A Good Hot Cup of Coffee: Best Inexpensive Coffee Maker

So you like coffee. A lot. Me too. I like it so much I’m a home roaster. And importer. I import green coffee beans direct from the La Minita plantation in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. Why? Well, because (get ready) it’s the best inexpensive way to enjoy the best organic, free-trade, gourmet coffee on earth.

Apparently, I am not alone in this. Readers send me lots of questions and comments on the subject. Here’s one:

Which coffeemaker makes coffee the hottest and then keeps it hot without burning it?

Good and Hot

“Hot” is a nebulous term when it comes to coffee. For Mcdonald’s, hot meant a big lawsuit when its hot coffee burned a customer who spilled it in her lap. For my grandson Sam, hot means anything even slightly warmer than tepid.

Coffee aficionados insist that the water temperature for a drip coffee brewer needs to be hot at exactly 179 F. the moment it hits the coffee grounds. Personally, I find that to be on the cool side, which confirms “hot” is a matter of personal taste.

Automatic drip coffee makers have an internal thermostat to control the water temperature and they range from 175 F. to 205 F. depending on the make and model. Most machines will not allow the consumer to change this setting—a feature most of us don’t think about when selecting a coffeemaker.

Manual coffee makers like Chemex and Aeropress leave this matter up to the brewer.

On the rare occasion that I use my Aeropress, I heat the water to boiling, then allow it to cool for just a few minutes until my instant-read thermometer hits 200 F. Using this method I make only the amount we will consume immediately. Keeping it hot is not an issue.

AeroPress is a new kind of manual coffee press that uses a rapid, total immersion brewing process to make smooth, delicious, full-flavored coffee without bitterness and with low acidity. Makes 1 to 3 cups of American-style coffee per pressing in about one minute.

 

 

The Chemex manual coffeemaker delivers rich coffee. But due to its design, know that it takes time to complete a full brew—10 to 15 minutes. An added feature: Chemex is designed to allow coffee to be covered and refrigerated for reheating without losing flavor.

 

Not all coffee lovers hold to the manual method of brewing. Those who use a machine are very particular. The Cuisinart 14-Cup Coffee Maker is about as good as it can get for coffee makers under $100, earning this appliance as my pick for Best Inexpensive Coffee Maker.

First, it heats the water to the ideal and precise temperature. It uses a tiny shower head to create complete and even saturation for optimal extraction. All of these things are of supreme importance! This particular model comes with a glass carafe with a stainless steel handle.

 

 

A mid-range option, this machine dispenses coffee into a thermo carafe, which keeps the coffee hot for a long time. Water is heated and held throughout the brew cycle at 197.6  to 204.8 F. The carafe will keep coffee for an hour or two (not hot, as I define the word). This machine makes an excellent cup of hot coffee, promises a decent life span, and gets high marks from hundreds of reviewers.

 

 

This is the coffeemaker I own and use almost continuously. Bunn keeps water heated to 200 F. and ready to go at all times. That means when I pour the fresh pot of water into the machine to brew a pot of coffee, I’d better have the coffee grounds in the basket and ready to go because hot coffee begins pouring into the pot immediately.

This machine makes up to 12 cups of coffee into a glass carafe and the warmer keeps it hot. This machine works flawlessly at a semi-high elevation of 5,280 ft. where we live.

I have owned so many coffeemakers in my life—loved some, hated others—all of which finally failed. I do not plan on replacing this beautiful Bunn machine (purchased 9-21-15) in the foreseeable future. It is trouble-free, highly dependable, and makes fabulous coffee. It can’t be beat. And it looks cool, too.

This coffee maker is not cheap. But it becomes quite inexpensive when you consider you will not be replacing it for a very long time, if ever.

 

For a true coffee lover, a coffeemaker is an investment in one of life’s pleasures. The joys of a good cup of coffee cannot be overstated.

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