Ah, a topic after my own heart .

Myself I am a little more hands on I'm afraid.

Firstly I either get the beans pre ground,  grind by hand (which is actually far less time consuming than it sounds.
The reason for this is there is a protein on the coffee beans that denatures at 98 degrees and can make the coffee highly bitter. Many electric grinders, and also steam filtration systems have  habit of creating too much heat either by friction or boiling water so manage to burn the coffee, thus I either get the beans ground by a company I trust (witards of Chelsey for anyone in the Uk who is interested), or if I am feeling  energetic I do them myself by hand.

Also like most people in the Uk I have an electric kettle so Use a Cafetier, also called a French press.
This is a jug (I have a stainless steel one which does about two mugs worth, and a much larger glass one which does four mugs worth which I use for company), with a lid that contains a filter at the bottom on a long plunger arrangement.
You simply spoon the ground beans into the jug and add boiling water until it gets near the top (the finger is necessary), I usually find about three or four tea spoons worth will do my two cups depending upon the strength and roast of the beans involved, though to avoid burning the beans I always let the kettle boil and wait until the water is just off boiling before adding.

I then leave it for at least five minutes or so. While it is not possible to over brew coffee the way it is tea, it is possible to under brew. After that I put the plunger in and press the top, and the filter forces all of the grounds to the bottom of the jug, so that when I pour the coffee I just get the liquid (it's easy to wash out, just rinse it down the sink).

usually for preference I tend to like medium to high roasts, with a particular liking for heavily aramtic brews, so my favourites tend to be Columbian, Guatemalan or Java.

I also do have a liking for the traditional Italian Lavatsa blend, (my Italian teacher used to have the most wonderful stuff she bought over from Genoa), though that I do have to take in small doses as it's very nice, but extremely strong, usually on a day to day basis I confine myself to medium roasts.

I tend to like coffee in the early morning and mid morning, though later in the day I have been known to drink a bit of Jasmine tea, although unlike most people in England I'm very fussy about Tea, (rose and Jasmine are about the only sorts I really like), and of course before bed there is nothing better than coco.

the tea and coco and my lady's fruit teas I also buy from Witards who are really awesome for that type of thing.

so that is me and coffee .

Interesting about the paper filter there Orco.

I did notice in the states the coffee was a little bitter and I wondered if that was the steam used in my lady's sister's condenser, it also seemed a trifle weaker on average than I usually drink it but then again as I prefer the electric kettle and cafeteir myself I am no expert on coffee machines or filters.

I tend to drink mine absolutely black with nothing in it, though very occasionally for a special treat I'll have a glass of good dark rum along side and use the coffee as a chaser.

That is one reason I am so fussy about how my coffee tends to be made, since coffee is one of the things that can get really buggered if it's made improperly.

I first noticed this when I started grinding my own beans, and then investigated a little more.

Interesting Orco.
What you describe is exactly what I was using when I was staying with my sister in law and her husband last year in Pensylvania before my lady and I got married.

it had the tank at the back that needed filling with water, then the paper filter and shower head type thing at the top, it also had a pad which kept the pot hot.
As I said, I found the coffee it made ended up more bitter than when I use the cafeteir as I do in Britain, then  again electric kettles were something I seriously missed while in the states, and without one it would be a pain to use a cafeteir since you'd need to heat the water on the hob which would be a bit of a pest just for coffee, it did make making my lady's fruit tea rather difficult.

I also do not know how much was the paper filter and how much the  condensing process, sin manifestly the water just having cooled would be pretty close to boiling.

Stick around to the end of the post for thoughts on cold brew coffee.
I use a Mr. Coffee maker as described above. I didn't know about permanent filters. I'll have to look into that when I buy a new coffee maker. I use preground coffee. I can't be bothered to use a grinder in the mornings. At work, we have a guy who likes being in charge of coffee. He buys fancy brands of whole beans and grinds them at work for the pot in the breakroom. I prefer medium to dark roasts for the richer flavor, even though light roast has more caffeine. I think I'm becoming a coffee snob. I used to not mind Foldures, but now it just smells like sawdust to me. Though, when my co-worker presents these fancy beans to me and asks me to smell them, they all just smell like coffee.
I use flavored liquid creamer in my coffee. I feel like I should apologize for ruining the sanctity of coffee, but I find most black coffee so bitter, and it leaves a horrible taste behind. I can appreciate the foretaste with all the rich flavor, but when the mug is done, only bitter acidity is left behind.
Let me tell you about cold brew coffee. We have a 32 ounce cold brew maker. You put a ton of grounds in the filter, fill with cold water, and let sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Remove the filter, and drink your quart of coffee until it's gone. I am a big fan of cold brew during the summer. It feels thicker, smoother, innately sweeter, and I get more chocolate notes from just the coffee itself. I dilute the coffee with a little milk and a splash of flavored cream on occasion, though cold brew is just fine with a little sweetened almond milk to thin it out. Cold brew requires a ridiculous amount of coffee grounds, but I find myself wishing we had a bigger cold brew pitcher.

I suspect the bitterness cinnamon is to do with coffee being over brewed as I said, one reason why it also likely tastes better when you make the iced variety. I've actually got a couple of friends who don't usually drink coffee due to the bitterness, but will do so when I make it.

I don't usually go for cream or the like, though I have been known to drink mocha on occasion, albeit in a lot of places mocha is more like a milkshake than actual coffee. #Also I find even extremely good quality instant coffee (the only instant coffee I tolerate), is still too  for me to drink black so I add a bit of milk.

I will freely admit I am! a bit of a coffee snob, or at least I know what I like. I am not keen on overly acidic varieties like Kenyan coffee, and I find the famous Jamaican blue mountain a bit over rated.

I have an iced coffee maker but am not sure how exactly to use it, indeed if you could please describe yours and what you do with it I'd appreciate knowing. Unfortunately my brother bought it me as a Christmas present but then I went off to the states to spend time with my lady so I never got into the habit of using the thing, and unfortunately the instructions and box got lost.

I'll try and describe the cafeteir Orco so you get more of an idea.

it's in two parts, first there is the tall jug that you put the coffee and water in, then there is the lid  which goes on top.

In the center of the lid is a hole with a rod going through it which is approximately the same length as the jug, so when the lid is on you can slide the rod down into the coffee. below the lid, attached to the end of the rod; positioned so that it can slide up and down is a circle of metal mesh which is  the same circumference as the jug, (actually it's two circles of thin mesh with a fine paper filter in the middle).

first, you add the coffee grounds into the jug, then pour in hot water, then sit the lid on the top. At this point the mesh circle is sitting on the top of the water and the rod is sticking up through the hole in the center of the lid. You then leave to brew for as long as you wish, and when it's time to pour you carefully push down on the rod so that the filter goes down inside the jug and forces all of the coffee grounds to the bottom of the pot where they will remain while you pour.

Hope this makes a bit more sense.

My cafeteir is enough for two mugs worth of coffee, if I decide to drink one and leave another in the pot for a while I have a small cosy arrangement that I can put around, though I also have a very huge mug with Darth Vader on it that holds a full cafeteir's worth.

@Dark

The design sounds very reminiscent of the old percolaters. They are basically a tall container with a spout on one side that is where you pour the brewed coffee from, just like a piture. In side is a metal tube that's almost as tall as the container. You also have a metal basket with a cover, both the basket and cover have lots of small holes to allow water through. Finally the container has a lid with a glass bubble in the middle so it ends up being right over the metal tube.

To use it, you first fill the container with water, then put the metal basket on the metal tube, the tube has a ring on it that the basket can't pass so the basket stays near the top of the container. Now you put the tube and basket into the container. Then you put a paper filter in the bottom of the basket, then add the coffee grounds on top of the filter, then put the basket's cover on it so the tube sticks up through a hole in the cover, then finally put the container's lid on the container.

Now you heat the water, some percolators had their own heating element, so you just plugged those in to start brewing. Others required that you put it on the stove to heat the water.

When the water gets hot enough, steam bubbles will push heated water up the tube. When the water comes out of the top of the tube it comes up inside the glass bubble in the container's lid, spreads out, then drips down on top of the basket's cover. Gravity then draws the water through the grounds and back into the container. This continues until you remove the heat. By watching how dark the brewed coffee percolating up into the bubble is, you can decide when to remove the heat. If you like strong coffee, you just leave it percolating longer.

When brewing is done, the percolator becomes a piture full of hot coffee. Because of the pouring spout you don't need to remove the basket and tube assembly until you want to clean them. It doesn't hurt the coffee to leave them there, though some people prefer to remove them as soon as brewing is done so they can leave the piture plugged in or on the stove to keep the coffee hot.

I'm flabbergasted and amused. I just bought a new coffee maker, this new one is made of stainless steel rather than plastic as my old one was. While going through the manual to familiarize myself with it so I could start using it tomorrow, to my surprise, the piece that I said looks like a flat shower head, they actually called a shower head! Wild!

@Dark

Probably so, but you can also get percolaters that have no heating element. For those, you place them on the stove just like you would a tea kettle. Also, there's no condensation involved, the sole purpose of shooting the percolating water into the bubble on the piture's lid is so you can see how strong your coffee is getting so you'll know when to stop brewing it.

Other than the part about dropping the basket with the grounds into the coffee, your device sounds very similar to a percolator.

One thing I don't know, is whether the automatic drip machines make a better cup of coffee or they are just simpler to use than the percolators. It might depend on personal taste, despite the popularity of the automatic drip machines, I have one friend who swears by and still uses a percolator.

Oh, kettles are available over hear, they are just not a household staple as they are over there, probably because at some point in our history we dropped the tradition of an after noon tea. But you can buy them along with all the accessories that go with them, if you are so inclined.

It's probably the same with the way you brew coffee, what you use is more than likely available over here, but just like tea kettles, not in common use.

Anyway I'm drinking my first cup of coffee from my new coffee maker, the brewing routine is a bit more involved than with the old coffee maker, but the coffee is far better, so the extra work is worth it.

Glad someone else uses the French press, also called a Cafeteir there Assault freak. Btw,  are electric kettles also common   Canada as they are in the uk?

Myself, while I could use an electric grinder, I use a hand powered one. This actually isn't as much work as it sounds, indeed by the time the kettle is boiled I've usually got the beans ground. The grinderI have is designed to be used with the Cafeteir, so there is no issue with setting it, indeed if I did ever decide to use an electric one I'd probably also get it from  witards since I know their grinders don't burn the coffee as  when I get ready ground beans from them (which I occasionally do for expediency), they work out well.

the ratio I use is two  tea spoons of beans for each I'd usually do of grounds, so if  am making coffee in my cafeteir  where I would usually use three tea spoons, I stick six tea spoons of beans into the grinder.

The grinder has a little draw at the bottom, and a boal  the top just under the grinding handle, so you just  spoon the  beans in the top, turn the handle until they're all done, then pull the draw out and empty it nto the Cafetier then add boiling water as normal.

@Orco, I do remember hearing somewhere that the lack   electric kettles in the states is partly due to a difference in power supply, though I am not certain on that. I know  here the idea of having to boil water on the hobb sounds like a throwback to the  fifties or something you do  when camping in a caravan .

Certainly I can say it was one of the things I really found odd when living in the states.

I use a drip maker : Bonavita BV1900TS  and it's amazing with 5 scoops from my espresso spoon thing I got some time back... Then I froth half the glass of milk+Flavor shot of coice using my Breville BREBMF600XL frother.

At the hotel in the states where my lady and I stayed for our honeymoon there was one of those automatic machines which I believe was a k cup make, though I'm afraid I wasn't a fan, the coffee was waaaay too weak for my taste and not having any choice was a trifle irritating.

while I think you could probably get something like those refill machines over here, they really haven't caught on, mostly I suspect because people here prefer the electric kettle and all have different preferences, especially when drinking tea.

There are other brands of coffee machine that do the same thing, and Nespresso is by far the best one. Nespresso pods are different from k-cups in that they use actual beans... but the machine works on the same principle. Best coffee next to an actual maker or espresso machine. I've had both their regular coffee and espresso... and they can't be beat if you're wanting a pod machine, which I admit is quicker and more convenient than the french press and beans method I use now. But a good burr grinder and beans have definitely made an impact the last three days. hahaha.