I am a coffee hound. I drink a lot of coffee. Everybody has their own way to make coffee but I don't care. When it comes to making coffee there are only 3 ways to do it perfectly as far as I'm concerned.

1. Drip
2. Bob's method
3. Espresso

Drip:
First get some good coffee. My personal taste is to use 1 tbs. per 6 oz. cup of coffee. I grind right before I brew. I grind fairly fine. Some people use a medium - coarse grind. Cold water.

Bob's Method:
Get some good coffee. Grind for drip using 1 tbs. per 6 oz. cup of coffee. Pour cold water into a pan. Add the ground coffee. Bring it to an almost-boil i.e. wait until it the first bubble breaks through the coffee grounds floating on top of the water. Take the pan off the heat and stir once. Wait five minutes. Strain into your coffee pot using a sieve and paper towel or paper coffee filter.

Espresso:
It costs sooo much money to get an adequate espresso machine that you should just forget about it. I have tried a lot of models and they just don't produce the ever-important crema. What's crema you might ask? Here goes: (stolen from another coffee site)

"Your espresso should have a thick, brownish layer on top, the crema coating. If this coating fails to cover the entire top of the cup at least an eighth of an inch thick (who measures?), there was insufficient pressure during the brewing process. Crema is more sought after in the coffee world than any other aspect of the discipline. Once you have it, you have it always, for that machine anyway! As usual and as I have mentioned, you are at the mercy of the elements hence you may need to pack the grounds tighter, grind the beans finer, or get a machine that produces more pressure. Any rituals or religious observations come in very handy at this point."

That's crema. It usually has everything to do with the machine in terms of getting enough pressure. It costs big bucks to get the right machine. If the salesperson can make a great cup of espresso with crema, sell your car and buy the machine. Then buy a good grinder. Then …

I can't go on. It costs too much money. Just make Drip or Bob's method. You'll be happy.

But what about the French-Press method?

I know. I know. This method makes a great cup of coffee. All oils make it into the cup. But ...

You always end up with a small amount of sediment no mater what.

Y'see I'm sitting at the 'puter, I reach over and grab my South Park mug, drink it down, and gick. I've got coffee sediment (silt?) in my mouth. I don't like that little surprise.

I was behind the counter at our shop on Maui when a guy came in and ordered a double raspberry mocha with lots of whipped cream. I made it. He paid for it and took a big slug of his mocha. Then he crammed a couple of dollars into my tip jar saying that this was the best raspberry mocha he'd ever had in his life. I told him we only use the best beans blah-blah-blah and he left.

I was thinking to myself as I pocketed his tip that it really does pay to use the best beans when I looked over at the espresso machine and noticed I didn't add the coffee to his drink.

"You can fool all of the people some of the time ... Some of the people all of the time ... And that's how politicians get elected."

No no no. The real moral is that everybody has different tastes and as long as I make coffee the way I like it ... I'm a pretty happy guy.