There is no need to settle for inferior coffee, whether you are at home or away. It takes a little extra care, but you have to do more than just expect the water to drip through the ground coffee. If you take just a few extra steps, you will make the best tasting and freshest coffee you have ever had.

The first step is to have fresh, cold water in the coffee machine. Do not use warm water or water that has been boiled. Truly fussy coffee drinkers will even use filtered or bottled water, to assure even more purity. If you have hard water or old pipes, or chlorinated water in your home, you may want to consider that as well.

It is important to have the right temperature for the water as it comes out when you are brewing your coffee. Ideally, it should be between 195 and 205 degrees. If the water is hotter than that, the coffee may become too bitter, and if it is too cold, the water will not be able to absorb all of the flavor from the ground coffee, and after the first ounces, the coffee will be weak and distilled tasting.

If you are one of the few people today who still press brew their coffee, make sure you let the water sit for a moment or two in order to reach this optimal temperature.

It is always a good idea to use a hot coffee carafe in your coffee machine. You can do this simply by putting hot water into it and let it stand a while before you put the carafe back in the coffee machine.

Picking the proper coffee grind for your coffee will be one of the most important steps toward a perfect cup of brew.

Even though it may say it on the label, there is really no such thing as an all purpose brew. If you are using a press pot, you will need a completely different kind of brew than you will if you are using an electric coffee maker. For optimum results from a press pot, buy coffee beans and grind them just before brewing. You can obtain an inexpensive grinder that will work just fine to get the medium to coarse grind (grinding for 10 seconds) that works better with this type of coffee brewing. If you are grinding for an electric coffee pot, you will have to grind a little longer to get a finer grind (15 to 20 seconds) that works better in an electric pot.