

Coffee enthusiasts will tell you that a good cup owes as much of its superior taste to filtered water as it does to the quality of the grounds.  Tap water contains an abundance of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, which tend to build up on the inside of the coffeemaker.  For that reason, some high-end models include filtration systems to remove these elements before they pass through the coffee grounds.

If you're a budding barista with no counter space to speak of, you might consider a dual coffee/espresso maker. While they're no substitute for dedicated espresso makers, units with this dual functionality get the job done and let you practice your techniques on one space-saving machine.