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Good, cold water, a clean pot and a clean coffee maker are the only absolute requirements for making great drip coffee. Everything else is a matter of personal taste. Just because coffee experts say to use one or even two tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounces of water doesn't mean you have to do so. Many people enjoy a much milder brew. Of course, you do need good dry coffee, but there's so much disagreement over what that is that it's impossible to be definitive. Use whatever type of coffee tastes good to you.

The colder the water, the more dissolved oxygen it contains. This simply makes for better tasting coffee. Coffee made using warmer water will always taste flat. If you're unhappy about the quality of the tap water in your area, you should consider using bottled water or at least filtering your tap water. You also have to pay attention to the cleanliness of both your coffee apparatus and carafe. Over time, coffee oils and residue form a sludge which will poison the taste of even the best ground coffee. How often should you clean them? That depends on how often you make coffee, but the answer is almost always "more often than you have been." The pot or carafe should be cleaned whenever you see any buildup or a pot of water smells of coffee before you've even added any. The coffee maker should be cleaned every two months, at a minimum. A solution of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) run through the coffee maker will usually do the trick. Diluted vinegar does a wonderful job of cleaning, but it may dissolve plastic parts inside the coffee maker, so don't use it unless the manufacturer specifically recommends you do so.

Coffee keeps best in the bean form. So if you want the freshest coffee, you should buy beans and grind them only as often as needed. Those of you who don't want to deal with the expense and noise of owning a personal grinder need not despair. You can keep out a week or two's worth of ground coffee and freeze the rest in sealable plastic bags, squeezing out as much air as possible. You don't have to be maniacal about the exact amounts, but try to keep the bulk of your coffee frozen. Beans or ground, the freezer is the best place for long term storage of coffee. When you remove coffee from the freezer, be sure to let it come to room temperature before you unseal the bag. It's actually moisture, not air or temperature that is the enemy of coffee freshness. When you open a still cold bag of coffee, room temperature air will rush in, causing condensation on the still cold coffee and hastening its demise.

As to what type of coffee tastes best, everyone has their own preference. While some like French roasted or flavored coffee, others consider them to be fighting words. You can argue with your friends about this over a pot of well brewed coffee.

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