Choosing the Best Home Coffee Machine Consider your budget and how much coffee you drink. Do you want a fully automatic machine or are you prepared to put in a bit of effort to get just the taste you love? |  |
 | Automatic drip coffee machine These work by heating water and letting it drip through the coffee grounds held in a filter basket to a container, usually heated. These machines are probably the most popular and by adjusting the amount of water and coffee grounds put in can make between a single cup to 12 cups of coffee at a time. |  | Press or plunger coffee maker If you are after a strong, full tasting and rich cup of coffee and you are not in a hurry, then the press or plunge maker could be the machine of choice for you. It uses a more coarsely ground coffee than the drip machine as the hot water is in contact with the coffee grounds immediately. After a few moments, the plunger can be pressed down, filtering the coffee grounds to the bottom and leaving freshly brewed coffee on top. Press makers are available in single cup or multi-cup models. |
| Bean to cup coffee machine Rather than buying ready ground coffee, you may want to buy your own beans and use a bean to cup coffee machine. This eliminates the need to have a separate coffee grinder, simply fill the reservoir with beans of your choice and sit back and enjoy your perfect cup of coffee made in one easy step. |  | Cold brew machines If you want to avoid that slightly acid taste in your coffee that comes from a hot brew machine, then the cold brew variant is the answer. The grounds are steeped in cold water for at least 12 hours, and then filtered to produce a coffee concentrate to which you simply add hot water or milk. The drawback is obviously the time it takes to produce the concentrate. |  |
| The best brands of coffee machines available in South Africa include Morphy Richards, Saeco, Caffitaly and KitchenAid, while Bodum, Bialetti and Eva Solo have excellent plunger makers. All have models in a range of styles and prices, so why not sit back with a cup of coffee as you make your choice? | |||