Drip coffee makers have a bit of a bad reputation in the world of specialty coffee, and if I’m being honest, there are good reasons for that. BUT…you can make good coffee even with a cheap drip coffee maker; you just need to know the issues with most machines and how to fix them.
In case it wasn’t clear from the title, I’m going to be explaining those problems and solutions in this guide. By the end of this, you’ll be making barista-grade coffee whether you have a $20 bell-less and whistle-less coffee machine or the $300+ Breville Precision Brewer. Okay, maybe not barista-grade, but I promise it will be better! And what else is there in life but better coffee?
Let’s get started by taking a look at some basic, bare-bones instructions for using a drip machine.
How to Use a Drip Machine: The Simple Way
Drip machines are one of the most common pieces of coffee brewing equipment because they don’t require much user input — or thought, which is nice at 6am — they’re quick, and they can be set up the night before and programmed to have your coffee ready for you when you need it…ahem…want it. Totally not addicted.
The beauty of these machines is that they’re downright simple to use. Below is a quick guide on how to use your drip machine in a basic manner.
Step 1: Measure and Grind Your Coffee
First off, you’ll want to measure out your coffee. I recommend you weigh your beans rather than use the “tablespoon method” that most commercial coffee companies suggest. Brewing is a science, and being precise will help you adjust specific things in the future to yield better coffee. I personally use 28 grams of coffee beans and 420 grams of water (a 1:15 ratio).
Next, grind your coffee. Buying whole bean coffee and grinding it is the single best way to improve your coffee game. Pre-ground coffee holds its freshness for between hours and a day or two, depending on who you ask. Whole bean coffee retains freshness for a few weeks. If you don’t have a grinder, I recommend investing in a good burr grinder over a blade grinder for consistency.
Step 2: Put a Filter in and Add Your Coffee Grounds
Once your grounds are ready, pop a paper filter or reusable mesh filter into the filter basket and add your coffee grounds.
Step 3: Add Water to Your Machine
Next, add water to your drip coffee maker’s water reservoir. I strongly recommend NOT using the measurements on the maker itself. You can get precise with these, but there’s no consistency from machine to machine. If you ever buy a new coffee maker or make coffee in an unfamiliar place, you won’t have the same reference lines as you do on your own machine.
Step 4: Close the Lid and Hit “Brew”
Close the lid — this is important and easy to forget! — and hit “brew” or “go” or “power” or whatever your machine says. Wait until the coffee stops dripping, pour immediately, and enjoy. A word to the wise: don’t leave the coffee maker on to make use of the heating plate. An external source of heat on your coffee will burn it and make it taste nasty.
Step 5: Clean Up
Finally, let the carafe cool and then clean it with warm water and soap. Do the same for the filter basket and reusable filter if you have one. You can toss any paper filters and grounds in the garbage, or you can dump them into the sink and wash them down the drain. No, this is not bad for your plumbing system.
Why Drip Machines Generally Aren’t the Best (and How to Fix That)
Some people can follow the instructions above and be perfectly happy with their coffee day after day, and that’s great!
However, there are a few reasons drip coffee makers are kind of looked down upon by coffee snobs. If you are interested in making better drip coffee, then you need to understand the shortcomings of these machines.
Issue 1: The Water Isn’t (All) Hot Enough
The first and most important issue to solve is that the water — or at least all of the water — just isn’t hot enough.
Nerd-out alert…
The goal water temperature for brewing coffee is above 195 degrees (F) and really between 200 and 205. This is partially personal preference, but most coffee drinkers agree that this range is ideal.
The reason this temperature is ideal is that hot water extracts a bunch of things from your coffee grounds. These include:
- Sugars, which naturally give your coffee a bit of sweetness;
- Fatty acids, like linoleic and palmitic acids, which alter bitterness and sour flavors;
- Polyphenols, which contribute mostly to the bitterness in your cup;
- Caffeine, which, of course, is the stimulant in coffee but also contributes to bitterness; and
- Over 1,000 other compounds that all change the flavor of your coffee.
Coffee and brewing are so complex because all of these compounds are extracted at different rates based largely on water temperature — and other things, too, like steeping time. Altering the water temperature by just a few degrees will yield a noticeably different end product.
Nerd-out complete.
So the number-one issue with drip coffee makers is that the water that first hits your coffee grounds is lukewarm, which extracts more of the compounds that leave a bitter or sour taste in your mouth. The sugars in the coffee don’t get extracted as well, so your cup is unbalanced and demands added sugar and milk to mask the bitter flavor or sourness.
The water gradually heats up and eventually hits a decent temperature, but the process takes way too long.
How Do You Fix This Issue?
Luckily, there’s a pretty easy way to ensure that the water that comes out of your drip coffee maker is hot enough: add hot water to the water reservoir rather than cold water. Voila.
So, how hot should the water be? Well, you don’t really need to worry about it being too hot because most drip machines include a temperature control mechanism to prevent overheating. Also, water can’t get above 212 degrees (F), which is a fine temperature to use for brewing.
I’d recommend putting your water in a kettle or water boiler, bringing it up to about 200 degrees (F), and then adding it to your water reservoir. Your drip machine will add a bit more heat to bring it above that temperature, and the result is hot water hitting your coffee grounds the whole way through the brew.
Honestly, just making this one change will probably be like night and day, so try it out and see if you even want to move on to the other issues.
Issue 2: There’s No Bloom
“Bloom” refers to what you see when you first introduce hot water to your coffee grounds. As gasses are released from the grounds, you’ll see the top of the bed of grounds expand up like a blooming flower. When you’re blooming coffee with a pour over cone, you add enough water so that the grounds are fully submerged, and you let that wonderful mixture of water and coffee sit for between 30 and 45 seconds.
This process helps extract the flavor and sweetness from your coffee, which, of course, makes it taste better. Unfortunately, when you use a drip machine the way it’s intended, there is no bloom process. The water drips onto the coffee grounds, soaks through the filter, and quickly falls into the carafe.
The result of taking away the bloom is that the carbon dioxide and other gasses in the grounds cannot fully escape. If gas remains in the bed of grounds throughout the brewing process, the water doesn’t interact quite as much with the grounds, and you won’t extract the same compounds and flavors. That translates to a weak, sometimes flavorless cup.
How Do You Fix This Issue?
There’s also an easy fix for this issue if your coffee maker has the “steal-a-cup” feature, which most do. This means the brewer has a spring-loaded stopper beneath the filter basket that prevents coffee from dripping out unless you have your carafe in place to catch it. We can use this feature to our advantage to simulate a bloom.
Begin the brewing process with the carafe removed from the machine. Turn on your brewer and lift the lid slightly to keep an eye on the grounds. Once the water fills the basket and just about covers the grounds, shut the machine off and start a timer. Wait for about 30 seconds.
Once the 30 seconds is up, place the carafe into the machine. You should start seeing the brewed coffee drip out. Turn the machine back on and wait for the brewing process to finish.
Issue 3: The Grounds Aren’t Evenly Wet
When you brew a pour over coffee — which drip coffee is emulating — you should take great care to make sure that you evenly wet the entire bed of grounds. This ensures that you get a nice, even extraction and that you’re not missing out on flavorful compounds that get extracted over time. Leaving dry spots or letting the grounds get unevenly exposed to water leaves you with an inconsistent cup.
The issue with many drip coffee makers is that the shower head, the mechanism that drops the heated water onto your coffee grounds, doesn’t evenly wet the coffee. If you brew as intended on a drip maker and take a look at the grounds afterward, you’ll likely notice a big crater in the middle of the bed where all of the water was precariously plopped.
Coffee makers like the Breville Precision Brewer have more advanced shower heads that do a good job of wetting the entire bed of grounds, but these are expensive. So, is there a way to achieve a better distribution of water over your coffee with a cheap coffee maker?
How Do You Fix This Issue?
Unfortunately, there’s not a great way to fix this problem without buying additional equipment and putting extra time into your brewing process. One thing you can do is buy a Melodripper, which is a tool made for improving pour over coffee. It’s a little wand with a small bucket-like thing on the end that distributes water evenly over your coffee as you pour.
It’s kind of a pain to stand by your drip coffee maker and hold the Melodripper in place, but if you have the time and patience, I’d say try it out. Overall, this will probably have the most minor impact on the coffee that comes out of your machine.
Wrapping Up: Using a Drip Coffee Maker Like a Pro
As you can see, the standard way to use a drip coffee maker is easy, fast, and convenient — these are big reasons why drip machines are some of the most popular in America. However, there are some pretty major flaws with most drip coffee makers that lead to bitter, sour, and overall unpleasant coffee.
If you don’t mind a cup of Folgers out of your drip machine, then by all means, keep doing what you’re doing! However, I’d recommend giving the solutions discussed above a try. I’m confident you’ll enjoy your coffee much more and will probably never go back to your old, admittedly more convenient way of making your morning cup.
FAQ
Are drip coffee makers any good?
Drip coffee makers are popular because they’re fast, convenient, easy to use, and can be programmed to make coffee at a specific time. However, convenience doesn’t necessarily mean good.
If you’re not in the market to spend a few hundred dollars on a high-quality drip machine, then I recommend you do a few things to step up your coffee game. Use the tips I mentioned above to increase the water temperature for brewing and simulate a bloom with your drip machine. The coffee you get using these methods will be eons better than what you’d expect from letting your drip maker do all the work for you.
What’s the best drip coffee machine?
In my opinion, the best drip coffee maker is the Breville Precision Brewer. There’s very little I would change about this drip machine, and it’s the only one I’ve owned — and I’ve owned MANY — that I STILL use consistently. If I’m not in the mood for French press (my preferred method of brewing), then I turn to my Breville. A good option that’s a bit more affordable is the Cuisinart CPO-800P1 PurePrecision Coffee Maker.
Can you make iced coffee with a drip machine?
Sure you can! The easiest way is just to brew your coffee and then pour it over ice, but that leads to a lot of dilution, which will make your coffee taste weak and watery. I recommend increasing the ratio of coffee to water you use to produce stronger coffee, which can then get diluted to “normal” by the melting ice. If you use a 1:15 ratio of coffee grounds to water by weight like I do, try 1:12 for brewing iced coffee with your drip maker.