The market offers you three choices – plastic, glass, and stainless steel. You should avoid the plastic options because they don’t last long, and the quality of the materials may be questionable. As for glass carafes, they use a hot plate system to keep your coffee warm. However, if you leave it in the carafe for long, it may become bitter. The good news is that you can see how much coffee is left through the glass, but make sure you don’t drop the carafe, or you will surely break it. Standard drip coffee makers feature stainless steel or thermal carafe is usually not see-through, but thanks to the insulation process, it can keep coffee warm for a long time.