While a cheap drip coffee maker can satisfy your basic need for a long, hot cup of coffee in the morning, only a good coffee maker will ensure that your coffee will always taste great.
To start your day off on the right foot — or with the right cup — we recommend the Bonavita Enthusiast 8-Cup Drip Coffee Brewer with Thermal Jug. It’s fast, convenient and easy to use, with a sleek, compact design and a well-insulated jug. Most importantly, it makes good coffee.
Our choice
This stylish coffee maker consistently makes delicious coffee. It is fast, easy to use and maintain, and has a compact and attractive design.
We love the convenient features, reliable performance, and attractive design of the Bonavita Enthusiast 8-cup drip coffee maker with thermal jug.
It has a compact, streamlined design and simple functions—brewing, blooming and descaling (but no “brew later” function)—that require just the touch of a button. It makes better coffee—very nuanced and well-balanced—than most of the models we tested, and the attractive jug (which matches the machine’s stainless steel or matte black finish) keeps coffee hot for hours.
It’s also fast, brewing a full jug in under 8 minutes. The Enthusiast improves on the bulky design of older Bonavita models, with a brewing lid on the carafe and (an exception among our picks) a removable water tank.
Also great
Not only does this coffee maker make delicious coffee, but it’s also the only one of our picks that has an auto-brew feature, so you can program your coffee to be ready when you wake up.
If you like convenient features like auto-brew, the OXO Brew 9-Cup coffee maker is for you. It has a sleek design and interface with a handy auto-brew function, and its well-made thermal jug keeps your coffee hot for hours.
This reliable drip coffee maker makes good coffee, though we found it to be a bit less reliably nuanced than our other picks. But unlike our other picks, the OXO Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker lets you wake up to fresh, already-brewed coffee.
Also great
This reliable, durable appliance lets you prepare delicious, flavorful meals, and it comes with a much longer warranty than our other picks.
For a simple, stylish coffee maker with a long warranty, consider the Technivorm Moccamaster KBT. Its tall, streamlined design includes a good thermal jug and a simple interface. It comes with a five-year warranty, which is better than our other choices. And all of our tasters enjoyed its coffee, giving it the highest ratings alongside our choice.
The machine also includes a unique switch that lets you fully or partially close the bottom of the filter basket, giving you some manual control over the brewing process. At first, you can close it completely to completely saturate (aka bloom) the grounds, enhancing flavor and ensuring an even brew. You can also partially close it to slow the flow of hot water through the grounds. But as far as controls go, that’s basically all there is to it, aside from an on/off switch.
For a coffee machine that lacks user-friendly features like a programmable timer and descaling reminders, the Moccamaster KBT is a bit pricey, but its ease of use, five-year warranty, great coffee and reputation for durability make it a worthwhile investment.
