The Best Single-Serve Coffee Makers, According to Pros

For electric single-serve coffee makers, Ever Meister, writer and specialty coffee professional, recommends Keurig K-Supreme Plus SMART. “It allows the user to control a number of variables like brew temperature, brew volume and even automatically identifies the type of K-cup you put into it to offer recommendations,” says Meister. “You can learn a lot about what makes good coffee flavor from experimenting with the variables.”

Machines like these, “don’t require a ton of accessories—coffee grinder, coffee beans, scoops and hot water kettles—[which] means they can fit virtually anywhere and will work at the drop of a hat,” says Meister. “Some people just want it brewed and ready to drink, bing-bang-boom.”

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The phin filter is a brewing tool popular in Vietnam. Sahra Nguyen, founder and CEO of Nguyen Coffee Supply, is such a fan that she created her own to sell on Nguyen Coffee Supply’s website.

“When you brew coffee with something like a phin filter, you can make the perfect amount of coffee each time,” says Nguyen, whose specialty coffee company imports beans directly from Vietnam and roasts them in Brooklyn, New York.

Plus, you avoid wasting the “one to three ounces at the bottom that [typically] gets tossed” when making a larger amount of coffee. There’s no paper filter required, she adds, making it an even more eco-friendly method.

Nguyen notes phins are also “super versatile—you can brew a highly strong, concentrated cup and you can do a second pour of water to open it up—like when we add water to an espresso shot and it becomes an Americano!”

“With great coffee, the customer has an important role to play,” says Philip Anacker, cofounder and managing partner of Flying Goat Coffee, a specialty coffee roaster in Healdsburg, California. “The coffee brewing process is very important if you want to get the most out of your morning cup.”

Anacker brews his morning cup with the Clever Coffee Dripper, “a wonderful combination of full immersion and paper filter brewing,” he says. With the Clever Dripper, “you get complete and even extraction of your coffee, like a French press, with clean sweet flavors and no sediment like filter brewing. You can also easily control steep time for a perfectly brewed cup.”

For Teoh, single-serve means “no more coffee sitting for a prolonged period of time, oxidizing and losing flavor,” as it does so often with bigger batches.

Though she favors manual brewing (her favorite is the Origami Dripper with a resin holder as of late), Teoh can vouch for the quality of the Breville Precision Brewer, which features an array of settings to get a more personalized cup of flavor.

However you brew your single cup, Teoh advises, invest in good quality coffee from your local roaster. “The cup of coffee will only be as good as the ingredients you use to brew it.”