You're Brewing It Wrong: 10 Experts Rank the Best (and Worst) Ways to Make Coffee

Coffee is personal, and rarely do two people make or take it the same way. You might crave the punch of a dark roast or lean toward something subtle and complex. Some take it iced, espresso-style with a drop of foam or lukewarm with skim milk (please, no).

Ultimately, the best cup of coffee is the one you enjoy, but making coffee is a matter of chemistry, and some brewing methods objectively extract more nuanced, well-rounded flavors than others.

Nearly every coffee pro I consulted was aligned. Getty Images

So, then, what is the best device or method for brewing? According to the cadre of coffee pros I spoke with, there is a definitive answer. In all, I asked 10 coffee experts, including roasters, cafe owners, educators, barista champions and one former president of the Specialty Coffee Association to rank seven popular methods for brewing coffee.

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The contenders (listed alphabetically): AeroPress, automatic drip machine, espresso, French press, K-Cup, moka pot and pour-over.

The best way to brew coffee, according to experts

Pour over earned the top spot by a healthy margin. Hario

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 pouring device 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, however, be complicated for those who need to be caffeinated first to care about such details.

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