The Best Premium Drip Coffee Makers for Cafe Quality Coffee At Home

Many people get coffee out because they prefer the taste and struggle to brew good coffee at home. With these premium drip coffee makers, though, you can brew amazing coffee right at home.

What makes these premium coffee makers worth it? Coffee extracted at a temperature that’s too low tastes bland and weak, while coffee extracted at a temperature too high tastes bitter and burnt. When looking for coffee makers, most buyers don’t realize that the cheap heater inside their $20 Mr. Coffee maker is what’s causing inconsistent-tasting coffee.

To enjoy really delicious coffee, the coffee has to be consistently brewed at a certain temperature range from start to finish—cheap coffee makers struggle to achieve and maintain proper brew temperature which results in uneven brewing. High quality components will prevent issues like this by keeping brew temperature consistent, properly soaking the coffee grounds, and otherwise providing a consistent start to finish experience. Good components and good design come at a premium price, of course, but we think you’ll be blown away by the quality of these machines and the coffee they produce.

If You Love Great Coffee: Technivorm Moccamaster ($309)

Looking for the ultimate in coffee maker engineering and precision delivery? The Technivorm Moccamaster is every bit the industrial design wonder it appears to be. This coffee maker can brew a full 40 ounce steaming-hot carafe quietly in just 6 minutes. Heating the water up to the perfect temperature before brewing ensures that the coffee it makes is rich and full of that caffeine boost you need.

Unlike the cheap coffee makers, the Technivorm Moccamaster has copper boiling components. This allows for faster heating and less corrosion, as compared to coffee makers that have aluminum components.

The hot plate warms the carafe at 2 different temperature settings (between 175 and 185 degrees Fahrenheit) that keep the integrity of the taste so that your brew won’t burn or get cold. The plate also shuts off after 100 minutes, so you’ll be fine if you leave for work and forget to turn if off—no risk of returning to coffee distilled down to burnt sludge. Finally,  the Technivorm Moccamaster comes in more than 20 colors to choose from, so you can match it with the rest of your kitchen—that might not be critical to the brew process but if you’re paying this kind of premium it’s nice to have options.

For Coffee All Day Long: Bonativa ($120) 

Are you the type of person to drink multiple cups of coffee throughout the day? If that answer is yes, then consider checking out the Bonativa coffee maker. 

If you like simple, then the Bonativa is for you. It has one-touch brewing, and will even automatically turn off when it’s finished making coffee. There’s even a pre-infusion mode that wets the coffee before brewing. This process (known as degassing) aids in the releasing of carbon dioxide, which gives your coffee a fresher taste.

This coffee maker brews delicious coffee right into a durable, stainless steel-lined thermal carafe. The carafe itself is cool to the touch, so you can place it on any surface without worrying about damaging it. Keep your coffee warm for hours on end, and use the convenient handle to carry it to the breakfast table, around the office, or wherever there’s a cup in need of sweet, sweet coffee.

Smartest Drip Coffee Maker: OXO ($200)

Unlike our last two picks, the OXO coffee maker has an intelligent microprocessor that controls brew cycles to mimic the popular barista pour-over method (basically just pouring hot water over your coffee grounds in a spiral motion by hand in order to fully extract the flavor). And that’s not the only reason it’s smart! The OXO can also keep track of how many pots you’ve brewed, and will remind you to descale the pot in order to create optimum flavor and to protect the heating element from damage.

So the OXO is smart, but what about the coffee? With the rainmaker shower head and the optimal brew temperature, the flavor is definitely rich. Whenever you want a cup or nine, just use the one simple dial that lets you choose a time between the next 24 hours to start brewing, and how much you want brewed. Next time you want to hit snooze, just think about the hot, flavorful coffee waiting for you that started brewing just before you woke up, courtesy of OXO.

Fastest Traditional Drip Coffee Maker: Bunn NHS ($80)

If you need coffee, and you need it fast, check out the Bunn NHS coffee maker; it only needs 3 minutes to brew a full carafe of 10 cups. And with its unique design, where water stored in a preheated internal chamber so it is always hot and ready to go, you can get your coffee in a jiffy and even make tea! There’s also a vacation switch so when you’re gone, you can turn the heat off while you’re not using it.

With multi-stream brewing, the Bunn NHS showers water evenly over the grounds; in conjunction with its large, flat bottom filter, this coffee maker creates an even layer of coffee grounds to be submerged for uniform extraction. It’s only a little expensive than your average coffee maker that breaks every few months. With a quality, durable design and a speedy brew time, you can’t go wrong with a Bunn NHS.