I've been slowly drifting toward black coffee through the years. Gone are the days of smothering the wonderfully bitter taste of coffee with sugar and all those strange Coffee-Mate elixirs. That stuff makes me wince now ...
I guess this means I'm finally an adult.
What's in those Coffee-Mate flavored creamers anyway? Yech. Corn syrup solids, hydrogenated vegetable oil, and sodium caseinate. Yummy.
I really like my coffee. These are the high points of my day: coffee date #1 at 5am with my wife and coffee date #2 after lunch with my wife. These are our little breaks from the kids and the recharge we need to jump back into the ring. This life requires a good coffee maker.
Now, I like coffee, really like coffee, but I don't like ridiculously expensive coffee makers. Some coffee makers can be a big of a long-term investment. But if I spend a lot, it needs to last!
Best Coffee Makers on Amazon for the Home
Best Coffee Maker on Amazon for the Home: $200-250 Price Range
These are your solid, work-a-day coffee makers. They will make good coffee consistently. Plus, you can program them to start brewing automatically before you wake up.
Here is the top coffee maker recommended by Wirecutter at the New York Times. It's the OXO Brew Stainless Steel Coffee Maker, which makes 72 fl.oz. or about 9 cups stored in the thermal carafe:
The OXO Brew, above, is decently economical, too. It's usually priced in the low $200s.
Best Coffee Maker on Amazon for the Home: $150-200 Price Range
For my money, though, I like a Ninja Coffee Maker. Mr. Coffee has always been our brand of choice, but we recently upgraded to the Ninja. Like its name suggests, it packs a lot of utility and quality into a small package.
Here is a great option in the under $200 price range. This is the Ninja CP307. It has settings for both hot and cold-brewed coffee (and tea). It has a decently-sized 50 oz. thermal carafe. Plus, I really like this: a fold-away frother. Really nice touch.
These Ninjas also come with something called Auto-iQ. If you're wondering, these Auto-iQ programs involve some automatic pulsing, blending, and pausing patterns for blending purposes.
Here's an interactive photo of this coffee maker with that fold-away frother arm extended. Looks a bit like a Star Wars astromech droid, but okay ...
Best Coffee Maker on Amazon for the Home: $100-150 Price Range
There are a ton of options in this over $100 price range, but some are too tiny and some aren't made to last. It may not include anything fancy, like a fold-away arm frother, but the coffee will be hot and good and ready when you wake up.
Here's a good option from Cuisinart, the DCC-3200. Plenty of capacity with a 14-cup glass coffee pot. Nice, stainless steel look, too. It's also programmable for your morning pick-me-up.
Best Coffee Maker on Amazon for the Home: $50-100 Price Range
Do you know you can still drink coffee in this range? Let alone good coffee? You would be surprised.
Check out this Ninja option. It's the Ninja CE251 Programmable Brewer. It also has plenty of capacity with a 12-cup glass carafe:
Best Coffee Maker on Amazon for the Home: Under $50 Price Range
This is madness! But yeah, there are still options under $50. This is where we finally get down to some Mr. Coffee options. Oh, how the mighty have fallen ...
Here's the Mr. Coffee Brew Now or Later Coffee Maker. With 12-cup capacity, we're definitely brewing with ... water:
Coffee Makers: Filter or No Filter?
While we're on the subject of coffee makers ...
I never really thought much about coffee filters until I started saving my used coffee grounds for the garden. Most of the grounds stay stuck to the filter.
Then, I bought a filter-less coffee pot. This was awesome for collecting grounds. And I started thinking about those filters. Why had I ever needed those things? Was this all just propping of the filter manufacturers? And why are they so white, so bleached white?
0 Comments