Buyer's Guide to Coffee Makers
There are loads of different forms of coffee machine out there, depending on whether you’re conscious about space, price, the taste of the coffee or the grind and form of coffee you use.
There are also models to suit all styles and capabilities, whether you’re a rushing-out-the-door drinker or you prefer to take some time over the extraction process.
So, which coffee machine is right for you and which should you buy?
Electric Coffee Machines
Bean To Cup
- 10p per cup
- Beans
- Milk frothers and steam wands
- Offers multiple ways to make coffee
- Barista style experience at home
- Often the most expensive
Pod Machines
- 25p per cup
- Pods
- Hassle free
- Choice of hot drinks beyond coffee
- Often cheapest to buy
- Pods can be pricey
- 25p per cup
- Grounds
- Good for anyone who likes coffee a certain way
- Manual or automatic operation
- Can be a fine art to use
Filter
- 20p per cup
- Grounds
- American Style Black coffee
- Good for multiple servings
- Stays warm
- Only makes filter coffee so no milk-based
Integrated
- 15p per cup
- Beans or Grounds
- Similar to a bean to cup machines
- Slimline unobtrusive style
- Very pricey and limited choice in comparison
Manual Coffee Machines
- 10p per cup
- Grounds
- Longer extraction so stronger taste
- Serving size flexible
- Time consuming
- 10p per cup
- Grounds
- Strong taste
- Electric or Stove Top
- Large quantities
- Need to experiment to suit tastes
- 15p per cup
- Grounds
- Very trendy
- Novelty design and method
- Makes great tasting coffee
- Limited choice out there
- 10p per cup
- Grounds
- Strongest taste of all as it brews for days
- Can be reheated
- Simple to make
- Needs to be kept in fridge
Features in Coffee Makers Which Affect Clarity and Body
When choosing a coffee maker, another consideration should be:
How do you like your coffee?
When brewing, there’s a trade off between the clarity of flavours in the coffee and the amount of body it has. The greater the clarity of flavours, the lighter the body and vice versa.
So the first question to ask yourself is: do you prefer your coffee bright and light; full-bodied; or somewhere in between?
There are three main features in coffee makers which dictate the level of clarity and body the coffee has:
1. Filtration
The most defining factor is the type of filtration the coffee maker uses to separate the coffee solution from the ground coffee. The finer the filter the more clarity the coffee will have.
Whilst the size of pores does vary from brand to brand, the fineness of the filter is governed by the material it’s made from. Generally, paper filters have the finest pores, followed by cloth and then metal.
2. Pressure
Coffee makers that apply pressure during the brewing process usually have more body than those that don’t. For example, espresso machines and stove-top espresso makers will have a fuller body and less clarity than a cafetiere (french press).
3. Brewing Style
Broadly speaking, coffee makers can be divided into two camps: full immersion and percolation brewers (not to be confused with coffee percolators).
With a full immersion brewer, the full amount of water is in contact with the ground coffee for the majority, if not the entire duration, of the brew. The cafetiere (or french press) is the most common full immersion brewer.
With a percolation brewer, water is passed through a bed of ground coffee, usually quite slowly. A good example of this is a pour-over (drip filter) brewer.
Typically full immersion brewing lends itself to fuller bodied brews than percolation, although this isn’t always the case. Full immersion brewing is also much simpler than percolation, so it’s easier to get consistent results.
Further Information
Once you’ve seen a type of coffee maker you’re interested in, choose from the links below to find more information about it:
