Your morning coffee should reflect your personal taste -- whether that's a bold, intense dark roast, or something delicate and nuanced. The "right" cup is whatever satisfies you. Coffee brewing involves real chemistry, and certain techniques genuinely coax out more balanced, layered flavors than others.
If you're looking to move beyond basic drip and elevate your daily cup, here are the expert-backed brewing techniques worth learning, along with practical guidance for executing them properly at home.
Watch this: Physical AI vs. Generative AI: Waymo Battles ChatGPT 09:53
But don't take my word for it. I asked 10 coffee experts, including roasters, cafe owners, educators, barista champions and one former president of the Specialty Coffee Association. I asked them to rank the seven most popular methods for brewing black coffee.
The contenders (listed alphabetically): AeroPress, automatic drip machine, espresso, French press, K-Cup, moka pot and pour-over.
Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
One method to rule them all: pour-over
The pour-over method received near-unanimous top ranks from the coffee experts I grilled. skaman306/Getty Images
While it wasn't completely unanimous, pour-over was the clear winner for the overall average ranking. The good news is, pour-over is among the least expensive coffee brewing methods available, requiring little more than a handheld kettle or other device for pouring coffee and a funnel dripper outfitted with a conical filter that sits on top of the cup or carafe to catch the coffee. (You can certainly spend more money for a serious pour-over kit.) On the other hand, well-executed pour-over coffee can be fussy and isn't a set-it-and-forget-it kind of method.
Naturally, pour-over is the kind of thing that true coffee aficionados will happily subscribe to, requiring precise timing and temperature, not to mention the patience required to oversee the brew in progress. This can be complicated, however, for those who need to be caffeinated first in order to care about such details.
... continue reading