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A good cup of coffee starts with pure water and a great cup of coffee starts with good coffee beans. A perfect cup of coffee starts with a clean coffee maker. It doesn't matter how pure your water is or how great your beans are, if you have a dirty coffee maker it will taint the flavor of your coffee.

Even if you use filtered or bottled water it will still leave mineral deposits in your coffee maker. It may take longer for them to build up, but once they do they will affect the flavor of your coffee. Most coffee maker manufacturers recommend that you clean you coffee makers at least once a month. If you brew a lot of coffee you may need to clean your coffee maker more frequently.

Many coffee maker manufacturers will recommend that you use a commercially produced cleaner for your coffee maker. Some will even include a sample with their coffee makers hoping to lure you into purchasing more in the future. These commercially produced cleaners are not only expensive they are unnecessary. Most commercial coffee maker cleaners contain dried versions of household acids that regain their potency when added to water. You probably have the original acids in your home that are a fraction of the cost of the commercially produced cleaners.

You should never use soap in your coffee maker itself. It is fine, and recommended, to wash he removable parts in hot soapy water. These parts would be the filter basket and the coffee pot. Be sure to rinse all of the soap residue away to ensure that none of the residue will find its way into your coffee maker.

Cleaning the coffee maker itself is a simple process. In fact, it is as easy as making a pot of coffee. Before cleaning your coffee maker, be sure to clean your filter basket and coffee pot. Once these are cleaned you are ready to clean your coffee maker.

Place a clean filter in the filter basket. Even though you are not brewing coffee you will want to filter out the sediment that will come through your machine when it is cleaned. You will not want this sediment depositing itself in your clean filter basket or in your clean coffee pot.

Fill your coffee pot to the halfway mark with a nontoxic acid, such as white vinegar or lemon juice. Even though lemon juice smells better I prefer to use white vinegar because it is less expensive.

Add cold distilled water until the pot is full and then pour into the reservoir of your coffee maker. Using a clean coffee pot ensures that you are not adding more sediment to your coffee maker.

Start your coffee maker and let it brew itself clean. Once all of the vinegar and water has made its way through your maker and into the pot remove and throw away the filter. Dump out the vinegar water from the coffee pot and allow the pot to cool. If you have not cleaned your coffee maker in a long time you may want to brew another pot of vinegar and water to make sure that it has been thoroughly cleaned.

Once your coffee maker is clean you need to rinse away every trace of the vinegar so your next pot of coffee will taste like coffee and not pickled coffee beans. After your coffee pot has cooled place a fresh filter in the filter basket and fill the reservoir with cold water. Start your coffee maker and let the water run through for a full cycle. If needed, you should repeat this process until all trace of vinegar is gone.

Now that your coffee maker is completely clean go ahead and brew yourself a fresh cup of coffee. You will be amazed at the difference in taste from the last pot of coffee you made. The perfect cup of coffee truly starts with a clean coffee maker.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Flood.
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