Our favorite brewing methods

After realizing we went to Starbucks and Dunkin way too much on the day-to-day routine, we wanted to find a way to make delicious coffee at home. There are several different methods of brewing that are fantastic for regular coffee, and after I share about those we’ll see the big guns that we bought to get a great latte.

Pour over

I’m really partial to this method because instead of a traditional unity presentation at our wedding, Joe and I did a coffee pour-over as our first cup as a married couple. I love making pour-over especially because it is so simple and it’s really hard to mess it up. It’s one of the quickest ways to make a decent amount of coffee at once without using an actual coffee maker.

French press

This was my obsession in college. Every Monday night, my friend Thayne and I would go to the campus coffee shop, bring our own coffee grounds, and make our own French press coffee. Looking back, it was probably a little messed up that we were making our own coffee in a coffee place, but who cares I guess?

Cold brew

Every once and a while, I enjoy a good cold brew. I have 2 cold brew containers that I rotate through mainly because I like to have different flavor options! This is definitely the easiest but also takes like 24 hours for it to taste good.

These are my preferred methods of brewing coffee. We do own a Keurig and a Nespresso. One is in a cabinet after being used for a couple years and the other sits in my classroom at school for during-the-day use.

Now the moment you’ve been waiting for… The ultimate recommendation…

The TK-01!

We have owned this Terra Kaffe machine for almost a year and love every second of it. It is a large upfront cost, but it will pay off itself by you not going out as much during the day.

It has preset buttons for Americanos, lattes, cappuccinos, hot water, and a setting for pre-ground beans. It is the simplest thing to use and fairly easy to clean and upkeep. The machine is well-made and very user-friendly.

After getting it from a Black Friday sale we instantly started brewing with it. It needs to be cleaned out around once a week to get the grounds out of the machine where it stores them and it needs descaled once every 3 months.

I started buying all of my coffee whole bean now because this machine has a massive bean hopper on top that you can almost fit a half pound of coffee in (I buy by the half pound from Java Momma). The water tank holds a good amount of water and needs refilled probably as often as a Nespresso machine. The startup of the machine takes about 30 seconds to a minute for the machine to warm up and on top of the machine are mug warmers (I personally haven’t used this feature but if you’re not in a rush this would be a smart idea) to preheat your mug. After startup, you push which kind of espresso drink to make, and if you select a drink that contains milk, there is a milk container that comes with the machine that hooks up to froth and adds the milk to the beverage. This espresso maker is easily the best thing we’ve purchased for our house ;)

Gear we use most often: espresso cups, latte glasses with straws, and a pour-over carafe.