Moving from high school to college can be a huge change; for most people, it’s their first taste of true freedom outside from under the thumb of their parents or guardians, and there’s a lot to learn in order to prepare for school. If you’re already a coffee drinker, you know how helpful a cup of coffee could be in the morning. It’s one of the best ways to jump out of bed and prepare for the day, and for a lot of people, they’re nothing until they’ve had their first or second cup of the day. If you have difficulty waking up in the morning, the smell of a fresh pot of roasted coffee can grab you and pull you out of bed.
If you’re new to coffee, or you’ve never drank a cup, it might take a bit for you to get used to the taste and flavor of a cup. Maybe you’ve tried coffee and thought to yourself, “I’ll never drink this.” Listen—while we aren’t one to tell our readers that they’re wrong, our personal experience indicates that you might just be. College is where plenty of us learned to drink coffee, to survive early mornings, long nights, and insufferable study crams. We’d complain about the term papers too, but as you can tell through perusing the site, we rather enjoy our fair share of writing.
Sure, you can pay $2 or $3 for a cup of coffee while you’re on the go all over campus, but your budget for caffeinated drinks will add up quickly. Instead, we’d suggest investing in a great coffee maker to last through your two or four years of college and even longer. And while you can head over to Walmart and pick up an ultra-cheap machine, spending a bit more on a machine will strike an outstanding balance between price, features, and taste.
In looking for the best coffee machines, we looked for five separate things. Our machines had to:
- Brew good coffee.
- Be simple to use.
- Be easy to clean and maintain.
- Be able to use all kinds of coffee.
- Be reliable enough to always be there when you need it.
With these factors in mind, let’s look at some of the best coffee makers you can pick up for your first—or returning—year of college.