Eat, Sleep, Caffeine, Repeat.

 

Growing up, my first chore was learning how to make coffee. Those ‘no coffee before talkie’ mugs defined my mother, so she ensured that if we learned anything while under her roof it was how to make coffee. The coffee pot was always pre-set the night before, but in the rare event that it didn’t go off or she forgot to set it, she had trained my brothers and me to be her little baristas.

Life didn’t happen in our house without a cup of coffee in my mom’s hand. Her coffee was more like sugar and creamer with a side of coffee (now affectionately referred to as MiMi’s coffee), and surprisingly is the exact opposite of how I drink my own coffee today. As a kid, every adult I knew drank coffee, and admittedly I was a bit of a snobbish child, so I thought that coffee was for the weak and I would never need it. Isn’t it funny how good we are at life before it actually requires anything from us?

My college days were fueled by endorphins from working out constantly so I never indulged myself in coffee and continued to consider myself one of the supreme beings who didn’t need the caffeine help. I enrolled in graduate school while working full time as a middle school teacher and crashed headfirst into my need for caffeine to keep up with the early mornings, late nights, and the demanding mental requirements of daily life in between. Around that time, my husband and I started dating and he was an avid coffee drinker; as they say, you attract what you are, right? With that said, my husband is a no-frills kind of guy. He likes his burgers plain (re: dry), pizza without ranch, and his coffee black. I went against all my barista training and indulged in my first cup of coffee.

I jittered and drank my way through bags of the Costa Rica roast from Reve for the next two years. Ahh, what a magical time it was to actually drink coffee in a coffee shop. Newly engaged and on a caffeine high, we graduated with our MBAs and got married shortly after graduation. I drowned his coffee pot in the merging of our stuff; I don’t know what actually happened to his coffee pot, but I was the last one to touch it before it went kaput so naturally, I am blamed for breaking it. We have been hooked on a Mr. Coffee Pot since the merge and have it set for 4:45 am every morning; yes, we are those annoying morning people.

I have happily turned into my mother awaiting the day to train up my own little barista. Between my husband and I, one of us is either running or sleeping at 4:45 am, so we don’t usually hear the coffee pot go off in the morning. In a strange turn of events, we each heard the coffee pot go off this past week and it was crying out to be replaced! I took to Instagram to crowdsource the top coffee pot recommendations from my coffee-loving friends. Initially, I got more requests to share my results than I got recommendations for coffee pots(the birth of this blog post), so after pleading with the caffeinated to give the rest of us their secrets I now present to you the top 10 coffee pot recommendations. 

Top 10 most recommended coffee pots in order from most recommended to least: 

  1. Ninja Coffee Bar 
  2. Hamilton Beach Brew– other Hamilton favorites are the flex brew and the two-way brew
  3. Cuisinart– my kitchen is full of Cuisinart products so this was no surprise
  4. French Press
  5. Percolator 
  6. Krups 12 cup savory
  7. Bonavita 8 cup
  8. Mr. Coffee– similar to the one I already have  
  9. DeLonghi with espresso
  10. Cold Brew tank

*Caffeinate responsibly friends.