Published on 3 May 2020 Updated on 15 May 2020

Of those who make and drink coffee in the comfort of their own home, there are three major subsets:

Those who just need their caffeine fix and are not all that picky about it. Those who don't mind the combination of time, energy, and money required to make a quality cuppa. Those who want a happy medium of cost and benefit, wanting but not requiring a nice taste and the benefits of caffeine.

For the first group, a standard drip coffee maker has probably been the default, and now is being superseded by various single cup, more-waste-is-okay-because-it-is-convenient “pod-based” coffee makers.

The second group are those who have the counter-space to dedicate to an espresso machine, the money to buy a fancy one-touch automatic espresso maker, or enjoy the tedium of manually pouring their pour-over.

I used to think that the third group, which I fall in to, was adequately serviced by the French press, but now I think otherwise.

As someone in that third category, I don't drink coffee that often. I don't “need” coffee — or, more specifically, caffeine — to wake me up in the morning, and when I had a commute longer than 20 steps, I didn't stop at Timmies for a cup of their slootwater* every morning. Because of this, I don't feel that it's worth taking up valuable counter space with a plug-in coffee maker. This also means that, when I do have a cup of coffee, it's nice to drink something a little fancier.

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