How can I make ridiculously good coffee at my desk?

Hot water, coffee, french press. Best cup of coffee you'll ever drink.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=10182077. You put the coffee in a filter in the cone, and the cone sits on top of your cup. Pour in your water and voila.

I loves my aeropress for work, it's easy to clean up and makes a nice cup.

French press, grinder and hot water will yield a nice cup. A really solid cup. But you asked for ridiculously good coffee. A medium-gear-intensive solution that will produce a superlative cup is as follows: -http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001802PIQ/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ -http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005YR0GDA/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ -http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000YWF5E/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ -http://ablebrewing.com/collections/products/#kone-coffee-filter (if you want to reduce the amount of waste, in terms of coffee filters) -Really good coffee (too many options to link. your profile suggests you're in the bay area? Try sightglass, or Four Barrel) You'll probably get some coffee converts out of ahttp://vimeo.com/6161817

I have a French Press at my desk and I always get comments about how good the coffee smells. A pourover might be a good choice, too, but I like not having to tend to the coffee - just pour in hot water and wait a few minutes. I don't necessarily think you need a grinder at work. I grind my beans at home each morning before leaving for the office and that seems to get the job done. I also think that an important aspect of the coffee ritual that is often overlooked is having the proper drinking vessel. If you can keep it clean and safe, maybe get a bone china cup and saucer (Goodwill can be a good place to get individual pieces like that) or a favorite mug from home.

French press is what I'm using (to the envy of all who are drinking the sludge which comes out of the office coffee pot). Added bonus - your office will smell fab.

Hot water, coffee, french press. Best cup of coffee you'll ever drink. A thousand times, this. As an added bonus, you can opt to share your bit of French-pressed heaven with a highly-favored co-worker. I used an all-metal French press (as opposed to the one with a glass carafe), as I tend to be a bit clumsy. I also used an http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm for awhile, but it's a little too fussy for me. The coffee is good, but I wasn't wild about having to lay in a supply of the little filters. So: French press all the way.

I've been using a Melitta cone for, well, decades. The big trick in using a cone is to use a good filter and to soak the grounds in the bottom of the cone/filter with a small amount of dribbled-in boiling water water for 10-20 sec, discard the weak stuff that comes out of that first quick soak, and then *slowly* fill the filter. I get best results when I only let the coffee ground/boiling water slurry get about 1/2-2/3 of the way up the side of the cone. When I've talked to people dissatisfied with Melitta cone brewing, I have usually discovered that they quickly filled the cone to the brim without wetting the grounds at all (which results in a lot of the grounds floating to the top and not contributing to the brew, a weak and bitter version of what they should have gotten).

* http://prima-coffee.com/brewer/hario-v60-coffee-dripper-size-01. I use the Glass kind with the plastic bottom. * Use filtered water. Temp 192 - 205 deg F. (below boiling point of 212deg) * Before brewing, poor at least half a cup of hot water through the empty filter to remove bleach from the filter and pre-heat the cup.