Stuff We Buy Ourselves: The Coffee Makers That Help Our Editors Wake Up Every Morning

I own an excessive amount of coffee-making gear — including aFrench press, acold-brew coffee bottle, and anall-in-one pour-over coffee brewer— but my go-to coffee maker is the pour-over setup from Blue Bottle. I like the Blue Bottle–designed coffee dripper because it’s ceramic with a flat bottom. That means the hot water drains through the grounds more evenly than through a traditional cone-shaped dripper, and this design makes it easy to ensure a smoother, less bitter, and over-extracted brew, even if your pouring is shaky. The dripper fits nicely over this handsomeglass coffee carafe, but if I’m in a rush, I’ll brew straight into a travel mug. The one annoyance about this setup is that I can only getreplacement filtersfrom Blue Bottle because they’re custom-designed for the brewer, but the inconvenience is worth it for a reliably good cup of coffee from a solid brewing setup. I like it so much that when I cracked it accidentally in the kitchen sink a while back, I bought a new one.

When I’m not drinking bad work coffee (I know), I like to make a pour-over at my desk with this guy. The dripping sounds are a little extra, but it’s perfect for making a cup or two for one person, and the double-walled glass just looks nice.

Sometimes people try to fight me on whether or not French presses are more efficient than pour-overs, but I’m solidly in the pour-over camp: They are super easy to clean, store, and carry for a single cup of coffee and yada yada about the enhanced flavor. I don’t get too fancy with my pour-overs, though I know some people do — there aren’t any thermometers or design-y kettles involved — but I do insist on making coffee out of a certain beautiful, colored glass pour-over from Yield becausejust look at it. It’s made of double-walled borosilicate glass and looks like a little art objet when it’s not in use.

This works great with limited kitchen counter space, as I can put it away after I’m done with it. Sometimes I wish it were a little bigger so that I could make more than two cups at time, but I still reach for this over my French press, which just doesn’t cut it when it comes to making a smooth cup of coffee. I stockpilethese filtersbecause there’s nothing worse than waking up in the morning and realizing that you’ve run out.

For a long time I used and loved a very basic Mr. Coffee drip pot that made it so easy to drink mug after mug of black coffee, back to back, diner-style. My more refined French press came in the form of a romantic gesture: Years ago, upon learning that I’m basically nonverbal in the morning until I’ve had coffee, my boyfriend went to a shop near his house and bought a French press for his apartment. When we moved in together and merged our things, my sort of gross drip pot didn’t make the cut. It’s more civilized this way: Now I only drink two-ish cups in the morning, and the matte white ceramic looks nice on the kitchen counter.

I have lived with a Bodum French press for about four years now, and though it is really the easiest thing in the world to use, I always find a way to mess it up. I’ve shattered it’s glass body twice, and have made coffee rife with floating grounds in it countless times. Fortunately, I tend to live with people who are very capable of making totally fine-tasting coffee for me with the thing.

Maybe it’s because I come from a long line of tea drinkers, but there’s something about a whistling kettle I find very comforting.High-tech versionsare tempting, but I think it’s impressive that someone designed the whistling kettle based on some intuitive knowledge of steam vibrating against a narrow spout — and that it took scientists more than 100 years to explain thephysicsbehind it. The only thing I don’t like about my kettle is the metal handle, which gets way too hot to hold without an oven mitt. If I ever were to replace it, I’d get a kettle with a silicone handle and spout cap (like this one).

One occupational hazard of being a Strat writer is that I constantly want all the things I write about. I’m usually good at restraining myself, but I had to pick up this awesome two-in-one tea cup and tea pot with built-in strainer after learning about it while researching thebest gifts for tea lovers. It’s an easy way to make a single serving of loose-leaf tea.