Firstly, the aficionados on these threads will tell you that the grinder is more important than the coffee maker, should you choose to head down that route.
Secondly, speaking for myself, at least, I must confess that I have never ever even heard of this concept of a 'gold filter'. Seriously?
When using a drip filter, at home I use a ceramic filter cone (bought from Intelligentsia coffee, recommended on this very forum; wonderful but solidly heavy), and use organic unbleached paper filters. The paper filters are organic unbleached paper which I buy in a Fairtrade/Oxfam/or Healthfood shop; abroad, I use a plastic filter cone, or a French Press; I have two of the latter at home, one, recently bought, from Le Creuset which makes excellent coffee.
Should you wish to forego filters entirely, the French press is a very easy and very forgiving way of making it. The final way I make coffee is when I make espresso, in a Bialetti moka (stove-top) stainless steel pot.
All three methods blessedly free from complications of the bells-and-whistles variety and require simply the direct application of stove top heat (the Bialetti moka pot) or instead, rely on a kettle to do the needful. Simple, yet extraordinarily effective. Transportable, too, as, given that I sound many of my days and much of my life abroad, I need a consistent and reliable method of making high quality coffee.
Edit: I knew it. While I was composing this post, the denizens who normally dwell here beat me to it, as I had thought they might…….Indeed, I was waiting for SBG, Shrink and indeed, Kurwenal….among others, to make a welcome appearance...
