Ah, yes. And the last desktop was sold in 2009, and laptops are for old fogies, and real coffee comes with a weird green label on the cup, so these home machines are just for make-do.
I’ve had several Capressos, they run around $150-$175, and they’ve been nothing but joy. The Bonavita is around $150, and gets stellar reviews from Whole Latte Love and Cook’s Illustrated (indeed, CI rates the actual coffee brewed by the Bonavita to be as good as the Technivorm). Every time I purchase a new coffee maker (which isn’t all that often - maybe every 8 years), there’s a slew of them in the $150-$200 range that get great reviews. And, for the record, I don’t buy for bells & whistles. I buy for the quality of the coffee.
So yeah, I disagree with you. Obviously there’s a lot of stinkers in the $150 (or any) range. But that doesn’t mean that they are all bad, and it doesn’t take much research to find the good ones.
fist-bump
…wait… did I just spill some coffee?
Yeah, I know. Its right up there with, “Why do you need a work bench or a full tool set? Isn’t there an App for that…?” 
Is “$150-$175” higher or lower than “$25 to $150”?
There may well be overpriced crap in the $149.99+ range but none I know of from either personal experience or second-hand info. That seems to be the ceiling for lower-end makers to cram junk features into a mediocre brewing unit and get away with it.
There may well be many fine makers in the $100-$149 range as well, but it’s by no means a certainty and even well-reviewed units are often not built for longevity; their heating and flow-control go out of whack within a year of first use.
Coffee makers can be purchased for convenience (including affordability-convenience), or quality. Not both. Not with any degree of certainty. Yes, it’s possible to get a 10-year delight at a reasonable price… through luck alone. More likely, about two years in you’re going to sit down, take a sip and realize you’ve been drinking diner acid for a month… and start the whole process over again.
I was simply commenting on the higher end of your range.
Again, that hasn’t been my experience at all, with machines in the high end of your range. I’m on my second Capresso since 2001. The first was replaced after a small plastic piece broke after about 8 years of daily use. The second one is still going fine. I don’t think luck had anything to do with me finding those machines, I just read a few reviews and talked to some people at quality coffee shops.
You are arguing that paying a lot and getting good advice on a coffeemaker results in a satisfactory purchase. I stubbornly maintain… the same thing.
I prefer not to include a lot of gadgets on my coffee maker. A separate grinder can more easily be replaced when it wears out or breaks. The blade sharpness makes a difference. Dull blades crush the beans.
I’ve had very good coffee from Hamilton Beach.
Nope.
I put whole beans in my coffee maker and when the timer goes off 10 hour later it grinds the beans and then brews the coffee, less than 10 minutes for the entire process and freshly ground & brewed coffee every morning.
These reviews are worth reading even if you aren’t in the market for a coffee maker.
Old cartoon in Car and Driver magazine. A whole line of cars are driving off a cliff lemming style. Caption: Consumer Reports is testing cars again.
As I mentioned, I’m not really focusing on features. Was more curious on which might be worth the money… and don’t take away from the quality.
What is the most economical way to make excellent coffee?
We have one (its Hamilton-Beach). The coffee reservoir is itself removable and can be washed. Its easy to clean. Overall, we’re happy with it, but its not that different from a standard drip machine in function. We have a teensy kitchen and in our very limited space its that tiny bit easier to use. Ours also has a large (removeable) water reservoir which is very easy to fill.
Well, it depends of course on what you mean by ‘excellent’. It also depends on whether you value your time.
But I’ll give this a shot. I’m not an internet coffee snob*, but I do play one on TV**. So I can say the cheapest capital investment to make coffee-snob acceptable coffee, assuming you already have some way of heating water and some kind of timer, is to get the cheapest French Press you can find ($10-20 or less at a yard sale), a $10 thermometer for the hot water, and a real burr grinder for the beans ($60 to whatever you can afford).
- really, I’m not.
** well, OK not really that either
PS- I’m pretty sure that even after a really good cleaning, the old trick of running a pot of water mixed with white vinegar through an older and well-used coffee maker (through an Empty filter) still works wonders.
After, toss the filter & wipe the insides of the unit (as well as the carafe) dry with a paper towel.
Same here. Grind-and-brew coffee makers are great, aren’t they?
I don’t have any experience with French press or other stuff like that, so I can’t make that comparison. But if you’re gonna do drip coffee, grind-and-brew is the way to do it.
If you want best bang for the buck get a kettle, a decent burr grinder like the Bodum, and either a French Press or an AeroPress.
I prefer the Aeropress but I also have a french press I use once and a while. Both are worlds better better than my KitchenAid drip brewer, which will be replaced by a Technivorm when it dies, which I suspect will be sooner than later based on my previous experiences.
If you are determined to get a drip brewer, get one with a thermal carafe as it will prevent you from cooking the coffee on the burner and making it bitter.
The little cone with a filter that sits on top of the cup. I’ve been to some very hoity-toidy high-end joints that use them. Much easier to clean up than a French press and I like the coffee better.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=coffee+drip+cone
The cheapest way to make damn good coffee is with a $5 pour over cone.
The most expensive part about making good coffee is the grinder. A cheap burr grinder will set you back at least $60. Beans can be expensive too. But 8 O’Clock beans and a cheap spice grinder are a really good, really cheap start.
I’m thinking of buying my beans green and roasting them myself, but I haven’t tried it yet. Still $6/lb for coffee that will last up to a year sounds like a great deal to me, compared to a $10/lb Starbucks roast that tastes like charcoal. I plan to roast in a cast iron dutch oven until I can find/afford a decent roaster.
I may sound like a snob, but drip coffee can be really good. My must have is a thermal carafe, because I don’t want to fry my coffee on a burner while I wait to drink it. Anything else is bells and whistles. A good coffee maker is just a pour over cone that heats the water for you first.
I will never go back to a coffee maker with a burner and a glass pot. A thermal carafe is an absolute must have for me. It’s 9:30, I just poured a cup of coffee that was brewed at 6:30 and it is still hot and tastes great. We have a Melitta.
Thanks for reminding me about our Braun coffeemaker that died 5 years ago at the age of 14. What a great coffeemaker. You can’t get Braun coffeemakers in the US anymore. goes off into the corner and quietly sobs
Anyway, I second the “easy to pour in water” feature. Most coffeemakers these days have a really narrow area to pour water into. I usually end up spilling water either into the basket, or on the counter, or both.