Basic Equipment:
Grinder: In my opinion, grinding fresh beans right before you brew is the single best thing you can do to improve your coffee and even a $10 - $15 blade grinder can do that. Almost every coffee discussion anywhere quickly turns into the importance of a proper grind, and you will almost certainly end up with a burr grinder if you get into coffee at all. There are a million discussions and recommendations out there and I'm sure they will be all over this thread, but here are some of the common ones.
Hario Skerton - If you want to start "cheap" and don't mind a bit of a workout in the morning, something like the Skerton is ~$40-50. You have to manually grind and it will take a bit longer, but it will be a pretty large step up from a blade grinder.
Baratza Encore - Pretty much the go to, entry level burr grinder that will do a decent job and most methods of coffee (Espresso is a whole different beast) and can be found as a refurb for ~$100.
Kitchen Scale: You can get a decent gram scale on Amazon that will accurately weigh coffee for you for under $10. There are all sorts of variances that can change bean weight. You can use a coffee scoop and usually be alright, but a scale makes things much easier and more precise.
Temp Controlled Kettle: An electric kettle is not just something for Americans and Europeans to argue about on the internet, it can also make your coffee brewing experience much more pleasant. Especially if you get something that allows you to set a specific temperature. If you are doing pour over, or considering it in the future, get a goose neck
kettle.
Brewing Methods:
Press Pot (aka French Press) - Easy to find, easy to use, cheap. Grind 50g beans, add to pot, add ~100g water just off the boil and start timer, gently stir, wait 30 seconds or so for the bloom, then add another 650g for 750g total water, cover and let sit for 6-8 minutes. I know, this is way longer than the usual suggestion for press pot coffee, but trust me, give it a try. Slowly press down the plunger, pour into a cup and enjoy.
Clever Brewer - This is kind of a weird hybrid between a pourover and a press pot. Add a filter, rinse with hot water and pour out rinse water. Add 21g of fresh ground coffee and pour on 300g of water off the boil. Start timer and stir 10-15 seconds, cover and brew for 3 minutes. Place brewer on top of mug and let everything drain into your cup. Makes a single cup with about a 3:30 brew time. Can also be used to play around with a true pourover in a pinch bu just leaving it on top of a cup the whole time.
AeroPress- The Internet's Favorite Coffee Maker. A giant syringe that claims it can make Espresso at home; it can't. It can however, make some pretty great coffee in single up servings and is one of those "hackable" coffee makers that allows you to make coffee in probably 100 different ways. My go to is the inverted method. It's easier to show that to describe so here's a youtube link.
Chemex - Pourover coffee, but with a pretty glass pot and a super thick filter. It's this filter that makes Chemex coffee what it is. A super bright, super clean cup that will generally have less body than most other methods. I do 42g coffee, 700g water. Wet filter and drain. Add freshly ground coffee, start timer and add 75g water. Wait about 30-45 seconds for bloom to complete, then add water up to 400g. When time reaches 1:30 or so, add remaining water to 700g total. This should be about the 2:00 mark. Wait for the coffee to finish brewing which should be around the 4:00 mark.
Pourover - The Kalita Wave and Hario V60 tend to be the big names here, but there are tons of different models out there. Brewing method is similar to the Chemex, but with the thinner filter, you have to have a little more control of your pour to prevent over-extraction. I'll leave it to YouTube to explain these was well.
Cold Brew -
Toddy:
No experience here, but it seems to be just follow the Toddy instructions and have cold brew coffee.
Press Pot / Glass Jar: I'm much less precise here compared to some of the hot side methods. I add 3/4 cup to 1 cup of ground coffee to my 34oz Bodum French Press. Add cold water (shoot for 1:4 - 1:5 coffee to water), leaving just enough space to put on the lid and let it sit on the counter overnight in in the fridge for ~24 hours. Press, pour into another jar and store in the fridge for up to a couple days. This makes a very strong cold brew "concentrate." I'll occasionally drink it straight, but it is designed to be diluted by pouring over ice and adding some extra water or milk.
Espresso - I have pretty much no experience here, so I'll leave this to others. I do know that getting espresso at home that tastes better than a Nespresso pod is not cheap.
Water:
Water tends to be greatly overlooked when making coffee, but is something that is easy to improve. I'd recommend carbon filtering the water you use for coffee. Something like a Brita or Pur filter pitcher or use that water that comes out of the fridge if your fridge has a carbon filter cartridge. You can go all crazy and use bottled or build up water from distilled if you want (don't use plain distilled water, it makes bad coffee), but just filtering tends to help in most cases.
