People overthink this. The "best" brewing method is the one that works for your situation - how many cups you need, what equipment you've got, and what kind of coffee you like drinking. There's no wrong answer here.
Here's a straightforward look at the three most common methods and who they suit best.
filter coffee
Filter coffee is brewed by pouring hot water over ground coffee and letting it drip through a paper or metal filter. It's clean, smooth, and easy to make in volume.
Best for: Offices, hotels (breakfast service), anyone who needs to make a lot of coffee without much fuss. Also brilliant at home if you just want a big mug of something good without learning any techniques.
What you need: A filter machine (from basic pour-over to commercial batch brewers), filter papers, and medium-ground coffee. That's it.
The coffee: Filter brewing brings out the more subtle flavours in coffee - the sweetness, the fruitiness, the lighter notes. It's a gentler extraction than espresso. Our Breakfast Blend and High Mountain Blend both work really well as filter coffee. If you want something with a bit more body, try the Continental Blend.
The practical bit: A decent commercial filter machine will produce a full jug in about 5 minutes. Keep it on the hotplate for no more than 30 minutes - after that it starts to stew. If you need coffee available all day, brew fresh batches rather than keeping one jug warm for hours.
Espresso
Espresso forces hot water through finely-ground coffee at high pressure. It's concentrated, intense, and the foundation for most milk drinks - lattes, flat whites, cappuccinos.
Best for: Cafes, restaurants, and anyone who wants to serve proper milk-based coffee drinks. Also good at home if you've got the machine and don't mind a bit of a learning curve.
What you need: An espresso machine (the single biggest investment), a grinder (arguably more important than the machine), and fine-ground coffee. For a cafe, you'll also want a knock box, tamper, milk jugs, and thermometer.
The coffee: Espresso suits medium to dark roasts with good body and sweetness. You want something that stands up to milk and still tastes like coffee. Our Milan is what most of our cafe customers use for exactly this reason - it's smooth, holds its own with milk, and customers stick with it.
The practical bit: Espresso takes more skill and maintenance than filter. Someone needs to dial in the grinder each morning, keep the machine clean, and know how to steam milk. If you're running a cafe, training is worth the investment. If you're an office making 10 coffees a day, a bean-to-cup machine does most of this automatically.
Cafetiere (French press)
The cafetiere is the simplest way to make decent coffee. Coarse grounds, hot water, wait four minutes, push the plunger down. Done.
Best for: Home use, small offices, meeting rooms, hotel bedrooms, B&Bs. Anywhere you want good coffee with zero training and almost no equipment.
What you need: A cafetiere, a kettle, and coarse-ground coffee. A set of scales is helpful if you want to be precise, but honestly, a heaped tablespoon per cup works fine.
The coffee: Medium roasts work best in a cafetiere. You get a fuller body than filter (because the metal mesh lets more oils through) but it's not as intense as espresso. Our After Dinner Blend and Mocha Mysore are both excellent in a cafetiere.
The practical bit: Use water just off the boil (about 30 seconds after the kettle clicks off). Don't leave it brewing for more than 4–5 minutes or it'll get bitter. And clean the cafetiere properly each time - old grounds trapped in the mesh will make everything taste stale.
So which one?
If you're setting up a cafe or restaurant: espresso. Your customers expect milk-based drinks and you need the flexibility.
If you're running an office, hotel breakfast, or need volume: filter. It's efficient, consistent, and hard to get wrong.
If you're at home or serving small groups: cafetiere. Simple, good coffee, minimal equipment.
And if you're not sure? Give us a call. David will ask a few questions about your setup and tell you what'll work best. No sales pitch - just an honest answer.