Temperature hold: Most coffee makers on this list brew into a stainless-steel thermal carafe, which keeps your coffee warm for a few hours without reheating it from below. Size: While not quite as large as most espresso machines, coffee makers take up a considerable amount of counter space - certainly enough that it’s an important aspect to consider when buying one. Most on this list brew up to eight or ten cups, with one slightly bigger at 12 cups, one smaller at four cups, and one with the notable feature of being able to brew a single cup at a time (helpful if the day-to-day coffee consumption in your household varies). But not all coffee makers are created equal, so I talked to a bunch of baristas, roasters, and coffee-shop owners about their preferred models - the ones they themselves rely on for a solid, fuss-free cup (or two, or three).īest overall | Best less-expensive | Best small-scale | Best stovetop | Best high-end | Best with built-in grinder | Best that also makes espresso | Best cold-brew | Best compact cold-brewĬapacity: This is a straightforward point, of course, but the capacity of a given coffee maker should be a factor in whether or not you choose it for your own setup. Turns out, even the pickiest people (by which I mean coffee-industry people) often have one at home for standard, set-it-and-forget-it brewing. There are a lot of ways to get your morning caffeine fix: espresso machine, pour-over, French press, moka pot, stove-top percolator - the methods go on and on. Photo-Illustration: courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Brewmaster coffee maker