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In 2008 I made a big upgrade in my at-home coffee game. I had been using a pretty cool machine that would automatically brew a pot of coffee, which was an awesome smell to wake up to when I was still doing early morning runs. It stored the coffee internally, which prevented the inevitable burnt-coffee fall out of a traditional pot, and would dispense coffee one cup at a time. It might be hard to visualize, so just take my word for it. It was good.
But it wasn’t great.
I hated cleaning it and I hated setting it up every night before bed. Crawling into bed and then realizing that you forgot to grind your beans and fill up the water reservoir is a huge bummer. As is running out of filters.
My big upgrade came in the form of a Jura Capresso. Nine years later, the same machine is still going strong.
These machines are expensive, but their longevity makes them completely worth it. I load whole beans on one side of the machine, water on the other side and the machine makes one cup at a time.
I do realize that much cheaper pod machines are just as convenient, but pod coffee totally bums me out. With the Jura Capresso I get to use fresh curated beans from my Mistobox subscription ($10 discount with that link).
There are also machines out there that you can build straight into the wall and attach to your water supply, and some of my fancier friends have those. Maybe someday when I am in a position to own a kitchen and upgrade it, I will take my coffee machine up another level.
If you are not in a position to build a machine right into your kitchen wall, and want to bring your price down as much as possible, I highly recommend taking a look at refurbished Jura Capresso machine. 1st in Coffee is a great company with great customer service and I would never hesitate to buy a refurbished machine from them. I buy all of my filters and cleaning tablets from them, and sometimes throw in beans as well.