A lot depends on the brewing method. I'm not partial to French press coffee and I have tried dozens of these brewers over the years.
For a while in the '80s we had a nurse who was from France. Did not care for the coffee from our Bunn coffee machine, although I bought one of the "premium" coffees and ground the beans fresh. None of the nurses or the doc liked really strong coffee. I would make a small batch for myself as I was always first in, and would have it in a thermos - I liked dark roast and fairly strong.
She had her own pour-over set up and used pre-ground Italian Roast - dark and oily - and at least one and a half times the amount of grounds for a usual mug. It may have looked like espresso but it did not have the flavor of espresso. Her family in Nice owned a small hotel and they catered mostly to French and European guests because "Americans and the English" are "too much bother." In particular, they complained that the coffee was too strong, tasted "burnt" and asked for "American coffee" which wasn't going to happen. She said the Germans, the Swedes and the Russians never complained. She said she wouldn't drink coffee in American restaurants because it was just "colored water" and tasteless.
She was picky about the water. When she first came to work she brought her own but we had Sparklets water and she used that for her coffee. (I also used it for mine - the rest of the crew didn't care.)
So you do have to have good water, filtered - bottled water is a waste, most of it is no better than tap water - in my opinion it's a rip off. I have a Berkey water purifier and all the water I use for coffee, tea, cooking, drinking, goes through it.
Pour-over brewers are simple and effective. Many of the automatic brewers are just glorified and more expensive pour-overs.
I have a Ninja Coffee Bar (got it free to evaluate a few months before this model was released) And it is actually just a pour-over that is automated and measures from one cup to a full carafe. I do a mug at a time because I can't stand "stale" coffee. I have other brewers that use pods but I only use the refillable pods with my own coffee because the stuff in the pods is overpriced crap.
I've gone on too long with this. Good luck! Get some Whole bean French Roast or Italian Roast, grind the beans fresh each time and use a bit more per cup than is usual.
