Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, single serve coffee makers are not only here to stay, they’re starting to come into their own. You can find brewing machines that make a decent cup with a minimum of fuss to complex machines that will brew a cup of espresso or cappuccino complete with frothed milk.
Since they do, indeed, make coffee, you’ll find them everywhere on this website and without apology.
Table of Contents
- Things to Consider Before Buying a Single Serve Coffee Maker
- Hamilton Beach FlexBrew
- Breville-Nespresso Vertuo Coffee and Espresso Maker
- Hamilton Beach Scoop Coffee Maker
- Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker
- MyJo Single Cup Coffee Maker
- Cuisinart SS10P1 Serve Coffee Brewer
- Nespresso Pixie by Breville
- Keurig K-Café
- Our Top Pick
Things to Consider Before Buying a Single Serve Coffee Maker
While it’s tempting to jump online and buy the first single serve machine you see, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind before you click the Buy button.
- Type of Coffee. Some machines are simply alternatives to automatic drip coffee makers while others delve into brewing specialty coffees such as an espresso. They might offer cappuccinos with the addition of a frother. It’s up to you decide if you’re looking for simplicity or are trying to recreate the magical flavors from your favorite coffee shop.
- Price per Cup. Just about any coffee you make at home will be cheaper to make that buying out at a shop, but there are considerable differences even within the home brews. Buying loose grounds to put into a single serve reusable filter will be considerably less expensive than K-cups while K-cups will be cheaper than some other brands.
- Size Some machines are designed to be show pieces and take up a lot of counter space while others are designed for portability and can fit into a backpack. Make an assessment of how much space you can allow for a coffee maker.
- Power. While you’re thinking about that space on your counter, make sure any outlet can handle the number of watts your coffee machine will be using. Some of them can pull up to 1500 watts which can be a problem when running multiple appliances at once.
Now that you have a better idea of what you’re looking for, let’s take a look at some of the better single serve coffee machines that are available.
Our List of 8 Favorite Single Serve Coffee Makers
1. Hamilton Beach FlexBrew
The FlexBrew lives up to the versatility in its name. This coffee maker uses K-cups or loose grounds. If you’re one to have people over for coffee now and then, the 12-cup carafe can take over the heavy lifting so everyone can get served at the same time.
It brews a single cup of coffee in about three minutes. K-Cups can be filled up to 10 ounces and ground coffee can be pushed up to 14 ounces.
The carafe side includes programming features to set up your coffee in advance.
Click here to check out our review of the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew
Click here to check out the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew on Amazon
2. Breville-Nespresso Vertuo Coffee and Espresso
Nespresso pods soared in popularity thanks in large part to a superb advertising campaign. Fortunately, the machine lives up to the hype. It continues to have a strong following for a reason. This sleek and stylish coffee machine makes a very tasty cup of coffee.
Is it a true espresso? Well, it’s very close. It does use pressure to brew the coffee in their pods and the flavors are more robust that you’ll get from your average k-cup machine.
Click here to check out our review of the Breville-Nespresso VertuoLine
Click here to check out the Breville-Nespresso Vertuo Coffee and Espresso Machine on Amazon
3. Hamilton Beach Scoop Coffee Maker
This coffee brewer by Hamilton Beach holds its own with the top single serve coffee machines. It’s quick and convenient.
It doesn’t use pods. Instead, it makes its bones by finding ways to brew your choice of loose grounds.
There are two settings for the brew strength and two choices for sizes: eight and fourteen ounces.
A durable, simple and affordable option, the Hamilton Beach Scoop Coffee Maker also made our 11 Best Coffee Makers Under $100 list.
Click here to check out the Hamilton Beach Scoop Coffee Maker on Amazon.com
4. Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker
This Keurig not only brews coffee in standard K-Cups, it also has setting for iced coffee or hot water.
It will also brew your favorite grind by adding them in a My K Cup Universal Reusable Coffee Filter.
It has an automatic shut-off feature and huge 75 ounce reservoir.
There are five different cup size options available.
Click here to check out our review of the Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker
Click here to check out the Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker on Amazon
5. MyJo Single Cup Coffee Maker by Presto
The beauty of this coffee maker is if you can heat water, you can brew yourself a cup of coffee.
It works with K-cups and loose grounds using their MyJo filter which is similar to Keurig’s My K Cup reusable filters.
The carafe can even be used to heat water in a microwave.
Your biggest problem will be testing the water temperature. Good forearm strength doesn’t hurt either as you manually pump the water through the filter yourself.
Take a look at this video from Presto Appliances
Click here to check out the Presto MyJo Single Cup Coffee on Amazon.com
6. Cuisinart SS10P1
A True Winner
The Cuisinart model SS-10P1 accepts all K-cups, has five beverage sizes, a hot water button (don’t try and tell us you don’t want plain hot water, we know better), detachable reservoir and a bunch of fun programmable features.
We like it even better as the part of the SS-20 Model which includes an option to brew coffee in a 10-cup carafe.
Check out our review of the Cuisinart SS-20 Coffee Center 10-Cup & Thermal Single-Serve Brewer
Click here to check out the Cuisinart SS-10P1 Single Serve Coffee Maker on Amazon.com
7. Nespresso Pixie by Breville
For those that love the Nespresso brand but would like a machine that doesn’t use a lot of space on the counter, the Pixie is a great choice. It brews in two sizes: Espresso and Lungo, but these settings can be customized to taste.
The pump pressure reaches 19 bars and this particular package includes the Aeroccino 3 milk frother and a nice sampler pack.
Click here to check out the Nespresso Pixie on Amazon.com
8. Keurig K-Café
The K-Café is Keurig’s response to the growing demand for home solutions for brewing specialty coffees.
It uses the My K-cup reusable filter for your own grind or any 1.0 K-Cup. There are four serving size options: 6, 8, 10 and 12 ounces. The reservoir holds 60 ounces of water.
A built-in frother lets you create some nice lattes.
It has the Smart Start feature that allows for one-touch operation – you don’t have to wait for the water to heat before choosing a cup size (which was always the dumbest part about Keurig coffee makers).It also shuts off automatically after two hours.
Click here to check out our review of the Keurig K-Cafe
Click here to check out the Keurig K-Café on Amazon.com
Our Top Pick
Hamilton Beach FlexBrew
Okay, it isn’t exclusively a single serve coffee machine, but that’s why we like it. There are times when it’s really more convenient to batch up a pot for a crowd. At the same time, a pot of coffee can go to waste and/or burn quickly if it’s just one or two people drinking it.
The FlexBrew has everything you need in a programmable machine plus the ability to just brew a single cup if you’re trying to get out of the kitchen quickly.
Click here to check out the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew on Amazon.com