The perfect cup of coffee

You ever watch Saturday Night Live when Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri had the one cheerleading skit, The Spartans?  They would always end with "The Perfect Cheer!".  Everytime I have a wonderful cup of coffee, in my head I hear, "The Perfect Cup!".  Okay, most of that is probably my pre-coffee delirum in the morning when I'm half awake.

To me, the first sip is the best part of a cup of coffee.  There's nothing more satisfying to my morning to that nice fuzzy feeling I get after that first sip.  I can usually predict how my day will go based on my first cup of coffee.  For example, if I spill/splash my coffee before I take that first most important sip, I know I'm going to have a bad day.  If the first sip to my coffee is cold (I usually only drink hot coffee, even in hot, humid weather), I'm obviously going to have a busy day.  There are a lot of factors that may play into that perfect cup of coffee.  You don't want to take your first sip only to say "Yuck!  That coffee is gross!"

To make your own perfect cup of coffee, these are some methods that I love:
1. The good old coffeemaker.  My current favorite coffeemaker is one I received as a wedding gift off my registry from Amazon!  It's by Zojirushi (the rice cooker company) and it makes 10 cups of coffee.  It has a handy auto function where you can program what time you want your coffee to be brewed.   Instead of using paper coffee filters, I bought a permanent gold filter and it works perfectly.
I use La Colombe's Corsica beans for drip coffee, it's my favorite brand of coffee.




2. The French Press.  Another of my favorite methods is by using a french press.  It's usually a little more time consuming, but completely worth it.  It's perfect for those rainy weekend days when you want to curl in a chair and read a book and sip coffee or for a breakfast in bed for 2. Again, I use La Colombe's Corsica beans, but the grind has to be coarse for the French Press otherwise you're going to have a lot of coffee grinds in your end product.




3. The stovetop espresso maker.  Want to drink espresso or make your own latte at home?  This stovetop espresso maker by Bialetti is the perfect way to do just that.  Fill the bottom chamber with water and add fine coffee to the filter.  Within minutes, through a pressurizing process, the espresso moves up into the upper chamber and voila!  You now have espresso!  To make your own latte, heat up some milk and add your espresso in a mug and enjoy!  You can use any fine grind coffee, but I love using Illy Caffe's Dark Roast Fine Grind Beans.

What are your suggestions?  Are there coffee brands you swear by or a favorite method of brewing that perfect cup?