A Guide to the Best Drip Coffee Makers
If someone asked you which are the world’s most important plants, the coffee plant would certainly be up there towards the top of the list. Millions of people start their day with a cup of coffee, whether they prepare it themselves, or buy one at a specialty coffee shop. If drinking coffee is an important part of your day, either in the home or office, maybe you should consider purchasing a drip coffee maker.
We’ll see that there are basically only two types of drip coffee makers. But they can differ greatly in their capabilities. Some have their own built-in filter, while others require buying paper coffee filters. You can find drip coffee makers that can prepare a variety of coffee-based drinks as well. That way, everyone in your home or office can make coffee exactly to their tastes. And you can try your hand at making lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, and much more!
We’ll go through some of the offerings in the Best Reviews Guide list of drip coffee machines. Whether you want classic coffee, iced coffee, or some specialty brew, there’s an affordable coffee maker out there for you!
Types of Drip Coffee Makers
Looking at the products in the Best Reviews Guide list, we see that there are two main types of drip coffee makers:
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Manual: These are also called “pour-over” coffee makers. They can either have a built-in filter or use paper filters. You place coffee grains in the filter, and simply pour boiling water over them. You’ll have a cup of coffee ready in seconds. The Coffee Gator Pour-over-Coffee Maker is an example. It has tiny holes in the strainer, which functions as a reusable filter. Even their largest version, which can produce 27 ounces of coffee, is a lot less expensive than the programmable machines.
Coffee Gator Pour-over-Coffee Maker
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Programmable: For people who want to make a wide variety of specialty coffees, there are programmable drip coffee makers that have a broad repertoire of capabilities:
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Program the number of cups: There are programmable drip coffee makers that can make as many as 14 cups at once, as with the Cuisinart PerfecTemp Programmable Coffeemaker. You can program it to make the coffee at a future time, and it will keep the coffee warm in a carafe as well.
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Cuisinart PerfecTemp Programmable Coffeemaker
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Program the brewing style and strength: There are also programmable coffeemakers that let you select different brewing modes. The Breville Precision Brewer Glass Coffee Maker lets you select from among Gold cup standard (with a very precise temperature adjustment), Fast Brew, Strong Brew, Iced Brew, Cold Brew, and a custom My Brew.
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Breville Precision Brewer Glass Coffee Maker
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With a frother: There are also drip coffee makers that include a built-in milk frother. This will allow you to prepare lattes, cappucinos, and much more. There are also coffee makers that warm the milk for you, so that it won’t cool off the coffee so much when you add it. An example is the Ninja Hot and Cold Brewed System Tea and Coffee Maker. It also has special settings to prepare herbal, black, oolong, white, and green tea!
Ninja Hot and Cold Brewed System Tea and Coffee Maker
What reviewers say
Here are some preferences that customers expressed about their choice of drip coffee makers:
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Prefer permanent filter: Customers who bought the Cuisinart PerfecTemp drip coffee maker were pleased with the convenience of a permanent, reusable coffee filter. They felt that the taste of the coffee was bold and that they could use less coffee to get the same strength of flavor.
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Advantage of auto-brew: Not all programmable drip coffee makers have an auto-brew feature. Some customers regretted that their model didn’t have a feature to set the time when you want your coffee ready. They felt that it was unfortunate that they had to wait 10-15 minutes for a cup of coffee if it could be ready when they woke up.
Important Features
Here are some features of select drip coffee makers, which may help you decide on which appliance to buy:
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Showerhead design water flow: There are drip coffee makers which allow the water to flow through the coffee grains in a showerhead design, instead of spilling out in a continuous stream. This ensures that you end up extracting the maximum amount of flavor from the coffee grains. The Bonavita Connoisseur 8-cup Coffee Maker has this feature.
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Auto-pause: Let’s say you want a cup of coffee immediately, but you’ve already selected a program to make several cups. If you take the carafe away while running water through the coffee grains, you’ll end up with a mess! There are coffee makers, such as the Cuisinart models, that have an “auto-pause” feature, which will stop the flow of water when you remove the carafe and resume it when you put it back.
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Auto-shutoff: There are also coffee makers, such as the Technivorm Moccamaster KBFV Select 10-Cup Coffee Maker, that have an auto-shutoff if the water reservoir is empty. That’s important, in order to not damage the heating element. Also, the power switch and hotplate will shut off after 100 minutes, as a power-saving feature.
Technivorm Moccamaster KBFV Select 10-Cup Coffee Maker
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Adjust the carafe temperature: You’ll want your coffee to be a specific temperature depending on whether you want to add a lot of milk to the coffee, or just a little milk. There are coffee makers that allow you to keep the carafe at a low, medium, or high temperature. If you want to add a lot of milk, it will keep the coffee at a high temperature. Alternatively, there are also coffee makers that will warm the milk up for you in advance, such as the OXO Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker.
OXO Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker
Final Verdict
We went through some of the best drip coffee makers available. You can find expensive units that automate everything for you and allow for specialty coffee options and milk-based coffee recipes. Or you can settle for a simpler model that will prepare only classic coffee, but have it ready for you exactly when you want it. The choice is yours!
