As someone who does not do alcohol, I am pretty fussy about my coffee. (By way of example, there is an excellent restaurant down your way called Pace One. I used to go there back when we were in college. I took my wife there last year. They make excellent food, but in 20 years of trying they are unable to make a good cup of coffee. Stick with their hot apple cider. Anyway....)

Clean coffee-makers definitely help. I would also advise starting with cold water, not warm/hot water. Finally, fresh beans are great. My tastes have evolved over time on where on Earth you should get your beans from. In college Kenyan AA was to my liking. I've gone through Sumatran and Ethiopean Harrar phases. Jamaican Blue Mountain is always a treat, but it is rather expensive. Try different beans until you find what you like.

And please, please, do not get those "flavored" beans. The flavoring is burned on during an extra cooking process, which hurts the taste of the bean, and the beans used to make flavored coffees are generally lower quality, since they think the flavoring will mask any deficiencies in the beans.

So... there is a very long comment and there was not even a question. This is why I became an attorney, I suppose.