As much as I love an espresso, sometimes you just can't beat a good drip coffee. When you're brewing for one, a super simple V60 dripper perched on top of your mug will do the job nicely, but if you want to make coffee for several people (or multiple cups to get you through the whole morning), it's time to look at drip coffee machines.
I'm lucky enough to test many of the best drip coffee makers here at TechRadar, but I've narrowed the list down to the top three I would recommend to friends and family, or buy for my own kitchen. There's something here for everyone, whether you want a drip machine that can tailor its brew settings to suit your beans, one that's totally manual with no screens or dials, or something in between.
Some of the best coffee makers for drip coffee can even make authentic cold brew (or a good approximation thereof). Read on for my top three choices.
1. Sage/Breville Luxe Brewer Thermal
If I were buying a drip coffee maker for my own kitchen right now, the Luxe Brewer Thermal would be my number one choice. It's sold under the brand name Sage in the UK and Breville in the rest of the world, for slightly complicated reasons, but the machine itself is the same – and it's excellent.
Brewing a batch of drip coffee is, fundamentally, a very straightforward process (just pour hot water onto ground coffee and let it drip into a carafe), and the Luxe Brewer Thermal keeps things simple while giving you a handful of genuinely useful options to customize. During my tests, the default settings worked well, but if you don't get quite the right flavor from your beans, you can tweak the bloom time (how long the coffee is allowed to pre-infuse with hot water), bloom temperature, brew time, and brew temperature to fine-tune the extraction.
The machine can also prepare a batch of cold-brewed coffee. Just load up with ground coffee (the Luxe Brewer Thermal comes with a handy guide to help you measure out the optimal amount), add water to the line on the tank, remove the carafe lid so it doesn't begin to drip, and press the button to start. Your coffee will be steeped cold for 24 hours, and the machine will beep to alert you when it's ready.
Other smart features include a delayed start timer (great for mornings), a removable water tank for easy filling (no more pouring pitchers of water into the machine on your counter), and the best insulated carafe I've ever seen on a drip coffee maker. Not only does it look smart, it keeps coffee piping hot for even longer than the company claims. After four hours, a half-filled carafe was still above the optimal drinking temperature, and a full batch stays hot even longer.
Read our full Sage Luxe Brewer Thermal review
Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker
If you want to get more technical with your brewing, the futuristic-looking Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker is the drip machine for you. In fact, this is the machine the trainer used during my last SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) course.
The Aiden offers a choice of brewing modes, so you can pick the appropriate one depending on how much time you have to spare. Auto Brew mode works like any basic drip coffee maker, simply heating water and pumping it over your ground coffee. The pump will run until the water tank is empty.
Guided Brewing mode is where things get interesting, letting you choose how much you want to brew, then suggesting optimum dosage, bloom time, and temperature based on the type of beans you've chosen. The machine will also tell you whether to use the cone or flat-bottomed brew basket, and can detect which one you've inserted.
The Aiden has a cold-brew mode too, which uses hot water to bloom the coffee, then switches to cold for the rest of the process. It's a clever trick, and means your drink takes just 1.5-2 hours to prepare compared to 24 for traditional cold brewing. The flavor profile is impressively similar, so hats off to Fellow.
Like the Luxe Brewer Thermal above, the Aiden has a removable water tank that's easy to fill at the tap. The Aiden's tank has a larger, more ergonomically designed handle, which makes it easier to carry when full, which is a point in its favor.
However, the Aiden loses points for its carafe, which lets heat escape too easily. Fellow claims it will keep your batch of freshly brewed coffee hot for hours, but during my tests, it cooled noticeably within 45 minutes. It was nowhere near as effective as the Luxe Brewer Thermal.
In short, the Aiden brews exquisite drip coffee, but you'll need to be ready to enjoy it straight away.
Read our full Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker review
Moccamaster KBGV Select
The Luxe Brewer Thermal is designed to fit in with your other modern kitchen appliances, and the Fellow Aiden is a futuristic black cube. If you want a more traditional-looking drip coffee maker, the Moccamaster KBGV Select will be more up your street. Its powder-coated body comes in a range of fun colors, and there's not a digital display in sight.
Indeed, it's hard to find a drip coffee machine that's easier to use. The Moccamaster has just two buttons: one to start or stop brewing, and another to choose whether to brew a half or full carafe. That's all.
Unlike the other two drip machines here, the Moccamaster has a glass pitcher rather than an insulated carafe, and gets around the problem of heat retention by using an old-school hotplate. This won't be to everyone's liking. Constantly heating brewed coffee can affect the flavor, and the plate only stays hot for 100 minutes (or 40 minutes for the UK and Australian versions of the machine).
The glass carafe does look the part, though, and has the obvious advantage that you can easily see how much delicious coffee is waiting to be consumed.
Read our full Moccamaster KBGV Select review
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