Keurig

As much as coffee snops hate a Keurig brewer, these machines have truly become ubiquitous. Why is it hated? A few reasons, it requires plastic and foil waste with every brew, it doesn't get the coffee hot enough for a great extraction, and it isn't optimized for locally roasted whole bean specialty coffee. It's optimized for Dunkin Donut flavor pods of old, dried out commodity coffees. But my wife has one and all that matters to her is the ease of use. Whereas I labor over the perfect extraction, she prefers to throw a pod in the machine and push play. So I figured out how to make the best possible cup with this machine.

What you'll need: a filter basket made for your Keurig machine.

Step 1: Grind

You'll need a fine grind for this super-fast extraction process, but going all the way espresso is too fine and will clog up the filter basket, so go medium-fine (like you would for a moka pot). Your ratio should be about 1/2oz of grounds to every 8oz of water. Load that into your filter basket (don't use the small paper filters, they're a complete disaster), close the top and load it into your Keurig just like you would any K-cup.

Step 2: Boil your water

Make sure your Keurig is empty of all water. Fill your water supply basin up to the minimum line with boiling water. I know, the Keurig is built to speed-run the boiling process; it's the whole point. But every time I skip this step, the coffee comes out very weak. So bring it to a boil, pour it into the supply basin, put your cup in place, and "push play."

Step 3: Done

I still think it'll come out a bit under-extracted because the coffee doesn't have enough time in the hot water, nor does it have the steam pressure of an espresso preparation to force faster extraction, but it is easy and fast.