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By Jarrett Melendez , Noah Kaufman , and Tammie Teclemariam
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To plenty of coffee drinkers out there, including more than one Epicurious editor, a cup of coffee is not simply a beverage like a can of soda or a glass of water but an artwork that needs to be carefully formed and obsessed over. To those people the idea of making coffee with a drip coffee maker, even the best drip coffee maker, is laughable. But this view of drip coffee makers is outdated. Lumping everything in the category in with the $17 coffee machines available at the Walgreen’s checkout that can turn to dust in your hands does a disservice to how far the technology of drip coffee has come.
Actually, the best drip coffee makers have tech that rivals lots of espresso machines in terms of temperature and brewing control—they’re much closer to a fastidiously made carafe of pour-over coffee than they are to the brute force method that comes with, say, an average K-cup single-serve coffee maker. And they are oh so convenient. Even a basic budget model offers the ability to set it the night before and wake up to pleasant coffee aromas wafting into your bedroom and a full pot waiting for you as soon as you come downstairs. You can and should expect great coffee from a drip a coffee maker.
If that kind of carefree, no-hassle coffee lifestyle sounds appealing, read on for our top picks for drip coffee makers. For more about how we tested, which coffee makers you shouldn’t consider, and tips on how to make the best cup of coffee, scroll down toward the bottom.
The best drip coffee maker overall Another great drip coffee maker The best looking drip coffee maker (that also makes award-winning coffee) The best budget drip coffee maker What we looked for How we tested Other drip coffee makers we tested The takeaway How to pick coffee beans for your drip coffee maker
The Café Specialty Coffee Maker is a beautiful machine with a modern, minimalist design and three finishes: stainless steel, matte white, and matte black, all with copper-colored handles and accents. More importantly: This is a machine for hard-core coffee lovers that brews a splendid cup of coffee, on par with the Technivorm and Ratio machines that have topped this list in the past (and we continue to recommend below). Like those machines, the Café has been given the Golden Cup from the Specialty Coffee Association, meaning you can expect the same delicious coffee every time, made with the proper balance of water to coffee and brewing temperature. In fact, this machine has a “Gold” option when selecting your brew strength. But you can also change the brew strength if you like, which is an excellent feature for folks who like customizing the heck out of their morning pot of coffee—you can choose from Gold, Light, Medium, Dark, or Bold, depending on your preferences. The Café Special Drip machine also allows you to set the precise water temperature (from a range of 185°–205°F). The wide showerhead on the brewer ensures even distribution of water, and solid agitation of the grounds—both important for consistent extraction and flavor. But even with all those bells and whistles, the best feature on this machine might just be the replaceable carbon water filter that goes into the reservoir, ensuring every pot is brewed with filtered water for a consistent cup of coffee.
This coffee maker gets all of the big things right, but it also offers lots of little extra features that make it a truly excellent machine. A small, but important detail, is the cord channel on the bottom of the machine—it allows you to lengthen or shorten the cord and gives options for the cord to exit the left, right, or back of the machine, depending on where your outlet is, eliminating the frustration of finding the exact right spot on the counter for your brew buddy. If you’re the type that likes waking up to the smell of coffee brewing, but lacks a considerate significant other to make that happen for you, you can program this machine to start brewing any time you like. It even comes equipped with smart technology that allows for voice-to-brew action (the future is here!). The only real downside to this machine is that you can’t program it to love you back.
There’s really nothing not to like about the Café coffee maker. It can be basic enough to work for beginners and customizable enough to work for coffee snobs.
Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker
Size: 12.5” x 7.3” x 14” Capacity: 10 cups Carafe style: Thermal or glass Features: Wi-Fi connectivity, adjustable brew strength, water filter, programmable timer, SCA Golden Cup certification Warranty: Limited 1 year
We’ll pour one out here for our now-dethroned, longtime drip coffee maker champ. But we won’t drop it from our recommendations because it’s still so damn good. The Moccamaster was the very first machine to receive the SCA Gold Cup Standard, and, as a result, set the standard for a higher level of drip coffee machine. It still does in so far as it makes as good a cup of coffee as you could possibly expect from a drip machine. In 2021 the newest Moccamaster came out with the new ability to brew “Gold Cup” coffee half a carafe at a time. That means that if you live solo or your partner is a tea drinker, you don’t need to make more coffee than you need in the morning. This is also a dead-simple machine to use. Besides the full carafe or half carafe brew cycles, it has nothing but an on/off switch. If you’re into customizing settings you might feel a little bored by this machine, but if all you want is the best pot of coffee you can get in the morning with the least work, you can’t do better than Technivorm. The only person who would not benefit from the Moccamaster is someone who enjoys a single cup a day (but we doubt that person exists in this universe or any other).
When we’re dealing with the sort of high-quality coffee that we get from all our favorite drip machines, we have to nitpick a little. We really loved having the water filter built into the Café machine and wish other high-end machines like the Moccamaster would add that option as well.
Technivorm Moccamaster KBGV 10-Cup Coffee Maker
Size: 12.75” x 6.5” x 14 Capacity: 8 cups Carafe style: Glass Features: Half carafe setting, adjustable hot plate, coffee blooming time, SCA Golden Cup certification Warranty: 5 years
In the fall of 2021, the Ratio Six received its Golden Cup Certification from the SCA as well, and that was absolutely no surprise. Not only is this machine sleek, modern, and beautifully designed, it also brews a wonderful cup of coffee, mimicking the pour-over method (and don’t be fooled by the name, it’s actually an 8-cup coffee maker). With his company based in Portland, Oregon, which is known for having a strong coffee culture, Ratio founder Mark Hellweg wanted to create an automatic drip coffee maker that both looked good and made an excellent pot of pour-over coffee without all the fuss. It’s very safe to say that he succeeded. The water pump is designed with a wide showerhead for full saturation of the grounds and, like the Moccamaster, allows the coffee to bloom after the initial saturation—a heat shield placed over the brew basket helps maintain the optimal brewing temperature. Another nice feature? Indicator lights on the front of the machine show the step-by-step process, labeled Bloom, Brew, and Ready. Yet another great feature: The insulated thermal carafe keeps hot coffee hot for hours without compromising flavor and without a hot plate. The carafe comes with a sealed lid, which we were perfectly comfortable taking in the car for a little brunch picnic—not a single spill, even when the carafe tipped over en route. Though it doesn’t come with quite the same pedigree as the Technivorm or as many features as the Café, the ratio makes coffee just as well and is undoubtedly an aesthetic upgrade—always something to consider when you have limited counter space. You can choose between matte black, stainless-steel, and white finishes.
Almost nothing. As with the Moccamaster, we would be happy to see a built-in water filter, but that’s about it.
Size: 13.5” x 6.75” x 14.25” Capacity: 8 cups Carafe style: Thermal (glass available to purchase separately) Features: Coffee bloom time, SCA Golden Cup certification Warranty: 5 years
If you’re put off by the price point of machines like the Café and the Ratio, there is still hope for good tasting coffee. But the striking thing about testing budget drip coffee makers, which we’re defining as those that cost less than $100 at the time of writing, is just how different they actually are from one another. Some have nothing but a simple on/off switch, some brew at several different strengths. Some have thermal carafes, some do not. There are a whole range of different showerheads—some that dispense water in a tight spout, some that use a wide ring. Even the glass coffee pots open and close in very different ways. Our point here is that there really was something to test. And when we considered the quality of coffee together with the variety of features available, Braun’s Brewsense outpaced the field.
When we say “quality of coffee,” we should be clear: It’s not the same as what you’ll get if you use one of the $300-plus machines recommended above. The Braun doesn’t regulate water temperature as precisely as the Café; it doesn’t let the coffee bloom like the Ratio. It’s a more basic setup overall. But, especially when set side by side with some of the other budget machines, we could taste the difference. The Braun’s coffee wasn’t flat and it wasn’t stale. We liked that it offered two different coffee strengths that actually tasted different (regular and bold), but liked even more that the hot plate had variable settings—one of the biggest issues we’ve found with inexpensive coffee makers is that the coffee is perpetually just too damn hot to drink and the hot plates can simmer it to death. Finally, the Braun offered the option to brew small amounts of coffee, one to four cups, and it delivered. This setting slows down the brewing process. If it isn’t used, water will run through the coffee grounds too quickly and won’t extract as much flavor. It also came with a charcoal water filter and the ability to program it to work with soft or hard water if you have either.
In terms of value, we were quite satisfied with the Braun, but if we were to nitpick, some of the other budget coffee makers had better designed carafes. The Braun’s flipped open a little too easily, making it spill-prone if you aren’t careful.
Braun Brewsense Drip Coffee Maker
Size: 7.9” x 7.9” x 14.2” Capacity: 12 cups Carafe style: Glass Features: 1-4 cup options, adjustable brew strength, programmable timer, water filter, adjustable hot plate temperature Warranty: 3 years
The optimal brewing temperature for flavor extraction in coffee is between 195°F–205°F, so we looked for something with good temperature control in that range. (If you want to go down a geeky rabbit hole of learning more about temperature, extraction, and flow rate than is necessary for a simple coffee maker recommendation, the internet has a lot to offer.)
Ease of use is a huge factor in determining the best drip coffee makers. After all, if you want to mess around with a precise, intricate brewing process, you might as well make yourself a pour-over. We were looking for a machine that was easy to set up, simple to operate, yet still yielded a high-quality cup.
We wanted a machine that brewed coffee relatively quickly, within 5–7 minutes.
For example, does the coffee maker have an automatic timer so you can have fresh coffee waiting for you in the morning? Is there a single-serve function? Can it make iced coffee?
Drip coffee makers have lots of nooks and crannies and can be difficult to clean. Obviously, the easier to clean, the better. Bonus points for any carafe that is dishwasher-safe.
Warming plates work, but we think it’s better to have a carafe that keeps the coffee hot for an extended period of time. It should pour easily, without leaking or spilling. It should feel good in your hand (and maybe look nice on your countertop too).
Most importantly, does the coffee actually taste good? Is it bitter? How’s the balance? Is the coffee nice and warm when it comes out of the coffee maker?
We ground 8 grams of a locally roasted coffee blend per 5-ounce cup of coffee in a burr grinder. Then we simply made pots of coffee in each machine. The capacity of the machines ranged from 6 to 14 cups. We brewed using the different strength settings for machines that offered them. For machines that came with thermal carafes, we poured coffee from them after one hour and again after two hours to see if the coffee stayed warm.
Our original winner, Technivorm’s Moccamaster KB 10-Cup Coffee Maker, is still available at a slightly lower price than the newer model. It remains iconic. While this isn’t a programmable coffee maker, it does make a well-extracted pot with just the flip of a switch. We tested a glass carafe model, but there is also a thermal stainless-steel option. Each Moccamaster is made with recyclable materials in the Netherlands and tested before being packed and shipped. It comes with a five-year warranty, but the machines are known to last much longer and the parts can easily be replaced should something happen. The design-minded among us should note that it’s available in a range of colors from red and lime green to a more classic polished silver. For those who don’t intend to make it the centerpiece of an otherwise empty counter, you’ll appreciate that its design makes it compact enough to fit into a tight corner.
Like our other winners, the Zwilling Enfinigy Drip Coffee Maker has also been awarded the Golden Cup Standard by the SCA, and rightly so. It brews coffee consistently well, and has enough additional features to make it worth its higher price tag, but it doesn’t quite match the features offered by the Café machine, so the decision on which machine to buy boils down (get it?) to what features are most important to you, and what you’re willing to pay for those features. The Zwilling stands out with a few novel options. The most curious one is a Bloom function that you can toggle on or off. Blooming coffee is an important step—when coffee is saturated with hot water, it immediately releases CO₂, which causes unpleasant tastes. Blooming coffee gives it a moment to release that gas before continuing the brewing process, eliminating unpleasant, sour tastes. It’s so fundamental we’re not really sure why you would toggle that step off, especially as it only adds 20 or so seconds to the total brew time. Even more curious was that this function was set to OFF by default.
Another cool feature lets you select your water hardness (there are three levels to choose from) and this then informs a timing function that tells you when it’s time to descale the machine. Apart from that, the features are fairly standard, allowing you to set a timer for when to start brewing, selecting the number of cups (from 2–12), and a keep warm function that automatically switches off after 30 minutes.
ZWILLING Enfinigy Glass Drip Coffee Maker
As fans of pour-over, we had expectations for the Chemex Ottomatic 2.0. Chemex, to many, is synonymous with the fussy brewing technique that snooty coffee connoisseurs (us included) prize over most other methods. So it was a little bit disappointing that this machine didn’t brew coffee quite to the same standard as the Café, Technivorm, and Ratio machines. The flavor extraction was pretty close to what you get brewing pour-over manually using the same coffee beans and grind size but, again, not as complex and full-flavored as the winning machines. The Ottomatic 2.0 looks sort of like a miniature outdoor shower, like you’d see at a beach, but if it were in a sci-fi movie. The showerhead does a great job of saturating the grounds, and the machine even starts and stops throughout the brewing process, helping to agitate the grounds, to mimic the pour-over process. Like the Moccamaster, it allows for a bloom period after the initial saturation. There are two modes on this machine, one that simply brews coffee, and one that brews while keeping the hot plate active so your coffee stays warm. The hot plate was great—as advertised, it kept the coffee warm but not so hot that the flavor changed over time. It also has an auto shutoff that kicks in after 90 minutes. This machine is compatible with the 3-, 6-, and 8-cup models of Chemex carafe, as well as the 3- and 5-cup handblown models. If you don’t already have a carafe, Chemex offers a few bundles with different sizes.
Oxo’s Barista Brain is likely what most coffee drinkers think they are looking for in a drip coffee maker. Setting it up and using it is seamless compared to the Moccamaster, where the lids to the water reservoir and filter holder don’t connect to the machine. On this one both lids are connected and can easily be flipped open and shut. The Oxo has precise, temperature-controlled brewing—it keeps the water between 197.6°–204.8°F—and had about a 5-minute brewing time for a full pot of coffee. At the end of brewing, the Oxo had evenly distributed hot water over the coffee grounds. Its double-walled carafe keeps coffee warm for hours, although the opening is too narrow to fit your hand inside to clean, so you’ll need a bottle brush or similar solution to clean it properly. The bottom line: Can the Oxo brew good coffee? Yes, just not quite as good as the Golden Cup machines.
OXO Brew 9 Cup Stainless Steel Coffee Maker
The Bonavita One-Touch brews a nice cup of coffee, but there are some details that made it more awkward to use than other options. Instead of sliding the filter basket into a holder on the machine, you have to balance the filter basket on top of the thermal carafe before sliding the stacked parts under the showerhead. Then, after brewing is done, you have to remove the filter basket from the carafe in order to screw on the lid. Meanwhile, there’s no spot to set the filter basket on the machine while you’re pouring. None of this is what you want when you’re groggy in the morning or hurrying to run out the door.
We tested two Cuisinart coffee makers. The Perfectemp brews a large quantity (14 cups) with little fanfare, but if you don’t usually make that much coffee at once, experts recommend smaller batches for the best flavor.
We found the Classic Thermal totally adequate—the coffee’s flavor was weaker and less developed than our top-ranking models, but the machine is fine if you’re looking for something to use occasionally.
The Breville Precision Brewer had the most parts to deal with during the unboxing. It has all the added features you’d expect from a Breville—for example, it works as a cold-brew coffee maker too—but we didn’t love the design—the filter basket is rather bulky and the lid to the water tank doesn’t connect to the machine. Additionally, the water reservoir doesn’t drain all the water, leaving about a half-ounce of liquid in the tank at the end of a cycle. This is a small quirk but not one you expect on a $300 machine.
Breville Precision Brewer Thermal Coffee Maker
In the budget category, we tested the Hamilton Beach BrewStation, which brews coffee in an internal reservoir and dispenses it like a fountain soda. A strange feature, and not worth experimenting with given that the coffee was subpar.
Calphalon’s coffee maker offers the same features as the Braun minus the water filter and the water hardness settings, and the coffee was right on par with it as well. For all the reasons we recommend the Braun as a budget pick we also recommend the Calphalon without reservation. The Braun cost a bit less and we preferred its interface though, so it snagged the top spot.
Calphalon 14-Cup Programmable Coffee Maker
Ninja had been a previous winner in the budget category and came with a few nice features that the Braun and Calphalon both have, like two different brew strengths and the ability to brew smaller batches of coffee. But the coffee it made, even on the “bold” setting, was just less flavorful than its competitors.
Basic is the right word here. Amazon’s entry to the drip coffee maker field delivers exactly what you’d expect of a coffee maker that costs $50, which is to say, forgettable but drinkable coffee. The only feature it comes with is a delay timer so you can set it to brew coffee ahead of time. The cost of all our budget picks only varies by about $30 or so, and we thought the results we got from several others made them better picks.
Amazon Basics 12-Cup Digital Coffee Maker
Mr. Coffee machines get a bad rap, but if you step up from the most basic models you can get an adequate coffee maker. The coffee from this 10-cup model wasn’t great because it was a bit watery, but for the utilitarian coffee drinker it could get the job done. It also came with a thermal carafe that kept the coffee warm on the table for a couple hours. The last nice feature on the Mr. Coffee was a detachable water reservoir that was much cleaner to fill than the normal “pour the water in the back of the machine” method most inexpensive coffee makers rely on. Ultimately, the coffee was just better from the Braun and Calphalon machines, though. This was also the only budget machine we tested that didn’t come with a reusable filter.
Mr. Coffee 10-Cup Programmable Coffee Machine
The Black & Decker machine came with a nice thermal carafe, but that wasn’t enough to offset the fact that the coffee it made tasted dirty—as in, had the flavors of dirt. We wouldn’t rule out that there are people out there who like that kind of earthy coffee in the morning, but we didn’t consider it a winner in our tests.
Black & Decker 12-Cup Coffee Maker
If you’re a tech nerd and love having smart devices in your home, the Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker is the way to go. Otherwise, you can’t miss with the classic Technivorm Moccmaster, Ratio Six.
The coffee brewer itself is just one part of the process. And while a drip coffee maker requires far less gear than, say, an espresso machine—a good set of paper filters is really all you need to get started—fresh beans are still a must. Epi contributor and longtime coffee educator and journalist Ever Meister has a good rundown of what to look for on a bag of coffee beans to know what exactly you’re getting.
First things first: Buy whole beans. Grinding coffee right before you brew is the key to a great cup, and so is having a good burr coffee grinder to do it.
There’s no shortage of coffee at the supermarket, but it’ll be up to you suss out the quality from the swill. When you buy directly from a roaster, you get knowledgeable staff and tasting opportunities. The coffee is probably fresher too. There are companies like Trade Coffee that have relationships with various roasters around the country and a quietly growing “roasted at the source” movement from companies like Quintal that offers even fresher beans that were never shipped green or unroasted and left to sit.
Pay attention to the roast date, which ideally should be marked on the bag, and buy it as close to the date as possible. The flavor flattens out quickly once you open it. “Coffee that’s of high quality, that’s been processed well, and is relatively fresh compared to when it was harvested, that coffee should taste really good within the first 30 days after roasting,” Jesse Kahn, who is in charge of training center development for Counter Culture coffee says. Beans from a roaster might have been roasted that same week. At the grocery store, roast dates of two or three months out are more likely.
Roast levels reflect how long and at what temperature the beans are roasted. There’s a prevailing theory that dark roasts mask lesser-quality coffee. Ultimately, the darker the roast, the smokier the flavor, which might or might not be your cup of, uh, tea. “When you roast, you’re eliminating moisture and caramelizing some of the sugars inherent in the coffee,” Kahn said.
There are dozens of coffee varieties from all over the world, and they’re all going to taste different. While Kahn said you can make some generalizations about the flavors of coffees from various regions, there are so many other factors at play. “The altitude, the soil composition, the rainfall, all the things that go into the piece of land where the coffee grows,” he said.
The bean matters as well. There are two main species of coffee bean: arabica and robusta. Arabica is generally considered to be much higher quality, and the vast majority of what you can buy is arabica. Beware anything that looks mass produced and isn’t labeled “arabica.” If you want to get a taste of what robusta is about, Nguyen Coffee Supply offers some interesting beans out of Vietnam, but even the very best robusta beans tend to taste heavier and grittier.
What we call coffee beans are the green seeds inside the fruits of the coffee tree. How the beans are processed plays a part in flavor and quality, said Kahn. If you see the processing method listed on a label, take that as a good sign.
In the wet or washed process, which is most common, the fruit is run through a machine to separate the pulp from the beans, which are then fermented in water so the rest of the gunk comes off and the beans can be dried. Fermentation can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Changes in flavor occur during this period “in the same way that kimchi fermented for two months tastes different than two weeks,” Kahn said.
In the dry process, the fruit is set out to dry naturally before being pulped to get at the beans, which imparts a “very distinct, fruity flavor,” he said.
Coffee tends to grow better at certain elevations. The higher up it is, the wider the swings in temperature from day to night, the longer a coffee plant takes to ripen—and the more time it has to draw nutrients from the soil and develop flavor, Kahn said.
That doesn’t mean all high-altitude coffees are superior or that you’ll like how they taste, but it’s another positive detail about whoever is producing your coffee. More and more roasters are including this information on their bags, so make sure to look for it.
At home, keep your coffee in an airtight, opaque container out of light. It’s fine to keep it in the bag, but seal it up as tight as possible. Using a vacuum-sealed container like Fellow’s can extend the shelf life of your beans by as much a month, though. There’s no need to store your coffee in the freezer. Moisture will eventually creep in and ruin the flavor, Kahn said. Besides, you need to drink that coffee, not stockpile it. Provided you know how to brew it, go forth and brew while it’s fresh and at its best.
By Sarah Karnasiewicz , Tammie Teclemariam , and Emily Farris
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