The taste of French Pressed coffee is great, but I like my coffee HOT when I drink it, and it takes me longer than 5 minutes to get through a cup of coffee. I dump even remotely luke warm coffee and refill. The Press is usually made out of thin glass and doesn't retain heat very well... good for a casual brunch with friends, but inefficient for me in the studio.
Now if someone made a thermal French Press that was bigger than the personal sized ones they (at least used to) sell at Starbucks, that could keep the coffee REALLY hot for a long time, I might change my tune.
For a drip machine, my vote is, hands down, for the Bunn home machines. The simple two switch kind, like this:
http://www.cookware.com/Bunn-38300%2E0018-BUN1005.html
This is what I got after a lot of research. I was going to write all the reasons out here, but it was coming out kind of preachy, so I'll just say it kicks all kinds of drip coffee ass. I promise, it's the exact same machine, only smaller, that they use in 98% of fine coffee houses in the US. Your favorite little cafe down the street uses it, including Larry's own favorite, Stumptown.
Other useless (or maybe useful) trivia, myth-busting and off-topic opinions i picked up in my 10 years serving coffee on and off to a small corner of Brooklyn:
-Darker coffee is NOT stronger coffee (in terms of caffeine). Darker beans have been roasted longer, and during this process, more of the oils and caffeine are "cooked-out", leaving us with a maybe stronger
tasting coffee, but one with actually
less caffeine. You make not like hearing this, tough guys, but it's true: If you really need an extra jolt, you probably should be asking for the "light" roast. On the same note, adding a shot of espresso to your coffee is not doing as much for your caffeine intake as you may think. Though, the act of ordering a "red-eye" seems to put a certain confident swagger in some people's steps.
-Also, "Tall", "Venti", and "Grande" are not actually sizes. They are brand product names used by Starbucks, and they really don't have any use outside of that particular establishment, especially when used
wrong. I don't know how many times someone came up to the counter and asked for a "Tall" coffee, when I asked them if they meant a "small" coffee (which is what it means in Starbuckspeak), they would look confused and annoyed, and respond, shortly, "No. Large.". Hmmmm....
-I bash Starbucks alot. I don't really like their burnt drip coffee, and I find some of their managerial practices distasteful, but I will agree with a previous poster and say that when you're on the road in the middle of Indiana, and you're tired, and you don't know what's good in the local town, and you don't really have the time to wander off the interstate and find out, and you see that F**KING Starbucks sign coming at you at 80mph, it's like a
GODSEND! I hate to admit it, but it's true.
-I will also agree will all those who say that a conical BURR GRINDER is the way to go if you have the option of grinding your own beans. It grinds all the beans more consistently, meaning you won't have little grinds and bigger chunks in the same batch (which can and does happen in small electric hand grinders, and can add to both under- and over-brewed coffee in the same pot, which, unfortunately, doesn't cancel each other out ). It also means that once you have the grind level set to where you want it, each time you make coffee it will be just the same.
-When measuring "scoops". If you've lost your "scooper", measure with Tablespoons. You probably don't even need an actual Tablespoon measure. Most likely, the big spoon in your silverware drawer is a Tablespoon (as well as the small one being a teaspoon). The coffee standard is 1 Tablespoon for each cup of water, though most people use a "heaping" Tablespoon (which probably ends up being about 2 Tablespoons), so even if your silverware isn't perfectly accurate, as long as you "heap", you should be in the ballpark.
That's it, for now. Happy brewing, everyone!