How to Brew Awesome Hot Coffee Using a Drip Machine

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Aharon Coffee is a Los Angeles-based roaster and purveyor supplying beans to premiere businesses throughout the region. A favorite of the Sunset Staff, Aharon Coffee will bring you inside the world of high-quality coffee in this series. For more information, visit the Aharon Coffee website.

As you may know, our family owned and operated café/roastery, Aharon Coffee & Roasting Co. of Beverly Hills, CA, was built upon one simple guiding principle: The Joy of Coffee.

This concept was the brainchild of our founder/master roaster/guru/culinary intuitive/Q Grader Aharon Vaknin, along with his wife—me! (I may not get all the fancy titles, but I do get to drink all the delicious coffee, so our partnership is definitely a win-win. Plus, I love people even more than I love coffee, so it is truly my great pleasure to serve, ship, and otherwise share our joy-infused coffee with others like you)

Anyone who drops by our store or buys our beans knows that we are roasting some of the world’s best coffee. But what happens when you are stuck at home or in the office and need to brew that coffee yourself?

It’s not hard at all to brew amazing coffee with a drip machine. (Or, do what we do at home, and have your teenager brew it for you!)

1. Start with the Best Coffee

We recommend Aharon Coffee, naturally. 

Find the coffee that you will love. Look at the flavor profiles, and/or email us if you want help choosing the beans that you will love the most.

2. Use a Drip Coffee Brewer (Duh)

We sell this OXO 9-cup thermal in our store and we also have it in our house. It’s affordable and we love it.

This Moccamaster is also a fantastic drip brewer if you have the budget for it. 

And guess what? That old Mr. Coffee from 10 years ago that you dusted off to use during quarantine? It’s just fine. You are in business.

3. Grind Coffee for “Drip”

Have a look at this blog to see why the grinder used to grind your coffee is so important. If you want your beans to last longer, invest in a grinder.

We love this Encore by Baratza. Or if you will consume the beans within a week or two, ask us to grind your coffee for you.

4. Put a Paper Filter Inside the Cone

Buy a No. 4-size white filter pack online or at any grocery store. We use these filters for our OXO brewer and they are great!

Generally, we stay away from metal reusable filters for best-tasting drip coffee, since they will not filter the naturally occurring oils in the coffee as successfully as a paper filter.

5. Measure or Weigh Coffee Grinds and Put Them into the Filter

Please refer to our chart below. And regarding “cups” of coffee—this does NOT refer to an actual measuring cup! This is super confusing, right? But it actually refers to the “cup lines” delineated on your machine.

Courtesy of Aharon Coffee

Feel free to use the chart that comes with your drip machine, or Google the recommendations of the company online if you’ve lost the chart. Just be aware that some models—especially the older ones—will not recommend using as much ground coffee as we like and therefore the resulting cup may taste a bit weak.

6. Pour the Appropriate Amount of Filtered, Room-Temperature Water into Basin

Check out this blog to understand the part water plays in making your coffee taste fantastic. (Hint: It plays a big part.) Please do not use sink water; your coffee will not taste amazing.

Use the chart to know how much water to use. Please don’t get confused and measure actual cups.

7. Push the Button

Don’t overthink this. Get excited: It’s time to brew!

8. Enjoy

Like this really needed to be a step!

Final pro coffee brewing tip: If you have the kind of brewer that has a heating plate underneath the carafe, it’s best not to use it. Instead, after the coffee is brewed, move it immediately to a large thermos that will keep the coffee nice and hot, not burned on the bottom (which will change the flavor dramatically, and not in a good way).

Our Coffee Machine Picks!