With time off and little disposable income, I've increased my home coffee consumption. The right tools are needed to do the job right and I'd like to recommend the following as they've survived thousands of cycles and still continue to perform like new:

Capresso Burr Grinder - This grinder allows 17 grind settings and a slider to grind from about 2 cups of beans to 12. We can grind coarser for our basket filter Mr Coffee 12 cupper, finer for our 4 cup Braun, and finer still for our espresso maker. It has consistently ground since the day we began using it.

Braun 4 Cup - Our trusty Braun came as a promotional give-away from Peet's Coffee & Tea over six years ago. It has seen daily duty every since. A very occasional cleaning has kept it in peak condition even after thousands of uses.

Fresh Roast Coffee Roaster - Every coffee addict should know the joys of home-roasting coffee. It takes only 8 minutes to roast a day's beans and the result is the freshest possible coffee. The advantage to roasting your own is that you can pick from over one hundred different beans and roast to your personal preference. You can also blend your beans to give the body, aroma and flavor you specifically desire. Sweet Maria's provides the equipment and the beans. The Fresh Roast Coffee Roaster and 2 pounds of green coffee beans is under $80 and additional beans cost roughly half of what you would pay at Starbuck's or Peet's.