So, you like coffee — a lot. Me, too. I like it so much that I'm a home roaster and an importer. That's right. I import green coffee beans directly from the La Minita farm in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. Why? Well, because — get ready — it's the best inexpensive way to enjoy the best gourmet organic, free trade coffee on Earth.

Apparently, I am not the only coffee lover in the EC family. You send me lots of questions and comments on the subject. Here's one:

"Which coffee maker makes the hottest coffee and keeps it hot without burning it?"

"Hot" is a nebulous term when it comes to coffee temperature. For McDonald's, "hot" meant a big lawsuit when it was so hot that a customer burned herself when she spilled it in her lap. For my grandson Eli, "hot" means any temperature, even slightly warmer than tepid.

Coffee aficionados insist that the water temperature in a drip coffee brewer needs to be exactly 179 F the moment it hits the coffee grounds. Personally, I find that to be on the cool side, which confirms that "hot" is a matter of each person's perception.

Automatic drip coffee makers have internal thermostats to control the water temperature. They range from 155 F to 205 F depending on the make and model. This setting is not adjustable on most machines, which most of us don't think about when buying a coffee maker.

Manual coffee makers like the Chemex (makes 8 cups and costs about $36) and Aerobie Aeropress (about $30) leave the temperature up to the brewer. When I use my Aeropress, I heat the water to boiling and then let it cool for a few minutes, until my instant-read thermometer reads 190 F. Using this method, I only make the amount of coffee we will consume immediately. Keeping it hot is not an issue.

OXO 9-CUP COFFEE MAKER. This beautiful machine dispenses coffee into a vacuum-insulated carafe that keeps the coffee hot. Water is heated and held throughout the brew cycle at temperatures between 197.6 and 204.8 F. The carafe will keep coffee hot for an hour or two (although it's not "hot" as I define it). This machine makes an excellent cup of hot coffee and has gotten very high marks among hundreds of reviewers. It costs about $200.

BUNN VP17-1SS POUROVER COFFEE BREWER. This is the coffeemaker I own and use continuously. It keeps water heated to 191 F so it's ready to go at all times. That means when I pour the fresh pot of water into the machine to brew a pot, I'd better have the coffee grounds in the basket ready to go, because hot coffee begins pouring into the pot instantaneously. This machine makes up to 12 cups of coffee. The coffee pours into a glass carafe, and a warmer keeps the carafe hot. We live at a semi-high elevation of 5,280 feet, and this machine works flawlessly. I have owned so many coffee makers in my life. I've loved some, I've hated others, but they all eventually failed. However, I do not plan on replacing this beautiful BUNN machine in the foreseeable future. It is trouble-free and highly dependable, and it makes fabulous coffee. It cannot be beat. And it looks cool, too. It costs about $260.

Neither of these two automatic coffee makers is cheap. However, they are inexpensive when you consider that you wouldn't replace either one for a very long time, if ever.

For more information on the coffee makers above visit the Everyday Cheapskate page "A Good Hot Cup of Coffee." For a true coffee lover, a coffee maker is an investment in one of life's pleasures. The joys of a good cup of coffee cannot be exaggerated.

Mary invites questions, comments and tips at [email protected], or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "Debt-Proof Living," released in 2014. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.