Suggestions for Coffee Maker

[Cannata]

I just pulled the triggger for a Kitchen Aid Pro Line Series Burr Coffee Mill. Hope it is a good purchase. I would like suggestions for a high quality coffee maker that won't break the bank. I will be drinking decaf for health reasons and using almond milk. I am sure I will cheat from time to time and use regular coffee and cream or milk for a latte.

Any and all suggestilns are appreciated.

Steve

[Ruston]

I'm sure you will get lot's of suggestions and much of it comes down to personal preference. If you are only making coffee for yourself and don't need to keep it warm for hours it's hard to go wrong with a french press. They are inexpensive and I prefer the coffee from a press over a drip.

[JaDo]

I actually prefer to make coffee pour over, but I also bought a Bonavita BV1800TH several months ago. It's great.

[Commander Quan]

Good choice on the KA Pro I've got one and it serves all of my needs.

I'd go with either a the Bodum metal french press, or a Chemex. I use both in addition to my Cory Vac pot.

[artyfufkin]

If you want something around $80, I really like our Cuisinart stainless steel coffee maker.

[OkieStubble]

Bunn

[BladeDE40]

You can't go wrong with a good French press.

[yakster]

Steve, the questions that I would ask you are how much coffee you'd be preparing at one time (the range), how much hands-on you're comfortable with, and what your budget is.

For automatic coffee makers, the Technivorm Moccamaster is at the high end in terms of quality and design, and is designed for making pots vs. single servings. Other automatic coffee makers that make pots and hit the SCAA's brew temperature standards are the Bonavita Automatic Brewer and the Behmor BraZen brewer. The last one has not yet been released to production, but should be available this summer/fall if your willing to wait and has some unique, programmable features that may make it the best of these three brewers, but it's recommended that you brew at least half a pot of coffee with the BraZen. This is one that I have my eye on.

For single-cup brewing, the Bunn Trifecta MB home coffee brewer makes a very nice cup and is programmable. It will make your coffee quicker then the pot brewers above and injects air into the coffee to add turbulence and speed the extraction. The quality of the cup with the Trifecta MB rivals that of a vac pot for body and flavor.

Many people favor manual pour-over methods, either because they're hands-on, they want to be able to make coffee anywhere, or they want ultimate control over the brew variables (time, temperature, etc.). Many of these methods will be less expensive then an automatic brewer, but you may end up spending some money on kettles to heat the water, kettles to pour the water, coffee servers to brew the coffee into, proprietary filters, etc.

The Brew Methods site is a great introduction to various different manual brew methods showing instructions on different ways to make coffee that should give you a good idea of what you're getting into. I use many of these brew devices and methods myself and I'd recommend:

Clever Coffee Dripper for one to two cups using a paper filter with easy clean-up. This is a very easy way to make coffee and removes requirements for special pouring kettles because there's a valve that lets you steep the coffee until you put the CCD on a cup or coffee server. You can brew up to about 400 ml of coffee with this brewer (using 450 ml of water, the rest being absorbed by the coffee). This coffee brewer is inexpensive, but it is made of plastic in case this is a show-stopper for you.

If you want to brew just a single cup with quick cleanup, the AeroPress with a Fine Able Brewing Disk also makes a great cup. The metal disk filter allows the oils and coffee solids to pass giving the coffee great body. This is a very portable way to make coffee at home, work, or travel, but is also a plastic brewing device.

If your looking to brew up to three cups of coffee, I've been impressed with the Kalita Wave 185 filter cones. I picked up a Kalita Wave Style set that includes a coffee server, metal filter holder and the Kalita Wave 185 glass filter cone. The Kalita Wave brewers have small old-style truncated cone filters and the paper filters are more expensive and less available since they're proprietary. Since the filter cones are smaller, it's easier to get your pouring kettle down low to the coffee bed and pour the water in evenly without disturbing the coffee. Many people use special pouring kettles with this method but I've had good luck pouring out of a regular electric kettle. The Kalita Wave Style is similar in concept to a Chemex in that it has a built-in coffee server and uses paper filters, but the Chemex uses very thick paper filters for a clean cup at the expense of oils and body while the Kalita filters are much thinner. The Kalita Wave Style brews up to 600 ml of coffee and the other Kalita Wave filters are available in glass or stainless steel models.

I might as well talk about Chemex brewers here too. You can brew with the Chemex lab filters and get a very clean cup, and I've found with the 6, 8, and 10 cup Chemex brewers that they brew best at 600 ml of coffee, though you can brew 800 ml, 1 l and more, but you may run into problems getting your brew water through the filter in a timely fashion with a larger batch. Having a good burr grinder that minimizes fines will help quite a bit, and I picked up a Gen 1 Kone metal filter to be able to brew larger batches, but I recently broke two Chemexes using the Kone (one by touching the sharp tip to the Chemex and the other by trying to remove the Gen 2 Kone from under the lip of the Chemex. Able Brewing has released a Gen 3 Kone for the Chemex and their own brand of brewing vessel that addresses these issues with a blunt tip and a ring around the top to keep it from getting stuck. Using the Kone converts the Chemex from a clean cup to one with lots of body and some fines.

Siphon or Vac Pot coffee is probably the most elegant way to brew coffee at home and makes a very good cup. The difference with this brew method is that the brew water is pushed by water vapor pressure to an upper chamber and kept at a good brew temperature by the exiting water vapor throughout the brew time. The result is a hot cup of coffee (some like to let their vac pot cups cool several minutes before enjoying) with a good extraction. You can have stove top models in 5 or 8 cup or models that are designed to hang over a burner or halogen light source. The latter two are showier, but I prefer the stove top and use this method on the weekends while making bacon and eggs. I use vintage glass filter rods which yields a cup with little fines but good body and coffee oils. You can also use cloth filters or metal filters and a few other options. Having a good grinder to avoid problems with fines stopping the draw-down is important with these brewers.

Finally, Press Pot, as already mentioned, gives you a cup with body, fines, and oils. I use large stainless steel press pots when camping or brewing coffee away from home for convenience, but you can find a glass press pot in many sizes and the Espro Presses have a great reputation for better filtering and holding the temperature during the brew. I gave up press pots for a long while and even vac pots because of issues with fines that I traced back to my grinder. When I upgraded grinders to a real burr grinder, I found that I appreciated press pots more.

I feel like I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop here. I hope this helps, coffee, like shaving, is a deep rabbit hole with many different subjective opinions and acquisition diseases. I've got a bad case of GCAD (Green Coffee Acquisition Disease as my green coffee stash exceeds what I'll roast in the near future) and CBDAD (Coffee Brewing Device AD).

[SliceOfLife]

I'm not a big coffee guy (usually only drink it if I feel run down at work). But all the real coffee geeks I know say that nothing even approaches the flavor of coffee from a french press... but it uses much much MUCH more product to make a cup (Somewhere around 2-3x as much I believe?).

[OldAF]

I drink one cup in the morning and I've tried drip, pour over, French press etc. Clever Coffee Dripper is the one that works for me. Brews a great cup and easy clean up. Several places sell it... I bought mine at Amazon.

[EricBNC]

If you go manual, then yakster's post covers it - you didn't go manual with the grinder so maybe some autodrip suggestions are appropriate. The bang for the buck model is the Bonavita BV-1800. The quality advantage in the cup stops right there. Nice looks, excellent coffee.

For more money but similar cup quality, the Technivorm is available. Over rated drain control valve on the cone is disappearing on newer models - mine has it and I quit using it.

Bunn (my model is the NHB-X) is nice too but harder to handle without a quality grinder - small window of perfection, else too weak or overflow of the basket. When it's right all is good.

[OldSaw]

I have several coffee brewing devices, most of which are not expensive. The daily drip maker is a Capresso and is probably the most I have paid for any coffee maker, but for a daily drip maker it works very well. My wife and I like it very much.

I also have an Aeropress which makes fantastic coffee with a little more effort, but very easy clean up, just rinse and let dry. The price was around $20 I believe.

Check out thrift stores for an old stainless steel vacuum pot. I got one for about $1.50 once and it makes great coffee that is in between the Aeropress and drip maker in ease of use and flavor.

Anyway, those are my top three that I use. I almost never use my French press any more or the stove top espresso makers since getting the Aeropress.

[professorchaos]

Pour over is the best bang for your buck IMO. Chemex or Hario really can't be beat though I prefer the Chemex with a Koava Kone to the Chemex paper.

[StillShaving]

Lots of good advice already posted. Another aspect is how many coffee mugs do you want to brew at one time? To over generalize, if brewing 3 or more cups at a time then you may want a good auto-drip machine, if 2 cups then a large pour-over works well, if 1 cup at at time then a small pour-over or aeropress is nice.

[SkipH]

This does not really relate to your question about coffee makers, but about a comment you made in your post. Unless you are sensative to cafine there are no benefits to avoiding it and health benefits from including.

[telephony]

Cannata,

I have the KA Pro Grinder and it has served me well since about 2007. Make sure to clean it out often and it will keep you in grinds for a long time to come. I had the Newco OCS-12 coffee maker for about five years but the plastic finally cracked apart. So, I am in the same boat with a need for a good coffee maker.

Yankster has summed it up pretty well. The Technivorm is nice, but I have my eye on the BraZen also. Since I need something in the interim, I picked up the DeLonghi DCM-900 for $50 while I wait for the BraZen. It has a known issue with the fuse (similar to the OCS-12), but I can fix it if needed. I have had it a few weeks and the brew quality is very good. This is one other option to consider that is pretty reasonable.

Tele

[Stevew443]

For my tastes the Melita 10 cup manual coffee maker is the tops. It lasts forever, costs only $15.00 and fits on the warmer that I use for my tea pots.
https://shoponline.melitta.com/product/640616/COFFMKRS