Most people who are dependent on caffeine have breakfast with an
old friend -- the coffee maker. Every morning you scoop in the
coffee, add some water and flip it on, but have you ever
wondered what's happening inside. How does the water get from
the reservoir over to the coffee grounds in the filter basket?
How does everything heat up so quickly, and what on earth is
that gurgling noise? In this article, we'll look inside a
typical drip coffee maker so you can understand exactly what's
happening when you make coffee. We'll also look at the possible
problems that might cause your coffee maker to stop working. By
the end of this article, you may look at your old friend in a
completely new way. Before we get into that, however, let's do a
quick coffee rundown. Coffee plants are evergreen tropical
shrubs and small trees, and they grow best between the Tropic of
Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn (often referred to in the
coffee world as the Bean Belt) which makes sense because the
plants enjoy lots of rain and g