If you love coffee, you know that there are many different ways of brewing it. Most people use drip brewing machines, but there are also the more recently developed single cup brewing devices, along with the more traditional French press and pour-over brewing methods. They all are designed to perform one function – mixing hot water with ground coffee and then filtering out the grounds. For the most part, the price of each coffeemaker depends more on how easy it is to use rather than how good the coffee is.
Which one is best depends on your particular taste and how much time and effort you want to devote to brewing your coffee. Here is a brief rundown on each type of coffeemaker.
- Pour-Over Brewers
This is probably the simplest method, and the one that allows you to manage how the coffee is made to a greater degree. The coffeemaker essentially is a large glass cone with an opening at the narrow end. You simply put a filter in the cone, add grounds, and then pour in the water.
You get to decide how much coffee to use, the coarseness of the grind, how hot to make the water, and how fast you want to pour it into the cone.
- Drip Coffeemakers
The most common type of coffeemaker – and one of the best – they are also easy to use. You simply put the ground coffee in the filter, add water, and hit the power button. Drip coffeemakers automatically heat the water to the right temperature for brewing.
There is, however, one small problem with these types of coffeemakers. The pot sits on a hot plate to keep the coffee warm. If the pot is on the plate for a long period of time, it will essentially cook the coffee, making it thicker and stronger.
- French Press
The French press makes great coffee. It too is very simple, but very effective. It also gives you more control over how you make your coffee. The coffeemaker is basically a glass cylinder with a plunger that has a mesh filter attached. You put the coffee grounds in the container and add hot water, allowing it to brew for several minutes or however long you like.
Then, you use the mesh plunger to push and trap the grounds at the bottom of the cylinder. You generally have to use a bit coarser grind with the coffee so that it doesn’t slip through the mesh.
- Single Serve K-Cup Coffeemakers
There are a few different brands of this type of coffeemaker on the market, and each one uses a particular pod of ground coffee, called a K-cup. These are probably the easiest to use. You simply pop the K-cup into the little basket at the top of the coffeemaker, pour water into a container along the side of the device, close the basket, put a cup underneath the spout, and push the power button.
You can make a smaller or larger cup of coffee depending on which button you push. When finished, you just pull the K-cup out and throw it away. That’s it.
The one problem with these types of coffeemakers is that you are limited to using those coffees that are in the pods or K-cups. The coffee for these brewers is also more expensive, about $20 a pound.
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