You should take into account a number of things while choosing the finest brewer for you: What is the speed? How much cleaning is necessary? How much coffee is consumed in your home? Of course, taste is a factor.

Great coffee tastes to me like Italy.
Since I first started drinking coffee in college, I’ve tried almost every variation there is on how to brew and consume the beverage. I frequently utilised K-cups and vending machine dispensers when convenience was a top priority. I eventually started drinking better coffee and wanted to brew it at home. I started grinding my own coffee beans and purchased a pourover (more on that, below).

I assumed I was fully informed. I next travelled to Italy.

My perceptions about good coffee and what it would take to obtain one were altered by my time in Italy. Even the food sold at the rest stops’ petrol stations tasted far better there than it ever had back home.

I felt inspired to step up my home coffee game when I got back. In order to find out how I could make better coffee, I sought the advice of two industry professionals: Dan Pabst from Melitta and Giorgio Milos, master barista for Illy.

Pabst and Milos simplified what makes great coffee for me in their article, What Makes Great Coffee, According to Experts. The two main factors that determine a brew’s flavour are the location and method of the beans’ cultivation (the terroir, like wine), and how deeply or thinly they are roasted.

According to Milos, there is no correct or wrong degree of roasting; it all depends on the individual. He contrasted enjoying steak rare as opposed to well-done to the preference for lighter roasts as opposed to darker ones.

What about the actual brewing procedure, though? With so many different techniques, there had to be variations in the finished cup’s flavour that went beyond the bean. Pabst and Milos voiced their opinions there, but I decided to have a cage-match-style cup-off to get the true scoop. I selected the top five home brewing techniques to fight for the title of making the absolute greatest cup of coffee. In this scenario, the best cup is the one that tastes the most like I have had in Italy.

In order to remove as many irrelevant variables as possible, I didn’t pay much attention to whether the method made a lot of coffee or a cup of coffee. Flavor was my goal, but I realized that coffee methods are often related to how many people and how long you serve.

Then there was the selection of coffee beans and roasts. My own taste gravitates towards the local, and I wanted to balance this out as much as possible. I chose a high quality and widely used medium roast coffee.
Starbucks Spike Place medium roast beans. If you decide to repeat my method, be sure to use your preferred beans (and roast level).

I bought the beans whole and used a burr grinder (see my current favorite here) to grind each batch fresh to the recommended coarseness. In, I consulted this guide from the homebrew blog Home Grounds..both say that pre-ground beans work best for most methods (some may require a specific grind size) and can last up to a week or so. I also found it to be completely fresh when used in.

Unless otherwise stated, all tests used the amount recommended by the manufacturer and used tap water heated in a gooseneck kettle. All brews were determined to be black with no sugar or cream to reduce variables.