How to find the best coffee makers, and how to decide among the variety of choices

Here is how to decide which coffee maker to buy, when you are trying to decide how much to spend and which features are important. Keep in mind this: the best coffee makers are not always the most sophisticated or expensive.

Keurig B30 K-Cup Brewer

This mini brewer from Keurig is the ultimate in no mess, no fuss, single serve gourmet coffee makers. It is the least expensive K-Cup brewer, that you can plug in anywhere to brew a full cup of great coffee. Small enough for your home office, RV, boat, vacation home, or dorm room, this brewer is a great gift idea or treat for yourself.

In fact, the simplest coffee makers can make wonderful coffee – like a French press or a $10 manual drip coffee cone.

Let's look at some of the best coffee makers available, and some to avoid.

The French Press

A French press is basically a glass jar that contains a plunger with a mesh filter on it, and it has a lid. You add coffee grounds to the empty jar, pour in hot water, place the lid on and after three or four minutes press down the plunger. The plunger pushes all of the grounds to the bottom and you can pour out a wonderful, tasty cup of coffee.

If you have never tried a French Press, you should. It is one of the best ways to make coffee

Coffee Percolators

Maybe your parents or grandparents made coffee with a percolator but you shouldn't. Percolators heat coffee to boiling and keep it there, running through the beans. The best coffee is made when the water temperature is just below boiling. The percolator will boil the flavor out of your thoughtfully selected and carefully stored.

On the other hand, if a percolator fits your lifestyle, and you are buying off the shelf ground coffee that tastes just fine you to, go ahead and continue using your tried and tested percolator. Just don't waste your money using it with your expensive coffee beans. There is actually something to be said about seeing the coffee "percolate" up into the top while you are having a conversation with your friend. But usually, use a different kind of coffee maker if you want better coffee taste.

Coffee Drip Brewers

Drip coffee makers can be very good. They are the most common and best coffee makers. There is probably one at work, and maybe at your house, too.They are simple to use, and can make a consistently good cup of coffee based on your own preference. To use a coffee drip brewer, you put ground coffee in the paper filter, pour in water, turn the coffee maker on and almost immediately you will see the coffee fill with the carafe.

Not all drip brewers are equal. You need to have a good model that heats the water to the right temperature, and at the right flow, so that the water hits the grounds at the right temperature and then brews for the right period of time before it filters through to the carafe.

One disadvantage to most drip brewers is that the coffee stays in a carafe that is continuously heated. If you have ever poured a cup of coffee for yourself even thirty minutes or an hour after it was made, it will taste old. That's because leaving the glass carafe on the hotplate keeps the coffee hot, which you like, but it starts to "cook" the coffee, which you won't like.

Single Cup Coffee Brewers

If you like the idea of fresh coffee, made easily and quickly on demand, you need to enter the new world of K-Cup Coffee, Pod Coffee and Disc Coffee.

These are different versions of "one-cup" coffee makers and they all use slightly different coffee containers to brew the coffee. So, you have to buy the containers of ground coffee that fit your particular brand of single-serve coffee maker. If you buy a machine designed for use with K Cups, you can’t use Pods, and vice versa.

We like the single cup coffee brewer. Advantages include that you get a fresh cup of coffee, brewed one at a time, and it is consistently good. There is no mess, no coffee grounds to spill...no bother.

There are a few disadvantages. You can only brew ground coffee that comes in the pre-sealed containers ("pods"). You don't get to buy your favorite coffees from the store to try a new new blend of beans. So, when looking at the machines also look at the machine manufacturer's available coffees. Their selection is what you get. You can also look around for some new products available to grind your own coffee and place into compatible containers that will work with the coffee makers.

A very popular combination seems to be using K-Cups with Keurig brewers The machines and the ground coffees are available at Green Mountain Coffee.

You should consider carefully before you buy a particular single cup coffee brewer. To give you more information, we have written a full article talking only about single cup coffee brewers.

About the “best coffee makers”...

When everything is said, the best coffee brewer is the one that makes coffee you enjoy drinking yourself and serving to your family and friends. Everyone's taste and preferences are different, so your decision should be based on what you like, not what the experts say.