To Find the 5 Best Single-Serve Coffee Makers, We Made Dozens of Cups of Coffee

Believe it or not, brewing one cup of coffee at a time is controversial amongst coffee professionals. However, some pros like to go small. “I pretty much only brew one cup at a time,” said Umeko Motoyoshi, owner of umeshiso.com. “If I brew a large batch then sometimes it can get cold and I’m not able to enjoy it all the way to the end.”

With the pros of brewing a single cup in mind, we set out to find the best single-serve coffee makers that make just eight to 10 ounces of coffee at a time. After more than 45 cups of coffee, we landed on five top picks.

The Winners, at a Glance

We loved the Kalita Wave 155 Dripper for many of the same reasons its bigger sibling won our pour-over testing: The brewer’s simple, flat-bottom design along with the size of the filter bed make it perfectly suited for a single cup. It can be paired with these filters and the Kalita 300-G server, if you don’t want to brew directly into a coffee mug. 

The OXO Rapid Brewer is simple to use and makes complex coffee concentrate—hot or cold. Its extraction was especially good, thanks to the immersion chamber. Plus, it's affordable.

While the Aeropress is great on its own, the Prismo attachment’s pressure-actuated valve allows for even more control and customization. Pair it with the Fellow Mighty Small Glass Carafe. "I love to brew with the Prismo attachment for the Aeropress," Motoyoshi says. "I have a different relationship to brewing a single cup of coffee because I’m making it just for me, or just for you, and it feels more special to me, and I pay closer attention to the brewing.” 

For a single-serve coffee maker that you could practically use with your eyes closed, we’ll point you toward our favorite Nespresso machine. It can make double espressos, gran lungos, and coffee.

Our favorite Keurig coffee maker can brew six to 12 ounces of coffee extremely quickly. For cold coffee fans, it has a mode for brewing directly over ice.

The Tests

• Brewing Test (Manual Methods Only): We tested each brewer using 15 grams of coffee and 250 grams of water. We followed the standard brewing practices for each coffee maker.
• Temperature Stability Test (Manual Methods Only): To evaluate the temperature stability through the brewing cycle, we inserted a Thermocouple into the coffee bed.
• Brewing Test (Pod Machines Only): We tried several different capsules with each pod machine, timing how long it took to make coffee.
• Taste Tests: If possible, we adjusted each brewing recipe to produce the best-tasting coffee.
• Usability and Cleanup Tests: We assessed things like how easy the brewers were to use, pick up, attach a filter to, and clean.

What We Learned

Small Brews Lacked Thermal Mass

Across the board, the single-cup brewers lost a lot of heat. One of the main advantages of an automatic drip coffee maker is a closed brew basket and a boiler that delivers water directly to the coffee bed. When we tested pour-overs, the full-sized devices couldn’t quite match the temperature stability of an automatic drip brewer…and single-cup brewers fared even worse. That's not an issue if you want to make cold brew, and the OXO Rapid Brewer offers that option. The concentrate turns out just as good when made with cold or room temperature water.

Pour-Over Bed Depth Mattered

It’s not a surprise that the best brewer in this review has the narrowest base. The Kalita Wave’s base was only five centimeters wide, while the Pure Over (one of the poorer performers) was 10 inches. With a narrower base, the small amount of coffee had a deeper bed depth, which encouraged even saturation, better flow restriction, and consistent extraction. In comparison, the wide base of the Pure Over meant that coffee around the edge of the brew bed dried out significantly earlier than that at the bottom of the filter.

Precision Was Key

Making a single cup puts a microscope on the whole brewing process. If you’re off by a gram or two of coffee using 60 grams of coffee and one liter of water, it's fine. But if you’re off by a gram when using just 15 grams total? The brew ratio is massively disrupted. 

The lower the ratio of coffee to water, the stronger the brew gets, and the harder it becomes to extract the sweeter flavors you’re looking for. When brewing in the eight- to 10-ounce range, an extra coffee bean or two falling in the grinder or an errant pour that adds a half-ounce of volume can throw the whole thing off. This is why, when making single-serve amounts, it’s important to weigh everything in grams, even if you’re used to imperial measurements. Case in point: The OXO Rapid Brewer has fill lines for grounds and water, but our coffee tasted much better when we weighed everything.

More Coffee Made a Big Difference

None of the manual brewers really produced a stellar, eight-ounce coffee, so in the second round of testing, we pushed the volume to 10 ounces. With this larger amount, we found brew times were more consistent, and the coffee ended up tastier with balanced sweetness and body.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Single-Serve Coffee Maker

The best single-serve coffee makers were simple in design, easy to clean, had comfortable handles, and made great coffee. They held onto brew temperature better than their competitors and were more forgiving during the brewing process. A narrow base was also key to a well-functioning single-serve brewer, as it promoted better, even extraction. While we don't think capsule coffee makers produce the best coffee, we do have top picks for those as well—ideal for someone who prioritizes speed and ease.

Our Favorite Single-Serving Coffee Makers

What we liked: The Kalita Wave 155 made great-tasting coffee. With a flat-bottom design, the coffee was evenly distributed across the base which allowed the grounds to be evenly saturated. With such a narrow diameter, it was easy to maintain a bed depth that allowed for even and consistent extraction. The short height of the brewer’s walls also allowed the kettle's spout to get closer to the coffee, promoting higher brew temperatures. We appreciated that the brewer could feasibly make up to 14 ounces of coffee. Since the Kalita Wave 155's body is glass, it's easy to rinse off and wipe clean. With a base wide enough to rest on top of most mugs or glass servers, the Kalita Wave 155 is a utilitarian brewer. 

What we didn’t like: While the glass version is cheaper than the stainless steel version, it also felt fragile. The handle on the glass version was rounded, which caused it to rotate in our palm when picked up.

Key Specs

• Materials: Glass and plastic
• Weight: 4 ounces
• Surface diameter: 5 centimeters
• Base diameter: 11 centimeters
• Number of pieces: 2
• Compatible with: Kalita Glass 300-G Server
  

What we liked: The Rapid Brewer is so easy to use. It has a pressurized chamber, which puts it a leg up on the Aeropress. (Only by adding the Fellow Prismo attachment can you pressurize the Aeropress.) It makes complex, well-extracted coffee concentrate that can be diluted in a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio. It works hot and cold. As we mention in our full review of the Rapid Brewer, it's well-made and durable, especially for a plastic product.

What we didn't like: Not much, It doesn't offer the same romanticism as a pour-over dripper, and it's not as beloved by coffee insiders as the Aeropress.

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic, stainless steel (tamper)
• Weight: 1.27 pounds
• Dimensions: 8.7 x 3.4 x 3.3
• Number of pieces: 5
• Cleaning instructions: All parts except the pump are dishwasher-safe

What we liked: With the pressurized rubber valve on the attachment’s base and a micromesh metal filter, the Prismo transforms the Aeropress into a full immersion chamber that lets coffee steep for as long as you'd like.

The Aeropress has a huge following, but when used right side up, coffee tends to trickle through the filter because of, well, gravity. You can invert the Aeropress, but this is precarious. The Prismo attachment makes this immersion method easy. Even though the Prismo comes with a built-in metal filter, we recommend adding two of the standard Aeropress paper filters, which filter out any remaining coffee grit.

What we didn’t like: It can be tricky to properly seat a paper filter and there are more parts to keep clean.

Key Specs (Together)

• Materials: Plastic, rubber, metal
• Weight: 8 ounces
• Surface diameter: 6 centimeters
• Base diameter: 9.5 centimeters
• Length: 17 centimeters
• Number of pieces: 2
  

What we liked: If you prioritize convenience and using a pour-over sounds persnickety, you may well like a Nespresso machine. Our top pick scans a pod’s barcode and automatically adjusts the brewing amount based on the coffee type. It can make espressos, double espressos, gran lungos, or full cups of coffee. We liked that you can move its water tank to either side, too, to fit your countertop space.

What we didn’t like: Serious coffee people may not like Nespresso, but if you’re one of them, you probably already know that. You can read more about the cons of this type of machine here.

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic
• Weight: 9.3 pounds
• Brewing options: Espresso, double espresso, gran lungo, and coffee

What we liked: This Keurig makes six to 12 ounces of coffee in just minutes. The water tank can also be moved depending on your space. It has modes for iced coffee and extra strong coffee, too.

What we didn’t like: Like Nespresso, coffee people might find Keurig’s brews lacking. This is a machine for convenience—and for many, that’s enough.

Key Specs

• Materials: Plastic
• Weight: 5.5 pounds
• Brewing options: 6, 8, 10, or 12 ounces; over ice and strong brew modes

The Competition

• OXO Brew Single-Serve Pour-over Coffee Maker: The brewer is based on the Melita cone shape, but the auto-drip dispersion holes only let water through in a narrow circle, leaving the edges of the coffee bed dry.
• Espro Travel Press: Unless you need a compact French press for travel or camping, you would have a better experience with a standard-sized French press.
• Pure Over: The wide, flat bottom leads to an extremely uneven saturation and guarantees channeling. Plus, the straight handles on the pour-over and mug were awkward to hold.

FAQs

Can a drip coffee maker be used to make a single cup?

Some drip coffee makers have single-cup settings, but the filter basket is still designed for larger brews. One option might be the OXO 8-cup coffee brewer, which actually features a smaller basket insert for brewing smaller volumes, though it's better designed for a minimum of 16 ounces. 

How much coffee should I use when making a single-cup pour-over?

The standard ratio for coffee to water is 60 grams per liter of water, or 1:16.667—that means you should start with one part coffee and 16 parts water. That could be one ounce of coffee and 16 ounces of water, but measurements are much more accurate in grams when brewing smaller amounts. It’s also recommended to weigh coffee on a scale, and then place your whole pour-over rig on the scale afterward. This way, when you add water to the filter, you can measure exactly how much water you're adding to the grounds. An eight-ounce cup of coffee should use 15 grams of coffee and 250 grams of water.

What is a single-serve coffee maker?

A single-serve coffee maker is any type of coffee maker that can make a single serving at a time, usually between six and eight ounces.

Why We're the Experts

• Jesse Raub was a writer for Serious Eats. He's worked for 15 years in the specialty coffee industry.
• He was our resident coffee expert, having tackled numerous coffee-related stories for the site, including reviews of pour-over coffee makers, coffee scales, and handheld coffee grinders.
• For this review, we brewed over 45 cups of coffee and went through around five pounds of beans. We also interviewed coffee professionals Jaymie Lao and Umeko Motoyoshi.
• Rochelle Bilow, an editor at Serious Eats, updated this review by adding the OXO Rapid Brewer as a winner. She tested it in 2025.