How to Make Coffee: 6 Ways

The coffee that we make every single day is pour over coffee, made in a Chemex. The Chemex has a beautiful, curvy beaker shape and makes for what we think is the perfect cup. Making the perfect pot of pour over takes about 10 minutes and results in 2 to 3 cups of coffee. (We typically make 2 pots per day...sometimes three!) We've found the best coffee for the pour over method is medium roast or light roast.

An electric gooseneck kettle is helpful for heating the water to a specific temperature and pouring it in a circular motion into the grounds. There's of course the Chemex and its special filters. You'll also need a kitchen scale to weigh out your coffee. Once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature!

Want it iced instead? Try our Chemex Iced Coffee.

The French press is one of the easiest, most inexpensive ways to brew a great cup of coffee. It’s a forgiving method that works for all sorts of coffee beans and roasts, and you don’t need lots of extra equipment. It’s the ideal tool for your morning coffee ritual!

You can also use a French press to make French Press Cold Brew, French Press Iced Coffee, or French Press Espresso.

So, we’ve covered hot: but how about cold coffee? We’re big fans of cold brew coffee over here, and the great thing about cold brew is that it barely requires any special equipment at all! All you need is time: 24 hours in fact. We’ve found the best type of coffee to use for cold brew is dark roast coffee.

To make cold brew coffee, you grind a boatload of coffee and place it in a pitcher with cold water overnight. Letting the coffee stand in the refrigerator “brews” it by letting it seep into the water. We love keeping a pitcher of cold brew around for afternoon coffee with no brewing required! It’s also our base for making iced coffee.

There’s nothing better than a bitter, rich espresso shot with a layer of foamy crema. Even better, once you’ve mastered espresso you can make a whole host of espresso drinks just like your favorite coffeeshop: the latte, cappuccino, flat white, macchiato, and more.

What's espresso? Espresso is an Italian way of making coffee in highly concentrated shots. A single espresso shot is 1 ounce, and a double shot is 2 ounces.

Love a great cup of strong coffee? Here’s how to make a smooth, bold brew: the Moka Pot (aka Bialetti)! This stovetop espresso maker makes a dark, intense cup that’s somewhere between espresso and very strong coffee. It’s very easy to use, either for your everyday coffee or to make “espresso” for homemade coffee drinks like lattes, cappuccinos, and more.

The Moka Pot is a stovetop coffee maker used to make espresso-like coffee. It uses boiling water to force steam through the coffee grounds, so the coffee bubbles up into the pot versus percolating down like in brewed coffee.

What’s this space age-y looking plastic cylinder? It’s the Aeropress! It may look a little funky, but the Aeropress makes one very good cup of coffee. Our preferred method is the Chemex (above), but the Aeropress has its place. It makes a single cup at a time, and it’s quick! It’s also great for travel: we recently took it on a trip to Arizona and it worked fabulously.

The Aeropress has its own filters as well, and the method is not as exacting as the Chemex. Overall, it’s cheaper and quicker! You can use any roast of coffee with the Aeropress.