The Best Coffeemakers

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More from Features

A roundup of the top brewers on the market today

Sam Gugino
Posted: December 20, 2002


	The glass-beaker eight-cup French press from Bodum makes a very robust cup of coffee that would appeal to espresso fans.


		Drip Coffee Features

		French Press Pots and Vacuum Systems

		Test Results

		How to Get It

		*Related links:*

		Blending In For truly fabulous coffee, use more than one kind of bean

		Home Brew Espresso at your fingertips

Despite the legions who frequent espresso bars and carry out their grande non-fat lattes, most Americans drink regular coffee at home. But these days we're not settling for just any old cup of joe. The increase in the quality and variety of coffee has spawned a concomitant increase in the number of coffeemakers, primarily in the drip and French press styles. From water purification systems to timers that tell you how long it has been since the coffee was brewed, machines today have every conceivable feature, except one that shakes you out of bed in the morning.

In the housewares department at Zabar's in New York there are more coffeemakers than any other type of appliance. "Last February we had over 120 coffeemakers, so we discontinued some that weren't selling well," said housewares buyer Melen Ham. "But as soon as we did, people came in looking for them."

Still, you don't need any fancy doo-dads on your coffeemaker for a great cup of java. My favorite coffeemaker among the seven I tested was one of the simplest, the Clubline KB 741 by Dutch manufacturer Technivorm. The Clubline is a drip machine, the most familiar type of coffeemaker. It works by heating water from a holding tank and spraying it over grounds in a filter-lined brew basket. While the basic system hasn't changed appreciably since before Joe DiMaggio was hawking Mr. Coffee, a myriad of special features have become available.

Drip Coffee Features

About three years ago, insulated pots were introduced. These pots can have double walls, Styrofoam filling or the more effective vacuum seal to retain heat. (Warming plates more often than not cook the coffee.) For the time-deprived couple Cuisinart has Two to Go ($50), which brews coffee into two sleek 14-ounce stainless-steel travel mugs.

Because coffee beans lose their flavor rapidly once ground, coffeemakers with attached grinders such as the Capresso CoffeeTeam Luxe ($200) and Cuisinart Grind and Brew ($99) are showing up. A coffeemaker that can be preset to have your coffee ready for you when you wake up isn't a new idea, but these do remain popular. However, for true coffee aficionados, programmable machines that require coffee to be ground hours ahead are a no-no. But the Capresso CoffeeTeam Luxe and Cuisinart Grind and Brew overcome this problem with programmable grinders.

Because coffee is mostly water, consumers are expressing a preference for coffeemakers with water purifiers, usually charcoal. "People are more aware of bottled versus tap water," says Mary Rogers of Cuisinart. "And the better the water, the better the coffee."

The espresso craze has spilled over into the coffeemaker world too. Capresso, which, according to Ham, is a comer in the coffee machine market, has a milk frother attached to its CoffeeTec machine ($200), for faux lattes and cappuccinos.

Brown paper filters, which allegedly impart fewer chemicals than white filter papers, are now common. But Ted Lingle, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), an industry group based in Long Beach, Calif., says brown paper is a gimmick. In fact, the quality of both brown and white paper has deteriorated, according to Lingle. Instead, he suggests using a permanent mesh filter of either gold or nylon, which allows more flavor components to be leached from the coffee, much like unfiltered wine. The result is an earthier, denser and more complex cup.

French Press Pots and Vacuum Systems

French press coffee pots work by mixing coarsely ground coffee with hot water in a glass or plastic beaker. The mixture is stirred and allowed to sit for two to five minutes. Then grounds are pressed to the bottom of the beaker with a plunger. While these coffeemakers allow you the most control over the brewing process, they require more human involvement, something you may or may not want at 6 a.m. Involvement also applies to cleaning out the grounds, a messier task than with automatic drip systems.

For years there was no way to keep French pressed coffee hot. Now companies such as Bodum, Bonjour, Frieling and Thermos have press systems inside insulated containers. The problem with insulated (and noninsulated) pots is that the pressed coffee grounds stay in contact with the coffee at the bottom of the pot after the brewing cycle has finished, and bitter components come out, much like with overextracted espresso. To avoid this, pour French pressed coffee into a separate insulated container.

Vacuum coffeemakers are a tiny segment of the coffeemaker market. These off-center, hourglass-shaped machines look like escapees from a high school chemistry lab. The top chamber contains coffee, the bottom water. When the water is heated, it shoots up into the top chamber, mixes with the grounds and drips back into the lower chamber. They are a pain to clean, though the two chambers are made of unbreakable polycarbonate.

Test Results

Despite the plethora of bells and whistles, what you really need to make good coffee can be summed up in one word -- wattage. "Most coffeemakers don't get water hot enough, and that's because they don't have enough power, or wattage," Lingle says. "You need at least 1,250 watts. But most coffeemakers have less than 1,200." Lingle says higher wattage also provides more "turbulence" in the brewing basket, which extracts more flavor.