If you're a true coffee lover, one of the first things you think about is probably that first cup of coffee. Coffee is a natural pick-me-up and considered essential all around the world. While it's easy to run to your local coffee shop to get your morning fix, this gets expensive. With a quality home coffee maker, you can easily bring your neighborhood caf?? to your kitchen and save hundreds of dollars a year in the process.

All About Home Coffee Makers

If you're a true coffee lover, one of the first things you think about is probably that first cup of coffee. Coffee is a natural pick-me-up and considered essential all around the world. While it's easy to run to your local coffee shop to get your morning fix, this gets expensive. With a quality home coffee maker, you can easily bring your neighborhood caf?? to your kitchen and save hundreds of dollars a year in the process.

So what makes a great coffee maker? With so many brands and types available on the market, making the right purchasing decision may seem overwhelming. If you're in the market for a home coffee machine, consider some of these popular types:

Drip Coffee Makers

This type of machine is probably the most popular type of home coffee maker available. In a drip coffee machine, coffee drips right into a carafe made from either stainless steel or glass. The taste of the coffee will be dependent on the quality of the coffee maker. To ensure flavorful coffee, it's best to choose a drip coffee brewer that uses a charcoal water filter and a conical-shaped coffee filter. This is because the water filter will get rid of minerals and impurities and the coffee filter will extract a lot of coffee flavor. It's also important to note that if you're looking for convenience, this type of home coffee maker is one of the easiest to use. 

Pod Coffee Makers

This type of home coffee maker is a recent popular development. Pod coffee machines allow you to make single cups of coffee using pre-prepared sachets of ground coffee. Pod coffee machines are another type of  user friendly home coffee maker - simply insert a pod, add water and you're done. This type of home coffee maker also offers consistent results with every single cup.

French Press Coffee Makers

A French Press is definitely the coffee lover's home coffee maker. With a French press, coffee is pressed to extract the essential oils. French presses are fairly low tech home coffee makers.  Most models consist of a glass carafe that resembles a beaker, a skinny metal plunger with a plastic ball at its top and a wired mesh disk filter at its bottom that slides through a small hole in the middle of the dome. No paper filters are used here. With a French press coffee maker, you get the full essence of coffee in every cup.

Espresso Machines

For the ultimate in home coffee makers, nothing beats an espresso machine.  Although espresso machines have been in existence since the early 20th century, they're just now becoming ubiquitous in every caf?? and restaurant. Espresso machines make coffee by forcing pressurized hot water through finely ground coffee beans. With some of the more modern models, the coffee beans are held within a pod.

What you get from an espresso machine ends up being more than just coffee. You get a more concentrated coffee beverage that's also the basis for popular coffeehouse drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos.

Ultimately, all home coffee makers will be able to make a basic cup of Joe, but hopefully after knowing about some common machine types, you'll find one that will best fit your needs!