How To Clean A Coffee Maker to Make Your Brew Taste Even Better

How to clean a coffee maker might not be a high priority on your list, but it should be.

For starters, there’s the hygiene issue: The warm, moist environment can be a breeding ground for germs like bacteria or mold. Around 50% of auto-drip coffee maker reservoirs (the place where you pour the water) has yeast and mold. If you have a mold allergy or asthma, those microbes can irritate your airways.

Auto-drip coffee makers can also occasionally harbour bacteria that have the potential to cause food poisoning, like salmonella and E. coli.

The risk of getting sick is probably pretty small, because coffee gets boiled, a lot of the microbes are killed off. Still, if your mold and bacteria counts are very high, boiling may not be enough to bring the counts down.

A not-so-clean coffee maker could however mess with the taste of your favourite brew. Over time, brewed coffee leaves behind coffee oils, which can go rancid and taste bad. When the residue isn’t removed regularly, it will make your coffee taste increasingly bitter.

How to clean your coffee maker

  1. Fill your reservoir with 1 part white vinegar to 2 parts water. The vinegar cuts through grime and kills bacteria
  2. Let the mixture sit in the reservoir for 10 minutes. Hit brew, then let the hot brewed mixture sit in the coffee pot for 10 minutes. That gives the vinegar time to hit both the reservoir and the pot.
  3. Rinse the pot, then perform two brew cycles with just water to get rid of any lingering vinegary taste.

Cleaning your coffee maker once a month will get the job done and make you brew taste better!

Here are a couple of things to consider when buying a coffee machine for home use.