What is the best coffee maker? It is the one that fits your lifestyle and makes the coffee you like to drink. Never have consumers had so many option when it comes to ways to prepare this favorite drink. Coffee is made when hot water mixes with ground up roasted coffee beans. Different types of coffee makers use different methods to heat the water and mix it with the coffee grounds.
Popular Methods of Making Coffee
To really determine what is the best coffee maker for you, we must start with looking at the many different ways there are to brew coffee. Once you have found the perfect coffee brewing system, then you will merely have to decide between a few features that are available on some models.
What brewing system is right for you? Depends on your personal taste and lifestyle. We have reviewed and outlined many of the most popular systems below to help guide you in the first step of evaluating what is the best coffee maker for you.
Automatic Drip Coffee
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”300″ identifier=”B00MVWGQX0″ locale=”US” src=”http://coffeemakersparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/41sWJhmDDfL.jpg” tag=”cafe049-20″ width=”167″]Automatic Drip Coffee Makers are the most popular style today. Water goes into a reservoir in the back, and coffee grounds go in disposable filter in a basket in the front. Water is sucked out of the reservoir, passed over a heating element and dripped on top of the coffee grounds. When the grounds become saturated, the coffee flows out of a hole on the bottom of the basket and into a waiting pot that is sitting on another heating element.Higher-end units include computer chips that allow you to program the coffee maker to have your coffee ready when you roll out of bed in the morning. The downsides of automatic drip machines are that they make a less full-bodied coffee than some other methods. Most use disposable filters, which bothers those who want to reduce their trash output.
What is the best coffee maker for drip coffee? The [easyazon_link identifier=”B00MVWGQX0″ locale=”US” tag=”cafe049-20″]Cuisinart Perfect Temp[/easyazon_link] is an automatic drip coffee maker that gets lots of reviews and praise from its users. It uses both a water filter and a coffee filter to assure optimal taste. The machine can be programmed for the strength of coffee you prefer. It makes up to 14 cups of coffee and can be programmed to make your coffee when you want it.
Personal Brewing Systems
These systems brew one cup of coffee (or tea or other beverage) at a time. They operate in much the same way as automatic drip machines, but instead of putting loose coffee grounds in a filter, you put a plastic pod filled with coffee grounds in the machine and the water is then forced through the pod.
The main advantage of these systems is that they can quickly make you a cup of coffee right when you want it. Also, if you are a fan of flavored coffee, there are a variety of different flavors available, so you can have something different in each cup you drink in a day.
[easyazon_image align=”left” height=”350″ identifier=”B00KYWL34Q” locale=”US” src=”http://coffeemakersparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/41UYE9wxJCL-1.jpg” tag=”cafe049-20″ width=”350″]The downside is that some models have computer chips that make them not work with any pods not made by the machine manufacturer. Also, some people object to the whole pod concept–having to throw away a plastic container after each use.Overall, this method of making coffee is the most expensive. However, there are some reusable pods into which you can put your own ground coffee and save both money and waste. .
The [easyazon_link identifier=”B00AQ9NIO0″ locale=”US” tag=”cafe049-20″]Keurig 2.0[/easyazon_link] can brew 6, 8 or 10 ounces of coffee in a minute. It comes with a variety pack of twelve different pod and it will accept pods not made by Keurig. While some customers complain about the noise it makes as it brews, that noise only lasts about five seconds.
The French Press
[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”300″ identifier=”B00DUHACEE” locale=”US” src=”http://coffeemakersparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/419KRdlYBQL.jpg” tag=”cafe049-20″ width=”210″]While most coffee makers work by dripping water over and through the coffee grounds, the French Press works by mixing the water and coffee grounds and then pressing a filter over the mixture such that the liquid ends up on top of the filter and the grounds beneath it. A French Press can be used to cold brew coffee and it can be use anywhere that hot water is available, since the coffee maker itself does not heat the coffee.The coffee used in a French Press is a coarser grind than that used in an automatic drip machine. It takes about four minutes to brew coffee in a French Press, but that does not include the time necessary to heat the water.
The [easyazon_link identifier=”B00DUHACEE” locale=”US” tag=”cafe049-20″]SterlingPro French Coffee Press[/easyazon_link] makes 34 ounces of coffee at one time. The pot is made of borosilicate glass. There is a plastic liner attached to the lid to keep it from getting too hot; however, no plastic ever touches your coffee. It employs two screens to ensure that no grounds end up in your coffee. What is the best coffee maker for french press? This is clearly the answer as it is a number one best seller on Amazon and is rated 4.5 stars.
The Percolator
[easyazon_image align=”left” height=”300″ identifier=”B00006IV0Q” locale=”US” src=”http://coffeemakersparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/410L5uqRfqL-1.jpg” tag=”cafe049-20″ width=”250″]Depending on your age, I’ll bet your mother or grandmother used to make coffee in a percolator, as they were the most popular type of coffee pots until the mid-1970’s.To use a percolator, you put coffee grounds in a metal basket that has small holes all over the bottom of it, along with a large hole in the middle. A hollow tube goes in that hole and fits in the bottom of the pot, where there is a heating element. As the water contacts the heating element, it expands and is forced up the tube and then spurts out onto the coffee grounds. Perked coffee smells divine and some aficionados claim that perked coffee has the deepest and richest flavor . It take a little longer to brew than automatic drip coffee and the pots are not usually programmable.
The [easyazon_link identifier=”B00006IV0Q” locale=”US” tag=”cafe049-20″]Presto Coffee Maker[/easyazon_link] is Amazon’s best selling percolator. It makes twelve cups of coffee in twelve minutes. Both the basket and the perk tube are made of stainless steel so no plastic touches your coffee. It includes a signal light so you know the coffee is ready to serve.
Other Options
Given the popularity of coffee and the simplicity of mixing the grounds and the water to get the drink, inventors are always looking for a new way to make this old favorite. They want to get more “good” flavor, or to make it easier to control the brewing, or to fix some other perceived flaw in today’s coffee makers.
With the [easyazon_link identifier=”B0000YWF5E” locale=”US” tag=”cafe049-20″]Chemex Glass Coffee Maker[/easyazon_link], users put the coffee in a filter (you have to use the ones sold by Chemex) and then put it in an hourglass-shaped glass pot. After heating the water in another pot, you pour it over the grounds and let it drip to the bottom of the pot. The Chemex makes up to 32 ounces of coffee at one time and it uses a relatively finely ground coffee.
Since you have to pour the water slowly over the ground, making coffee is a bit more involved than with other systems. Most people love the all glass design as there are no plastics to give the coffee an off taste. However, some people have trouble cleaning the unit due to the hourglass shape. A baby bottle brush is recommended.
You Decided What is the Best Coffee Maker
Each type of coffee maker has distinct advantages and issues. We have given you the information from our research and experience, but truly only you can determine what is the best coffee maker for your personal use and lifestyle.
Which coffee maker do you think is the best?
