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Unfiltered: A Starter’s Guide to Brewing Coffee at Home

Welcome to a new monthly column by coffee expert Sam Mylrea of CoffeeKind.com on what’s brewing in that world.

If you’re like most people, your first cup of coffee in the morning is the one you make at home.  Brewing coffee doesn’t have to entail a zombie walk to the kitchen where you find yourself staring into a black abyss of dreaded bitterness; you can and will make awesome coffee at home.  Great coffee is one of the most affordable luxuries available, so for a few extra minutes why not start your morning off with a brew you’ll truly enjoy.

Coffee Isn’t Complicated.

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Okay, I take that back. Coffee is an incredibly complex beverage, but you don’t need to have a $1,000 set-up or find mustache wax under your fingernails to produce an outstanding cup of coffee every morning. You just need three things: great coffee, a quality grinder, and a coffee brewer that suits your style. Now, on to your style…

Mr. Precision

Brew Time: <5 minutes
Price Range: $25 – $75 
Difficulty Level: Just a little learning curve

Everything you do is measured and precise. You mix your own cocktails and grill your own steak. The Pourover method lets you get your geek on as you weigh your coffee and water and perfect the circular pour that experts prescribe for optimal extraction. The beauty of pourover is that you can make a great cup of coffee with just a filter cone, a gooseneck kettle and a mug, or you can go full gangster with a custom pourover stand and precision scale to perfect your technique. Also known as hand-dripped coffee, pourover scores you high trendiness points.

Mr. Right Now

Brew Time: <2 minutes after water reaches brew temp
Price Range:  $30 – $75
Difficulty Level: Easy

You don’t have time for fancy rituals. You just want great-tasting coffee and you want it in your mug right now. The Aeropress is for you. The funky brewer looks like a toy, but it brews seriously good coffee that’s low in acidity and high on flavor. It combines the flavor extraction of a French press with the clean cup of a filtered coffee, giving you the best of both worlds, and did we mention that it’s fun to use?

Dr. Heisenberg

Brew Time: >10 minutes unless you preheat the water
Price Range: $70 – $150
Difficulty Level: Tricky, but once you get it, you’ve got it

If you just finished watching all five season of Breaking Bad and are looking for redemption on the B- you got in Organic Chemistry, your brewer of choice is a siphon pot.  Siphon brewers, also called vacuum brewers, consist of two glass globes and a heat source, typically fueled by alcohol or butane. You put water in the bottom globe and coffee in the top, then turn on the heat. As the water heats, it rises into the top, mixes with the coffee and then gets drawn into the bottom with a showy whoosh.

Mr. Renaissance Man

Brew Time: <3 minutes once machine reaches brewing temp
Price Range: $400 – $2,000
Difficulty Level: Medium, but a never ending art

You’re a traditionalist with a true appreciation for the finer things in life. You enjoy your coffee like you enjoy life: big, bold and just a little edgy. Espresso is your drink of choice. Unlike the juicer you bought six months ago, espresso is a habit that will never get old and leaves little mess.  Like any precision instrument, you get what you pay for, so plan your purchase carefully and be sure to allocate 30-50% of your budget towards a good grinder.  Not only will you feel good pulling espresso shots, but you can produce a range of different drink options such as lattes, cappuccinos, and cortados…sounds pretty cool, ehh?

Not finding yourself? That’s OK, there are plenty of other options, from precision automatic drip brewers like the Technivorm to tweaked-out super-automatic espresso machines that do everything but drink the coffee for you. Once you start brewing quality coffee at home, you’ll never be satisfied with status quo Joe again.

Amanda DePerro
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Amanda DePerro is a Midwest-based freelance writer and journalist who loves video games, gardening, and true crime. She is a…
Cold brew lovers, meet your new best friend: The Cumulus coffee machine
Make delicious cold brew coffee at home
Cumulus Coffee Machine Display on table

While I have been a huge proponent of minimizing screentime on devices in general, I must give it to the algorithmic masters at Instagram and other social media platforms. Ever since I showed interest in coffee makers, I have been bombarded non-stop with ads, account recommendations, and videos from every conceivable brand out there. So I decided to finish my journey and continue down the rabbit hole of my coffee obsession – why turn back now? There has been a bushel of new coffee maker brands entering the market of late, several of which stand out from the crowd with sleek designs and so many configurable settings that engineers and data nerds would be in coffee heaven. For me, though, I'll take a great-looking product with minimal design and few settings that make some of the best-tasting coffee out there, and the Cumulus Coffee Company seems to have done just that for cold brew coffee aficionados. Priced at $695, the Howard Schultz-backed company has raised more than $20 million from various investors (including One Republic's Ryan Tedder), showing the seriousness of their mission and the evidence of their coffee quality.

Cold Brew is hot right now (er, popular, I mean) as it accounts for nearly 30% of all coffee orders according to a 2024 study by drive research – up 300% since 2016. This is particularly true for Gen Z and Millennial coffee enthusiasts. The problem is that there isn’t really a good cold brew machine out there to buy, and the ones that are out there still depend on the consumer adding cold water, ice, or what I would call “fake” measures to make the cold brew somewhat cold (or just giving up and making iced coffee instead — and yes, there's a difference). In fact, until I tried the Cumulus Cold Brew maker, I would just recommend to folks that they add their coffee to a pitcher and set it in a fridge overnight. It's non-decadent, for sure, but it gets the job done.
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You can now enjoy cold brew as a night cap with STōK’s newest cold brew coffee
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Stok Cold Brew

Cold brew coffee is commonly known as a higher-caffeine content beverage, which usually contains about 200 milligrams of caffeine per 16 ounces. However, many of today's consumers are hopping on the decaf coffee trend, focusing on health-conscious choices. Many cold brew drinkers and iced coffee drinkers know that finding decaf varieties of these drinks is not always as easy as it sounds, much less in a ready-to-drink, already brewed form.

Offering a bold and smooth experience for people who love coffee but don't always want the caffeine, STōK has launched the first ready-to-drink decaffeinated cold brew. Available now in grocery stores nationwide, cold brew coffee lovers can enjoy cold brew any time of the day, perhaps even as a nightcap or a drink to pair with your midnight snack.

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French press vs. pour over: Which coffee brewing method makes a better cup?
Is one coffee brewing method superior?
Pouring coffee

Despite speedy coffee options all around us, such as ready-to-drink coffees and all sorts of automatic brewers, many java junkies still choose to use manual brewing methods such as the pour-over or French press method. Now, there's no denying that these methods take longer to use than your average automatic drip coffee maker. However, the manual nature of pressing or pouring coffee with these devices allows for greater control over the brew and a unique taste.

Although the French press and pour-over brewing methods may be similar in that they both require manual brewing, each method yields a different result. So, which coffee brewing method makes a better cup? The answer depends on your preferences. Here, we'll explore the differences between French press vs pour over coffee.
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