A drip coffee maker is easily an essential part of many people's morning routine. Unfortunately, coffee equipment has become an oversaturated market. As such, finding the right coffee brewer can be overwhelming. To cut through all the confusion, we designed our testing procedures to determine which machines consistently make the best-tasting coffee while also evaluating each model's ease of use and cleaning.
Brew Quality
Brew quality was our most important metric, and we made the taste-testing process as objective as possible. Our testing team included eight coffee drinkers, one of whom is a professional and award-winning barista. Each tester tried samples from all brewers against a control coffee. For our control cup, we used a classic pour-over brewed with a Hario V60 Size 02. We conducted blind taste-testing to avoid bias and used coffee beans from the exact same origin, roast date, and roaster.
We took measurements during the brewing process, including logging the temperature in the brew basket as well as the resulting carafe of coffee. We noted water distribution across grounds and if a preinfusion mode was available. We also played with customizable features (if any existed) to see how much we could change the quality of the coffee.
User Friendliness
To assess user-friendliness, our coffee professionals brewed numerous and repeated pots of coffee on each machine. We evaluated the process from start to finish, including filling the water tank, inserting filters, and loading coffee grounds. We timed each brew to see how long it took and compared the interfaces of each model to see how simple or convoluted they were. We considered convenient features like auto-brew, hot plate shut-off, and cleaning reminders. We also ranked each model based on the design of their carafes and how well they handled and poured.
Ease of Cleaning
The cleaning of a machine can ruin even the most delicious cup of coffee. So, we used and cleaned each brewer dozens of times to understand better which devices were easiest to maintain. We focused most of our cleaning score on daily cleaning, which encompassed all of the things you'd be cleaning daily (disposing of wet grounds, cleaning out the carafe, putting components through the dishwasher, etc.). We considered annoyances like splatter during the brewing process, grounds that explode out of brew baskets, and machines that collect grubby-looking fingerprints. We also ran a descaling process on each machine, a deep cleaning process that removes mineral build-up from the device.
Consistency
We made several pots of coffee back to back, to evaluate their consistency between brews. We checked brew basket temperatures and compared them from one brew to the next and the first brew when the machine was cold to the last brew when it was warmed up. We timed each machine and compared them to themselves to understand which models offer a consistent morning routine and which are erratic and unreliable.
