The Precision Brewer is one of the few coffee machines we’ve tested or researched that offers users the ability to adjust brewing variables, such as bloom time (where you humid your coffee grounds for a minute to degas the grounds), brewing temperature, and water flow rate. What’s more, it includes two baskets—one for flat-bottom filters and the other for conical filters—as well as the option to throw in a Hario V60 or Kalita Wave drip coffee maker for experimenting with your coffee. This is great for coffee connoisseurs who want to extract a specific flavor profile from their beans, such as if they want something fruity from an Ethiopian single-origin coffee or a nutty cocoa flavor from a murky roast blend.
Once you’ve tuned the Precision to your exact settings, you can save them to the My Brew setting on the machine so you get the same freshly brewed pot every time. But for those who aren’t trying to push themselves and just need a caffeine fix, Breville has a variety of presets so you can just let the folks at Breville do all the work of perfecting your cup.
Best drip coffee maker with built-in grinder: Breville Grind Control
The Breville Grind Control ticks all the basics of coffee-making, but it adds a few extras that take it over the top. The first is the built-in grinder. Better coffee starts with freshly ground coffee beans, but adding a separate grinder to your routine adds another machine and another thing to neat. The built-in grinder is solid, and the ability to adjust the grind size with a knob makes changing the settings for specific flavors hassle-free. Hence the name “Grind Control.” The coffee maker has two other adjustment knobs, one for the strength of the brew and one for the number of cups. You can do this yourself with greater precision if you’re willing to pull out the scales, but you know, it’s 8 a.m. and you probably don’t have the time or patience. And it works well whether you’re making a single cup of coffee, which some automatic drip coffee makers struggle to do, or a whole pot. Honestly, it’s pretty nippy to turn the knobs every morning to get the flavor just right for your idea of the perfect cup of coffee.
None of this would matter if the Grind Control threatened to fall apart every time you turned it on in the morning, a real problem with some poorly made automatic drip coffee makers. That said, we found the Grind Control to hold up pretty well in utilize. It heats water to the right temperature and has no obvious design flaws. The only real downside is the need to neat it, which takes a few steps. When you consider that this one device is both a grinder and a coffee maker, cleaning it doesn’t seem like a large deal. And spending 10 minutes one day a week is easier to stomach than the daily maintenance of other, more precise devices.
Best Budget Drip Coffee Maker: Cuisinart PerfecTemp 14-Cup Coffeemaker
If you are a coffee lover who doesn’t sweat the diminutive stuff, this is the machine that doesn’t sweat the diminutive stuff. In a sea of inexpensive machines at a similar price, Cuisinart wins: It makes consistently good coffee at just the right temperature and has enough features to be functional. The design, with its relatively slim glass carafe, is better equipped to last for years than its cheaper, more plasticky counterparts. This coffee maker comes in two sizes (12-cup or 14-cup). You can also upgrade to a thermal carafe if you prefer — but that option is only available in the 12-cup size. And for mornings when you just can’t wait for the entire carafe to fill up, there’s a brew-pause function that lets you brew a cup while it’s brewing without the mess of dripping.
Best Designer Drip Coffee Maker: Technivorm Moccamaster KBT 741
Technivorm is a Dutch brand that many coffee enthusiasts love for its elegant design and ability to brew a huge cup of coffee. “I really like the Moccamaster because of the way the water is distributed in multiple points,” says Sahra Nguyen, founder Nguyen Coffee Deliveryhe says. “Plus, I love current design.”
