It's the grinder stupid.

Umm so where do I find that dead horse to kick because I am about to do so.

It should almost go without saying that the biggest improvement that anyone can do to their home coffee making is buying a nice grinder. The grinder is the most fundamental part of the coffee making process, the rest are just ways to push water through coffee grounds. I think I could've lifted any one of those phrases from a forum reply at places like coffeegeek.com or home-barista.com or coffeesnobs, however there is a nice article written by Mr. Oliver Strand over the NY Times food blogs that does so in a very elegant manner.

It can be found below:

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/ristretto-the-daily-grind-2/

What I find nice about his article is that he is really good at writing about picking up a grinder from an unpretencious place and that's important. Really is advocating for people to go out and spend about a hundred dollars on a grinder, specifically the Baratza Encore. Like he states in his article, "A good grinder is an expensive, bulky appliance with less sex appeal than a blender." I mean it's not going to make you a cold margarita for your lady friend, but it may help you get up in the morning so you can make the money to buy the margarita!

The other nice thing about the article that is hidden a little bit in there and is by no means his recommendation is that just buying a blade grinder and grinding before brewing up your coffee is going to be a step towards better coffee from preground. This part can be filed under unpretencious.