Behind every great coffee brewer is a host of great tools. I mean the ones beyond the obvious like having a coffee pot or decaf at hand! I never though about how many items I use to brew my coffee both at home and at work to make the process stream lined. Listed below are some of my favorite odd and ends for my coffee brewing time. While many are not necessary, some are true life savers. Read on!

1. A great coffee mug of course! Now there are two schools on this, the travel mug crowd and the typical ceramic mug plain Jane people. Neither are wrong in their mug preferences but there are pros and cons to each approach. The travel mug crowd is often at the mercy of too small coffee pots stuck holding mug in hand at the spout. Conversely the ceramic mug crowd suffers with ice cold coffee exactly 2 minutes and 13 seconds after it hits the mug. These days for the office I stick to my good old fashioned ceramic mug. You just fit in better not looking like you need a big gulp of coffee on your desk. Nothing says classy like a nice ceramic mug!
2. Fixings like creamer, sugar, stirrers, or disposable cups. How often have you had a guest in the office only to have no way to offer them a cup of nice hot quality decaf. Been there for sure! Its always a good idea to have some extras around even if you don’t regularly use them. You never know when you might have a coffee emergency!
3. A really good coffee scoop. Cant count the number of times I needed to measure out a exact amount of coffee only to have no scoop in sight. Nothing ruins coffee quicker then putting too little in and having dirty sock water coffee. I really like the scoop that comes with the Aeropress coffee maker as it has a good volume and a long handle. It can also double as a survival tool for fending off hordes of caffeine deprived coworkers when the coffee runs out in the office!
4. A manual coffee grinder. Seriously I love my fancy electric grinder but it requires electric which can go out. I lost power for almost a week after a hurricane. Do you really what to be stuck in the dark with no power looking at your really awesome Indian Monsoon whole bean coffee and have no way to grind it? “But how will I brew it you ask?” Remember our good old friend the Percolator pot? Throw that on a grill or a small campfire and your good to go. Thats what I did! Steaming hot coffee in the dark with no power! Best of all it gives you an excuse to sit around a campfire and hang out with friends and great coffee!
5. A great thermos. This one I don’t use much but when I do it comes in handy! Nothing like brewing some fresh hot coffee in the fall and taking it to an event to hang out. While similar to a travel mug, a thermos can hold much more volume and keep it hotter much longer. Great for taking when you hang out with friends in the park too! No one wants to drink expensive and cold coffee (unless your a monster or like cold brew).

These are my top five supplies I rely on to make my great coffee. I will update this list frequently as I find more great products to make that cup of decaf even better.