Help me find the best coffee machine!

The Keurig B60 is one of the most popular coffee makers around, and that is all down to convenience. The Keurig uses what are known as k-cups, which are little cups that contain preground coffee, or tea/cocoa too, and they also contain a filter for the machine to use. So you pop open the top, put in a k-cup, close the top and press a button or two, and voila! one cup of great tasting java comes out.

The coffee is actually brewed in the little cup too, so that means you have no mess as all the coffee grinds are kept in there instead of floating round the machine, you just throw away the cup afterwards and all the mess goes with it. You can get reusable cups but then you need to bother with cleaning the filter in them and emptying them etc, that will allow you to use your own coffee though and save you money in the long run, but you lose the convenience.

So why did I choose the B60 and not the B40 or the B70? Well first off the B70 is pretty ugly and at $40 more than the B60 then you don't get that much more for you money, just one more cup size and some settings. Then the B40 has one less cup size option (the cup size allows you to change the strength of the coffee as well as how much you get) and no temperature options to change the taste of your brew, yet costs, wait for it%u2026. $2 less! Well at the time of writing it does anyway because Amazon are knocking 16% off the B60 model.

So when you put it like that then the Keurig B60 is the obvious choice if you want no-fuss great tasting coffee.

The Cuisinart DCC-1200 is more traditional than the Keurig and it is made for mass production of coffee rather than giving you just one cup at a time (although it can). You can use your own ground coffee with this, so you can either grind some fresh beans and pop them in, or just use some preground stuff, then you make sure it has water in it, choose how much coffee you want (it can make up to 12 cups), and away it goes.

The coffee comes out into the glass carafe which is then kept warm using the heat plate if you want it for later, or you can swipe the carafe as soon as it has some coffee ready and it will automatically pause the brewing process, then you pop it back under and it will carry on. Also you can set it to come on at a certain time so it will brew your coffee ready for when you go downstairs for breakfast.

This machine does have a permanent filter which means you need to do more cleaning than with the Keurig, but you do get a reduced cost per cup as you are not buying the little k-cups.

So why did I choose this one? Well you actually get a huge amount for you money, at the time of writing then it is 51% off at Amazon.com so for just $71 then you get all the functionality of a machine worth nearly $150. Plus it is another extremely popular machine with great reviews.

This machine is better for large families where you can all grab a cup from the carafe as you mill around the kitchen in the morning, or for people who are really addicted to coffee so you can have quick-fire cups in the morning without having to brew them one by one like with the Keurig.

Ah the final coffee machine, the Capresso 455. This machine is different to the others as it will actually grind your coffee beans for you ready for each brew. Why does that matter? Well as soon as you grind the coffee beans then they start to lose their taste, companies who grind the beans will use special valves and packaging techniques to try and keep the oxygen away from the beans and seal the flavour in, but true connoisseurs always grind their beans fresh for a cup.

So you pop the beans into the top and make sure it has water in it, then you select the strength you want (how many beans it uses) and the amount of cups of coffee you want it to make - 4,6,8 or 10, then it grinds the right amount of beans for you and starts to brew your coffee into the thermal carafe underneath. There is no warming plate with this machine, the thermal carafe is designed to keep the coffee warm for extended periods of time, and some people think that the warming plate tends to ruin the flavour of the coffee.

You also get the usual things like a timer function and the ability to pause the brewing process so you can sneak a cup of coffee without having to wait for it all to finish.

So this is for people who really want the best tasting cup of coffee they can get, you get fresh ground beans and no warming plate to keep cooking the coffee after it is made, but you pay for the privilege as this is the most expensive coffee machine so far, and that is even with 50% off at Amazon. The reviews are generally good, but some people don't seem to like the unit, but this is the same with all the coffee makers that have a grind function, some people love them, others hate them.