Thirteen Minutes to Better Coffee!

Coffee does not have to taste like licking the inside of an ashtray. Let me help!

"You want coffee?" Matt asked. "Oh, wait, you don't like the way I make coffee."

No, I told him, it's not that I don't like the way he makes coffee; I don't like the coffee he makes, which turned out to be Charbucks Pike Place, which the company claims is a medium-roast but which still tastes like licking an ashtray.

It does not have to be this way! Coffee is an amazement, truly, and did you know it's the world's third-largest commodity? That is how much we love coffee, and since we no longer live in our parents' world of Folger's crystals being passed off as "gourmet," I thought I would give you a quick video primer. I promise that if you take even one-third of my suggestions (I am the wife of a coffee roaster), in terms of grinder, brewer, and beans, you will be drinking better coffee by tomorrow.

And about those beans! In the video I neglected to name the roaster. Sorry, Amaya Coffee! Your beans are super-rad.

And about that equipment!

Cuisinart Coffee Grinder on Amazon, $23.99 (you can find it cheaper)

Moccamaster Technivorm KB (which I own), $319

Moccamaster KBBV, which comes in lots of colors and is super-cute (hello, rose-gold!), $369

As mentioned in the video, I would not shell out money straight away for a bean grinder, though do avoid the cheap Krupps I recently had, which I seriously wanted to go full Office Space on...

... but do spend money on the drip coffee maker. The Moccamaster will be, for nearly all of you, the best coffee maker you've ever owned, it's easy to use, no, "where the frack does the water go and what is this piece of plastic in the way of everything, gahhh!" and it makes great coffee, every time. And since coffee is an everyday luxury, why not make it as luxurious as it can be?

But Nancy, my Keurig... Listen, you're waiting on line at the car rental at the airport and there's a Keurig into which you can pop one of those cute little pods and, bing! a cup of coffee in appears? That's great, especially when you're exhausted. And I admit those pods come in pretty colors. But let me ask you a question: How long do think that coffee's been sitting in that pod? Remember, as soon as coffee is ground, it starts to lose its flavor. Also, each pod contains at most .4 ounces of coffee (many contain .3) and costs about 50 cents, which means you're paying at least $32 a pound for ground coffee that is god knows how many months old. You can do much better!

Again, here's a link to Amaya Coffee. Today I am currently loving the Nieves Yela, from Colombia, whose tasting notes read, "Cake, Toffee, Milk Chocolate." I just stuck my nose in the bag and, to me, it smells like peanut butter!

Another small-batch coffee roaster I highly recommend is Panther Coffee, based in Miami, and owned by Joel and Leticia Pollock, dear friends who've worked in the coffee business for years, Joel with Stumptown Coffee originally, and Leticia with my husband's former company. They're super-pros and go right to the source, and are people we love. Say hello!