How to make great coffee in your auto-drip machine
An excellent cup from your drip machine? Definitely.
Need coffee for a crowd? Want to set it and forget it? A humble drip coffeemaker can make café-level results.
We’re a pourover family around here—most mornings turning to our trusty Chemex for a small batch just for us.
But on days when we’re brewing for a crowd or if we find ourselves somewhere with a drip machine on the counter, we turn to the classic gurgle and drip of an automatic coffeemaker..
And we’re never sad about it—because we know a secret. With a few little tricks, the autodrip coffee tastes truly great.
You don’t need expensive gear or obscure supplies. You just need to understand a few fundamentals.
We’ll walk you through it.
1. Start with quality beans, ground for the machine
The coffee bean matters, as does the grind. Here’s how to decide what’s right for you.
Whole beans are ideal, but not necessary.
If you have access to a grinder, whole beans will deliver a higher quality taste longer than preground, preserving the aromatic compounds that get released in the grinding process..
That said, you can buy pre-ground coffee from most quality companies and store it in an airtight container away from direct sunlight and you’ll still have great coffee.
Which coffee to buy? Choose what you love.
Light, medium, or dark—there’s no “correct” choice. The best coffee is the one you enjoy drinking. Read labels for descriptions such as "fruity" or "chocolatey" or “bold” and go with the one that sounds most appealing.
Or, ask your local barista for advice on brands and flavors.
Get the right grind
Coffee is ground based on the method you’ll use for brewing it. A super-fine grind works great for Turkish coffee or espresso, while a course grind is the way to go for cold brew. But neither of those will work well for an auto-drip machine, leaving you with a bitter, sour, thin and just weird cup of coffee.
For the auto-drip, look for a medium grind. Some packages of pre-ground coffee will even say “auto-drip” on the label.
2. Use the right coffee-to-water ratio
Even though drip machines have that handy cup counter on the side, it’s best to measure your coffee and water separately to get the proportions right.
Most sources we’ve consulted—along with our own experimenting—suggest starting with a 1:16 ratio, which means 1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water. For a typical 6-oz cup of coffee, that means 170 grams of water. Using the 1:16 ratio, that’s 10-11 grams of coffee.
But you don’t have to math it out. If you’ve got a kitchen scale—the handiest of tools—great! If not, use 2 rounded tablespoons of ground coffee and 6 ounces of water for every cup you make.
Tweaking the formula
Start with the basic formula above, then make adjustments to get exactly what you need.
Making coffee for a crowd? Start with the total amount of water you need, then determine the amount of grounds.
Coffee too weak for your taste, add a bit more ground coffee to the ratio.
Too strong? Add a bit less.
3. Use filtered water, if possible
If your tap water tastes bad, your coffee will too. Coffee really is just flavored water. Filtered water is ideal. Avoid distilled water—it lacks minerals needed for proper extraction.
Bonus: Filter water will typically mean you won’t have to clean your machine as often, with less mineral buildup.
4. Ditch your paper filter—use cotton instead
Yep, there’s a CoffeeSock for your autodrip machine and you’ll get the same benefits from using it as you would with pourover or other methods.
Not only will you reduce the amount trash you make in the process, but your coffee will taste better—no chemicals from the paper filters and a good balance of oils.
5. If you can, bloom your coffee (Yes, even in auto-drip)
Fresh coffee releases carbon dioxide when hot water hits it. This gas can interfere with extraction.
“Blooming” lets it escape first.
How to bloom in an auto-drip
If your machine allows:
Start brewing.
Let a small amount of water soak the grounds.
Pause for 30–45 seconds.
Resume brewing.
Some machines have a built-in pre-infusion feature. If yours doesn’t, you can manually pause it.
6. Keep Your Machine Clean
Coffee leaves behind oils and mineral buildup. Over time, these ruin flavor. Clean your machine at least every 1–3 months.
Run a cycle with equal parts vinegar and water
Follow with 2–3 cycles of clean water
Wash removable parts weekly with warm, soapy water. A dirty machine can make even great beans taste stale.
7. Brew, then keep hot in a thermos
Coffee is best shortly after brewing, and the longer it stays on the warmer, the more bitter it becomes. It literally keeps cooking.
Invest in a thermos that’s the right size for the number of cups you make—or, at least the right size for the number of cups you aren’t going to drink immediately.
For great coffee—a little process goes a long way
Like many things in life, auto-drip machines give you back exactly what you put in.
Quality beans. Good water. Proper grind. Clean equipment. The right ratios.
Do these things, and your everyday coffeemaker will reward you and your crew with an excellent cup, every time.
