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[Small Decaf]

I want to purchase a new coffee maker. I was told by my friends who do know coffee, that even if you use the best quality beans, your coffee will still be bad if you don't have the right, quality coffee maker.

I'm looking for the best coffee maker I could buy. What machine would you recommend? I would like to experience the best coffee at home, no matter what the cost. Please help. Let me know what to buy.

[DrCoffee]

In general I have good news for you SmallDecaf (cute!). Depending on what kind of coffee you drink (regular drip, espresso, latte, etc) you may find that your coffee making equipment doesn't have to be expensive at all. What really counts is the quality of coffee beans and the way you are preparing your it. For example: let's say you are a drip coffee drinker. You may own the most expensive drip coffee maker in the world but if your coffee is old, or not ground fine enough, or you're not using enough of it - then the final product is going to reflect it.

Let's start from the beginning. There are quite a few methods of brewing a good cup of coffee but the most popular (drip) isn't in my opinion the best one. If you don't want to invest in expensive equipment you may start from a French press, also called a coffee press.

The next on your list should be a stovetop espresso maker. The type of stovetop I recommend is the Velox electric espresso maker which works just like a typical stove top unit except it doesn't require the actual stovetop because it is electric. It is called espresso maker but it actually makes what Italians call “black coffee” – a highly concentrated, tasty and rich brew which you drink in espresso cups but since it has no crema- it is not exactly espresso. You may drink it straight (black) or add milk (or whipping cream as I do prefer) for a delightful drinking experience.
Another inexpensive coffee brewing method is Turkish coffee. You would need to purchase an ibrik (special copper vessels which are used for its preparation).

The Turkish coffee when prepared right can stand up to to the best of them!

[BeanBaby]

I'm looking for the best coffee maker I could buy. What machine would you recommend? I would like to experience the best coffee at home, no matter what the cost. Please help. Let me know what to buy.

The machine for drip coffee I recommend is Capresso CoffeeTEAM Therm. I have used it for the past 2 years and as far as drip machines go this one is the best. Unfortunately I got into espresso making lately and discovered that espresso making is an art which requires plenty of knowledge. I'm determined to learn, hopefully this forum helps!

[Small Decaf]

Is there a particular place I could read reliable customer reviews. I found that some merchants just list machine's specs instead of real customer reviews...

[DrCoffee]

Yes, there is such a place. It is our customer reviews section. You may access reviews for a particular item from the item's detailed description page or get to the page which list all the reviews on all products
http://www.all4coffee.com/reviews.html

We don't have too many reviews but the ones we do have are left by real customers who purchased and use the particular machine. I hope you will find it useful.