Technivorm Moccamaster. If you must brew your coffee by the pot, temperature stability at 200-203F and a well designed showerhead are necessities for a good extraction. Few electric drip units get you there. They're spendy at $300-ish, but they'll last for years and have a simple design where all the power goes to the heating unit and not to bells and whistles.
If you prefer to brew a cup at a time by hand, the Aeropress is extremely versatile for espresso-ish drinks/Americanos or for a short cup of drip. Otherwise, Clever dripper is an easy to use set and forget one cup brewer.
And for grinders, the Capresso Infinity works as good as the more expensive Baratzas if you're doing anything coarser than espresso. But you do need a burr grinder, seriously.
It sounds like you're as obsessive about good coffee as I am. I agree with you about the qualities required for good extraction and the fact that they are very difficult to find in an automatic coffee maker made for the consumer market. My all-time favorite was the Bodum Electric Santos, which made the best-tasting coffee I've ever made at home, but its electronics were so unreliable that they stopped making it several years ago. I--and apparently many others--nonetheless loved it so much that used ones routinely went for more on e-Bay than the new ones originally did. I went through five of them in around ten years, often buying an extra one to have as a backup when the one I had inevitably crapped out.
When it was time for me to accept that I had to move on, I researched and tested the options extensively. Then, as it still is now, I believe there are three options: (1) the Technivorm you've listed; (2) Bonavita; and (3)
Behmor Brazen Plus. I went with the Brazen primarily because it features an automatic pre-soak option, which I find essential to control blooming. That is often an issue for me when the beans are closest to being freshly roasted. It also has an automatic timer option, which I realize is somewhat antithetical to a perfect cup, but I find useful and acceptable when timing is an issue, as these makers all take longer to brew than most commercial makers. When I first bought it, it was pretty new to the market and they were still working out some kinks. They have since worked them all out, replacing mine twice for free (and overnight) along the way, and I have been using it for around five years in total with very good success. I would recommend it highly to anyone in the market for one of these, and you can usually find it for less than $200.
I am curious about your burr grinder comment. I have been using literally the exact same
Krups grinder for more than 25 years. Obviously that speaks volumes to its reliability, but it has also prevented me from exploring advances since then, because I am a big "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type who tends to run things into the ground before replacing them. What might I expect to appreciate about a burr grinder that I am not getting with the Krups SS blade?
I've also become a big tea fan over the past several years, and on that front the
Breville One-Touch Tea Maker is a product in which I believe so much that I have one at home and one in my office; and I have bought it as a gift for friends who have come to believe in it just as much as I do.
