The best gifts for coffee lovers who don't own an espresso machine

The one brewer that pleases nearly everyone, and our first pick for any recipient whose setup you do not know. The AeroPress makes a clean, rich, espresso-style cup in about two minutes, survives being dropped, packs into a bag, and rinses out in seconds. Beginners love that it is nearly impossible to get wrong; serious coffee people hold world championships for it. It needs no machine and no technique, and it is cheap enough to give on its own or alongside a bag of good beans.

The gift for someone who loves a short, strong, intense cup and does not want a machine. The Moka Express is the original stovetop pot, unchanged in its essentials since 1933: steam pressure pushes water up through the grounds and out comes a bold, syrupy, espresso-adjacent coffee that is superb in a small cup or as the base for a stovetop latte. It costs very little, the six-cup size suits most homes, and its octagonal aluminum shape is one of the most recognizable objects in coffee. It is fussier than an AeroPress, it is hand-wash only, and it makes no crema — it is not true espresso, and we say so.

The design-icon gift for someone who brews for a table. The Chemex is an hourglass of borosilicate glass with a wood collar and leather tie, so well drawn that the Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its permanent collection, and it brews an exceptionally clean, bright carafe through its thick bonded filters. It is the pick for the person who would rather own one beautiful thing than a gadget, and who makes coffee for more than one. Add a box of Chemex filters to the gift, and know that it pours best from a gooseneck kettle.

The gift for the single-cup drinker who likes the ritual. The V60 is the pour-over cone specialty cafes use: a steep cone, spiral ribs and one big hole that let the brewer steer extraction entirely with the pour, so a good coffee's brightness and aroma come through with real clarity. The ceramic version holds heat and feels like a proper object on the counter, and it costs very little. The honest trade is that the cup is only as good as the pour and the grind, so it suits someone who enjoys the process, and it does its best work with a gooseneck kettle — which makes the Fellow Stagg below its natural partner.

The gift for the big-mug drinker who makes coffee for two. The Chambord is the classic French press — chrome frame, glass beaker, metal mesh — and it makes a rich, full-bodied brew with a recipe that is almost nothing: coarse grounds, hot water, wait four minutes, press. It brews a full carafe at once, needs no paper filters and no technique, and it is our top pick among French presses. Everyone recognizes it, which is part of why it works as a present.

The gift for the iced-coffee person. A cold brew maker steeps grounds in cold water for half a day and produces a smooth, low-acid concentrate that keeps in the fridge for days and dilutes into a glass in seconds; the OXO is our top pick because it does that with the least guesswork. Its lid drips water evenly over the whole bed, an ultra-fine mesh does the filtering, and a flip of the switch drains the concentrate hands-free into a glass carafe. It takes real counter space and costs more than a jar, but nothing brews cold coffee as cleanly with as little thought.

The luxury gift for the pour-over person, and the kettle every other kettle gets compared to. Its precision-tapered spout pours the thinnest, most controllable stream of any kettle we recommend, variable temperature sets to the exact degree on a crisp display, and a built-in brew timer plus a hold mode keep water at target while the brewer blooms. The counterbalanced handle and clean industrial design make it a pleasure to use every morning. It is the most expensive kettle we recommend and its extra features are more than a casual brewer will touch — but for someone who owns a V60 or a Chemex and pours from a stovetop kettle, nothing else here upgrades their morning as much.

The showstopper for the drip-machine household — the gift for someone who wants a great pot of coffee on a switch, every morning, with zero skill. The Moccamaster is SCA-certified, meaning an independent body verified that it heats water into the proper extraction band and holds it there while a shower head wets the whole bed evenly — the two things cheap drip machines miss. It is hand-built in the Netherlands around a copper heating element, brews a full pot in about six minutes, and repeats it identically for years. It is the most expensive way to make filter coffee we recommend, and you cannot tweak the pour the way a V60 lets you; for the person who never wanted to, that is the point.