Just about every home needs a coffee maker. After all, aside from water, java is our favorite drink, with the average American downing 3.2 cups a day. While many of us are looking for a better-tasting cup and indulging in espresso and cold brew, some coffee drinkers still just want that morning fix fast. Regardless of your preferences, there's a coffee maker out there to suit your needs and your budget.
Based on our research, these are the 10 best coffee makers for families and homes of all types.
The Braun Brew Sense Drip Coffee Maker is the best coffee maker for a number of reasons. With its attractive design and squared-off shape, this automatic-drip coffee maker with a glass carafe will look classy and fit neatly on your countertop. We pretty much agree that this device makes a good cup of coffee, and it gives you the option of adjusting the strength to your own taste. The Braun hits a nice moderate price but has plenty of extras: You can program it ahead of time, so you can wake up and smell the coffee; a permanent filter means you don't have to worry about constantly buying paper ones, and it has a charcoal water filter.
If you're one of those people who never think your coffee's hot enough, you can set the warming plate to a higher temperature. We found the LED buttons easy to program, but some found these controls confusing. While this coffee maker will fit under a cabinet, you'll have to pull the device forward when it's time to fill it with ground coffee and water. It's available in white, black or stainless.
The Mr. Coffee Easy Measure is the best coffee maker if you're not looking to spend a bundle but still want a great mug. It has a compact design, so it won't hog too much space on your countertop. Unlike most inexpensive coffee makers, it has a generously sized filter basket, which means it can handle more than a tablespoon of ground coffee per cup, to give you a richer brew.
To help you determine how much coffee to use, the scoop, carafe, and tank are color-coded. The controls are clearly marked and easy to program. After the machine brews, its display counts up to show you how long the coffee's been standing. So if you can't abide a stale cup, you can toss what's left and brew a new pot. The Easy Measure shuts itself off automatically after 4 hours.
Have to brew a pot for a crowd? The Cuisinart PerfecTemp 14-Cup is the best coffee maker for the job. It makes more coffee than any other programmable automatic-drip coffee maker in the marketplace. That makes the machine ideal for large households, people who return for cup after cup throughout the morning, or for those entertaining guests. If a ding telling you your coffee is ready annoys you (especially before you've had your morning Joe), you can turn off the sound.
You can control how hot you want your coffee to be as well as how long you want the coffee maker to remain on before it shuts itself off. So, you won't have to worry about whether the machine's on when you leave the house. The PerfecTemp comes in a selection of finishes, including white, black, black stainless steel and copper.
Handmade in the Netherlands, the Technivorm Moccamaster is the best coffee maker for those who prize a great-tasting cup above all else. This pricey coffee maker has a unique industrial aesthetic that some people love and others hate. It's designed to brew at the optimal time and temperature for the very best cup of coffee. However, it has fewer features than most coffee makers. You can't program it the night before, but it does brew quickly, so you won't have to wait too long for your morning jolt.
If you like to grind the beans right before you brew, the Cuisinart Grind & Brew is the best coffee maker for the task. It has a burr grinder that grinds evenly and then transfers the ground coffee directly into the filter. However, be forewarned that when the grinder goes off in the morning, it's loud enough to wake up any one who's still sleeping, even one floor above the kitchen. And occasionally, you'll have to clean the grinder, which is an additional chore.
If you sometimes want to use preground coffee, you have the option to turn the grinder off. As you would expect from a pricey model, you get a lot of extras, including the ability to control the strength of your coffee and how long it stays on before shutting itself off.
We get it. Not everyone likes coffee. The Ninja Hot- and Cold-Brewed System with Thermal Carafe is the best coffee maker for those households with differing tastes. Not only does this machine makes hot and cold coffee in a variety of sizes and strengths, but it can also brew tea as well. There are separate baskets for coffee and tea, and the machine recognizes which one you're using and offers you the appropriate settings for each. If you're one of those households with single-serve and multicup brewers, this appliance can replace both and make a single cup without those pricey and bad-for-the-environment coffee pods.
Ninja claims that, using the specialty coffee setting and the frother on the side of the machine, you can make coffee-bar drinks at home. That's true if you're not super fussy about the quality of the coffee in your 'ccinos, as the machine brews strong coffee but not espresso like the coffee shop's. But being able to easily top even a plain ol' cup of Joe with hot, frothed milk is a nice perk. This maker comes with a large scoop, and there's a place to stash it on the side of the machine.
Using recyclable aluminum capsules, the Nespresso VertuoPlus machine churns out espresso and coffee in a variety of sizes and varieties in just a minute or two. It reads the bar code on the capsules to determine the proper brewing time. Espresso-making is this machine's strong point; little cups come out with a picture-perfect topping of crema, the frothy head that's the hallmark of a true espresso. Perfect the art of producing crema in a more hands-on machine takes a lot of practice.
Coffee comes out slightly frothy and doesn't have the same body as Joe made in a more traditional coffee maker. However, if you want the option of quickly and easily making espresso or coffee, depending on your mood, this machine is a good choice. The VertuoPlus is available with a shiny or matte black, silver or dark gray finish.
It doesn't get simpler than this classic Melitta coffee maker with a glass carafe and plastic, cone-shaped filter. In fact, this is the original pour-over system, making it one of the easiest, and cheapest best coffee makers around. The filter is large, so after you line it with a paper filter, you can load it with a big dose of coffee. You boil water and pour it over the grounds. While the whole process doesn't take any longer than brewing with an automatic coffee maker, once the water's near boiling, you do have to manually pour it over the grinds. If you want to keep a pot hot, invest in a heat diffuser to put over a burner to insulate the glass carafe.
If you love the smooth, nonacidic flavor of cold brew, this machine provides the best and easiest way to make your preferred coffee at home. You combine ground coffee and water in the coffee chamber and allow the mixture to sit for 12 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Then, you use a lever to release and filter the concentrated coffee into the glass carafe, a process that takes about 20 minutes. To serve, you add water, ice or milk to dilute to your taste. A lid for the carafe is included. No skill is required, only patience.
