I’ve really nothing to add - my husband makes the coffee which I then tart up with cream, sugar, sometimes chocolate, sometimes caramel syrup - but it’s good to see you, Hippos!
My husband used to have a French press, but we broke the glass beaker it used. Now he’s got a stainless steel percolator that he just plugs in and off it goes. We also have a stovetop percolator, but he doesn’t use that much anymore. I suppose I need to find him a stainless steel press - that’s probably just the ticket.
Heya Snickers 
How ya doing?!
Are coffee machines expensive or hard to find in Australia? Because you can buy a simple drip machine for $10 -15 in any hardware store, drug store, appliance store, mass retailer (Target/Wal Mart, etc) and many larger supermarkets in the US. (Percolators went out of fashion in the 70s and are widely regarded as making the worst coffee for the most trouble)
I bought a 4 cup Mr. Coffee on my first day of college (1993) and used it until 2007. Not a bad return for my 10 bucks and I could make my friends coffee whenever they wanted it. It only takes a couple of minutes to run - the same amount of time as to heat water as others have noted.
A quick Google search tells me that although “Percolator” is actually a specific type of coffee machine (and not a filter coffee machine), the term is generally used here to mean “Any coffee-maker that isn’t a fancy cappuccino machine”.
Anyway, yes, coffee machines are expensive here. The cheapest one I could find the last time I went looking (about three months ago) was $49 and it was OK but nothing special
Australia’s coffee culture evolved along European lines after WWII thanks to all the European immigrants bringing their love of coffee here. So instead of going down the American route of the “Cup of Joe” and 24/7 drip coffee, we got lots of trendy cafes with cappuccino machines that look like they belong in an H.G. Wells story.
Which means that it’s actually surprisingly difficult to get a “Cup of Joe” here. Even McDonalds will serve you some wanky tree-hugger approved fancy coffee (which tastes like crap IMHO) unless you specifically request “filter coffee”, and even if you request it many stores no longer have it.
So that’s why people here like instant coffee. It’s good quality, it’s fast, and it’s not pretentious or wasteful. I mean, I like coffee and I frequently think “I cannot be bothered making a cup of ground coffee” (with the attendant mess afterwards), so I get a jar of instant out of the cupboard and as soon as the kettle boils, it’s coffee time.
I don’t have a roaster, but I will be taking my electric kettle, French press, and coffee grinder on vacation when I leave Wednesday.
My coffee routine is:
[ul][li]1.25 quarts of water in the electric kettle, kettle on.[/li][li]beans scooped out of airtight light-proof container and into the grinder[/li][li]French press ready[/li][li]when the electric kettle clicks off, start the grinder[/li][li]pour a little water into the press carafe, swish it around to warm the glass (I don’t know why this makes a difference, but it does to my palate)[/li][li]pour the grounds into the carafe, fill with water while stirring[/li][li]lid on, brew for 4 minutes[/li][li]press slowly (I aim for 30 seconds, usually hit 20)[/li][*]serve[/ul]
I have had instant coffee in Australia, on the occasions when I’ve visited relatives. While it was better than the instant that’s available here, it was still a long way from my daily drip. Interestingly, my Australian relatives now live here in Canada–and still serve instant. I’ve asked them if they would like a drip machine for Christmas or some other gift-giving event (they always offer me coffee and it’s always instant), but they say no, drip is too much trouble. I don’t see it; IME, drip is faster than waiting for a kettle to boil, and cleanup is no problem at all.
Tim Hortons’ drip machines aren’t much different than what I can buy to make drip coffee at home. A little more expensive maybe, but similar drip machines are found in many workplaces. And I haven’t been in a North American hotel room in ten years that does not have a small drip coffee maker. They’re pretty inexpensive, and they produce four cups of coffee in the time it takes to have a shower.
If you like instant coffee, Martini, then drink it; but I’ll stick with my drip, thanks. 
Silvia is a semi-automatic machine. I grind my own beans and tamp my own shots.
I just grind it finer, and do it trial and error, until I only put out about an ounce and a bit of liquid with about 15 grams of beans.
One can also tamp it tighter, or combine a finer grind with a tighter tamp.
That’s why I wouldn’t get an automatic machine. I could not make a ristretto with it!
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to look at the Silvia someday. A ristretto is beautiful thing.
And to answer the OP: A french press for regular coffee but if I have the time I use an ibrik to make Greek/Turkish coffee.
My issue with filter coffee machines is getting the amount right. I don’t drink cup after cup after cup of coffee- I want a cup of coffee, and maybe a second one if I need the caffeine. Drip machines are not really geared up to make single cups- you have to make lots of coffee, and if you don’t drink it fairly quickly it goes blegh. So unless you’re a real caffiend, they’re not necessarily worth the extra hassle.
I prefer filter coffee but some of the instant stuff is pretty darn good and doesn’t leave me with a filter to clean out or a carafe to rinse- perfect for the first cup of the day in the morning, in other words. 
The Plebian’s plebian method:
Basically like making instant, but with real coffee. Instant is the devil’s brew. I always say “Instant is a drink. Some people like it. It is not coffee!! :p”
(Of course at work, we have a communal espresso machine, so I can spend long seconds frothing the milk, then waiting for the coffee to be ground, pressed and made by the machine…)
If anyone is in need of a French press, for some reason Office Max has them on clearance for $10.
Visiting your local Salvation Army can yeild Percolator’s and french presses ( and possibly expresso/cappocino/fancy drinky machines) to tinker with at a fraction of the cost.
<----Works at a SA.
First, off it isn’t true that drip machines must make a lot of coffee. The smaller 4-cup machines are common (4 “cups” is 2 mugs) At any rate, for people who do want that one cup at a time experience, in the US. the K-cup system is become quite popular. There are little coffee “pods” you insert and it brews one cup at a time. Although home systems are relatively rare (most people encounter K-cup system in their office) they are becoming more affordable and popular.
I do not think instant will ever be really popular in the US. It goes against certain cultural beliefs about coffee. Imagine for a moment an American said “Oh I drink instant tea – it’s just as good and making tea is too much trouble.” I don’t know about Australia but I am certain that you could never convince a English person that instant tea is anywhere near as good, and they consider the “trouble” to be a satisfying ritual. (Americans take some shit for using tea bags vs. loose tea, and tea bags are filled with actual tea leaves, not freeze dried tea product). Likewise I do not think instant coffee will ever shed its association in the U.S. with really low-end processed convenience food (see also: Spam), and the idea that making coffee is any sort of mess or trouble is generally met with confusion.
I haven’t rinsed out my carafe in weeks. A heavily coffee-stained carafe is the sign of a true coffee drinker.
Oh, and you can make a single cup o’ Joe in an electric drip. Why not? A mug of water, a scoop of grounds, and there’s your single cup.
Maybe that should be amended to read, “I do not think instant will ever be really popular again in the US.” I do recall from my childhood that “making coffee” meant “get out the percolator,” and that drip coffee makers for the home were expensive things that looked like they belonged in a mad scientist’s lab. In those days, instant coffee was a godsend. And as I recall, a big seller too–I remember that all of us in North America were inundated with ads for Brim (“fill it to the rim–with Brim”), Encore (“get mellow, get Encore”), and Maxim (“America’s first freeze-dried coffee”). For those who preferred less of a caffeine kick, there was Sanka (“it’s decaffeinated, not decoffeed”). And there was a long series of instant coffee ads featuring the Taster’s Choice Couple.
But with one or two exceptions (weren’t the Taster’s Choice Couple from the 80’s/90s?) those were also the days of instant Tang, Space Food Sticks, powdered milk, flaked mashed potatoes, and other conveniences that approximated real food but (IMHO) didn’t quite get there. People’s habits changed to prefer the real thing over the powdered/instant. I’d guess that this is what happened to coffee: drip makers came down in price and made coffee that tasted better than instant fairly quickly and easily. You can still get instant coffee, of course, but I don’t know anybody who drinks it. Except my Australian relatives. 
Brim wasn’t instant - it was decaf. You could have a full cup (fill it to the rim) after dinner without getting jittery.
Other than that, yes, I meant it will not be popular again in the future.
Not available in Australia, though. A point which some of you seem to be forgetting- I’m not in the US and I’m not speaking from a US perspective. Filter coffee machines here are expensive and inconvenient, especially if you’re determined to grind your own beans.
Get married.
Tell wife how wonderful she is to have your coffee ready for you when you wake up.
Best method I’ve found.
That’s funny – replace “wife” with “husband” and you have my wife’s philosophy 
Oh, OK – replace “she” with “he”, as well.
Actually, she doesn’t usually even follow through with step #2. She just drinks her coffee without telling me how wonderful I am… :dubious: 
She still gets mud coffee, though. But that’s because that’s how she likes it