Best Single Serve Coffee Maker: Fast and convenient machines

By Shabbir
Last update:

Are you looking for the best single serve coffee maker for your kitchen? If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Before we dig deeper into our favorite single serve coffee machines, here’s a quick table listing our top 5 picks in case you are in a hurry. See you on the other side!

Best Single Serve Coffee Maker Comparison

IMAGE PRODUCT DETAILS
cfimvtbl-table__imageOur Top PickOur Top PickNespresso Pixie
  • Single serve espresso
  • Lots of exotic flavors
  • Very fast
VIEW ON AMAZON →
cfimvtbl-table__imageHamilton Beach FlexBrew
  • 2 way coffee maker
  • Single serve and drip
  • Expensive but best value
VIEW ON AMAZON →
cfimvtbl-table__imageKeurig K-Classic
  • Flagship Keurig coffee maker
  • Very fast brewing
  • Hundreds of pods to choose from
VIEW ON AMAZON →
cfimvtbl-table__imageHamilton Beach 49981A
  • Very compact
  • No water reservoir
  • Very affordable
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Best Single Serve Coffee Maker: 9 picks to consider

1. Hamilton Beach Single Serve Scoop Coffee Maker

This is a high-quality single serve coffee maker which brews hotter, faster and better-tasting coffee than most available gourmet machines. More than that, it makes use of the simplicity of ground coffee and allows brewing customizable cups quickly.

Normally, it takes under 90 seconds to brew an 8 oz. cup and less than two-and-a-half minutes to brew a 14 oz. travel mug. Also, it is built for simple preparation in three direct steps: Scooping, Placing and Brewing.

It includes a steel mesh scoop to brew filtering freshly ground coffee and has a built-in, adjustable stand which can deal with a standard-size cup and a tall travel mug. The bullets below show you details about what you are about to enjoy with this single serve coffee maker from Hamilton Beach.

  • Brews an 8 oz. cup of coffee within under 90 seconds
  • The built-in adaptable stand allows to accommodate standard-size cup as well as taller travel mugs
  • It includes a steel mesh scoop filter and doesn?t require any paper filters
  • The including of wide drip tray on base works as a spill-resistant drain to produce excess coffee if you want
  • It is configurable between REGULAR and BOLD coffee
  • The long-lasting and stainless steel features guarantee longevity
  • The feature of auto off is available

Pros

  • Available at an affordable price
  • Energy efficient and user friendly
  • Highly customizable for different coffee strengths
  • Very mobile and therefore fits all environments almost perfectly
  • Besides using it for any brand and flavor of coffee, it provides the best economical experience ever.

Cons

  • Cleaning can cause you some hiccups as compared to other machines
  • Takes a bit more time to brew as there is no dedicated water reservoir
  • Lack of auto start hence requires regular settings

2. Hamilton Beach 49980Z Single Serve Coffee 2-Way Brewer and Full Pot Coffee Maker

This is an affordable, low-maintenance single serve coffee maker which can brew pod coffee with ease in under one minute, and can also brew drip coffee.

It is highlighted with the advantages like durability of stainless steel, various brewing options, a compact design and a full 12-cup pot.

This Hamilton Beach coffee maker was built with the priority of morning wake-up routine in mind as you can set the machine to have a pot of coffee ready on a timer.

Then you can move to rise and shine with the single-serve side which allows brewing  a standard-size cup or travel mug-size cup for personal enjoyment.

You can read the full review of the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew here.

In spite of small size, this single serve/2 way brewer introduces lots of great features and benefits:

  • It offers two brewing methods for you to choose, single serve and full pot
  • It has a 12 cup glass carafe
  • You can brew into a travel mug from the single serve side
  • It makes uses of ground coffee, special scoop measures, along with filters ground coffee to ensure perfect cup every time
  • It offers brew strength control. You can choose between bold or regular coffee
  • It is a fully programmed machine with auto shutoff features
  • It allows you to produce up to 14 ounces in travel mug or to make some setting for a shorter cup

Pros

  • Easy to use and provides smooth brewing process
  • Choose between bold and regular brews whenever you want. Thanks to the brew strength selector feature
  • Prepare anywhere between a single cup to 12 cups of coffee whether pre-packaged pods or fresh grind
  • Durable and attractive

Cons

  • The machine is slightly larger compared to others
  • More costly since you’re effectively getting 2 machines in one

3. Breville BKC700XL Gourmet Single Serve Coffee maker

If you are looking for a coffee maker for maximum coffee freshness, this Breville single serve brewer is for you. It claims to offer the freshest cup of coffee ever.

In addition to this, it is designed with quiet pump technology which allowing much quieter operation compared to the former models and the addition of an iced beverage function allows you to brew your desired bold cups of tea or coffee with ease. Also, the patented showerhead always delivers the exact amount of water at all time for even coffee extraction and stronger flavor.

Here is the summary of the features that you are going to enjoy with this great unit:

  • It is a great 1500-watt single-cup brewing system designed with quiet pump technology and includes “showerhead” spray
  • It includes: a LCD control panel, a digital clock, 5 optional brewing strengths; temperature control?
  • It has a detachable 60-ounce water reservoir; charcoal water filter; iced-beverage options for iced coffee or tea.
  • It introduces various pack of K-Cup coffee pods, a refillable My K-Cup, and a quantifying spoon

Pros

  • Brews iced beverages
  • Convenient scoop with k-cup pod below the lid
  • Outstanding design
  • Secret storage compartment

Cons

  • Requires frequent cleaning
  • Has only a single year warranty

4. Keurig K-Select Coffee Maker

This is one of the best-selling coffee makers on the market. It allows you to brew more than 500 different K-Cup pod from 75 brands like coffee, Green Mountain, Starbucks, Lipton, to name a few.

All you need to do is to turn on the machine, lift the handle up, insert your favorite K-Cup Pod, close the lid and touch brew button, and finally have a nice tasting cup of coffee.

Learn more about Keurig machines here.

Everything is done within less than one minute and with the simplicity of touching one button only. Amazing, right? And here are some of main features contributing to the excellence of the system:

  • It offers 3 different K-Cup Pod brew size options, 6, 8, or 10 oz
  • The large 48 oz -water reservoir eliminates the need of frequent refilling
  • The running process is done easily through a button controls
  • Auto-Off feature is available, allowing you to have the brewer turn off automatically
  • The removable drip tray is included.

Pros

  • Works fast, coffee brewed in less than a minute
  • Has water reservoir with two filters
  • Automatic off feature
  • Button controls with indicator lights

Cons

  • Quite noisy
  • You cannot control the strength of your brew
  • Can get tedious when one has more cups to brew

5. Nespresso Pixie Single Serve Espresso Maker

There’s no doubt that Nespresso is the leader when it comes to brewing (nearly) authentic single serve espresso. You either love Nespresso or you hate it, but there’s no denying the convenience of being able to brew so many different flavors of espresso with the touch of a button.

The Nespresso Pixie single serve system utilizes OriginalLine pods, so you have quite a bit of flexibility. There are tons of OriginalLine flavors available and you can also opt for reusable capsules.

  • It is designed with technology of compact brewing, allowing easy capsule inserting and ejecting.
  • It includes thermoblock heating element, allowing quick preheating time within just 30 seconds
  • The large 24-Ounce water reservoir lets you brew several cup of coffee before you have to stop for refill.
  • The foldable drip tray is able to work with tall serving glasses, so you yourself can automatically program the coffee volume quantity
  • It is completely programed for your preference, espresso or lungo
  • The backlit LED is included for water level indication
  • It includes 10 great capsules
  • The water tank is as large as 24 oz  or  0.7 L
  • It offers 1-year warranty, from purchasing and registration date.
  • Measurements: 12.83-Inch x 4.33-Inch x 9-1/4-Inch (L x W x H)

Pros

  • Works fast, coffee brewed in less than a minute
  • Has water reservoir with two filters
  • Automatic off feature
  • Button controls with indicator lights

Cons

  • Expensive pods
  • A bit noisy
  • Has small water reservoirs

6. Mr. Coffee BVMC-EL1 Single Serve Latte Maker

This Mr. Coffee BVMC-EL1 Cafe Latte is one more great solution to experience fresh coffee at home. It allows you to make perfect lattes with ease and simplicity of one touch.

Additionally, it is designed with automated running feature, allowing you to brew the coffee while heating and frothing milk for a nice-tasting latte. There is also a recipe book included which introduces 20 different recipes for you to choose from. Here is a quick look at the remarkable features inside the machine:

  • It allows you to make nice-tasting lattes with just one simple touch
  • It has a 24-ounce capacity to make several cups of coffee at once
  • The feature of Auto power off is available
  • You can also make hot chocolate
  • It offers a recipe book which introducing up to 20 latte and hot chocolate recipes

Pros

  • Budget friendly
  • Makes very little noise
  • Easy to use
  • Capable of making multiple drinks on the go

Cons

  • The machine doesn?t make real espresso
  • Produces less than 8 oz of coffee
  • Incapable of making drip coffee

7. BUNN MCU Single Cup Coffee Maker

This is another one of the best single cup coffee maker models out there which claims to produce fresh cup of coffee within one minute. It is designed with four compatible drawers for you to make coffee, tea, and any number of other treats with ease, making it an ideal choice to those who enjoy tasting different beverages.

If you simply want an item for brewing coffee only, you may look for a simpler unit. But if you are interested in experiencing a lot of options, this model is worth considering for its capacity of making variety of drinks. Some other main features coming with this great machine can be summarized with some points below:

  • It allows a variety of beverage, including K-Cup packs, ground coffee, tea pods, loose tea and  much more
  • It features Cup, Pod , Ground Coffee as well as Hot Water Drawers
  • It offers Pulse Brew choice to extract bolder flavor
  • It offers various servings, between 4 and 14 ounces
  • It has a removable drip tray to deal with travel mugs

Pros

  • Hot coffee
  • Has speed ? brews in under a minute
  • Paper filters are not needed
  • Coffee with a great taste

Cons

  • Takes time to learn how to operate it
  • Un removable water tray
  • Lack of on and off switch

8. Cuisinart SS-700 Single Serve Brewing System

This single serve coffee maker is perfect for both home use and entertaining purposes. It provides you with a wide ranges of beverages, including fresh gourmet coffee (of course), tea, and hot cocoa, all of which are done in less than one minute.

Plus, it comes with 4 different brewing size options: 4, 6, 8, or 10 ounce. Amazingly, thanks to innovative one-touch technology, this machine allows you to brew more than two hundred kinds of pre-measured, premium brand coffee and tea, everything is done with the ease and convenient of one touch.

In terms of K-cups, this system is supposed to work with all kinds of K-Cups and claims to always produce perfect cup, regardless of the cup size you choose. And there are a lot of more great features, let?s look at the below bullets:

  • It comes with a large removable water reservoir of 80-ounce. Now you no longer have to do refilling so often.
  • There are 5 cup size choices built in, which include iced beverage setting and removable drip tray setting
  • It has a completely programmable blue backlit LCD. Digital clock, auto on/off  features and temperature adjustment are also included.
  • Beside the main product which is a single brewer should have, the full package includes charcoal water filter, My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter,12 K-Cup Portion Pack and guiding book
  • It is manufactured following North American Electrical Standards

Pros

  • The controls make it easy to use
  • Great coffee brewed in less than one minute
  • Has a great customer support
  • High quality construction

Cons

  • It is bulky
  • Bad pump ? unit breaks up
  • Air bubbles issues

Bonus: The Aeropress

Aeropress Original Coffee and Espresso-Style Maker, Barista Level Portable Coffee Maker with Chamber, Plunger, and Filters, Quick Coffee and Espresso-Style Maker, Made in USA

Technically, the Aeropress is a single serve coffee maker, though you could make two servings in one go with it, too.

But because it’s so portable, so practical, and makes such good coffee, we had to include it here as a bonus.

The Aeropress is a fairly new addition to the coffee maker scene with an interesting back story. It was developed by the owner of a frisbee company who wanted to make a more efficient and better cup of coffee.

Using the Aeropress is really simple. In many ways, it’s like a french press, but on steroids. It uses a filter to separate coffee grounds from water and you plunge the Aeropress to push the coffee through the filter into your cup.

The brilliance of the design is the rubber plunger which creates extra pressure inside the chamber – you have to really push on it to get it down, and the extra pressure you exert to overcome the existing pressure inside the chamber lets you brew espresso-like coffee within 1 minute.

Cleaning up is really easy, as you just have to remove the filter and eject the coffee grounds, and hose off the rubber seal.

There are two ways of making coffee with an Aeropress – the standard way, or the inverted way – both work well and at less than $40, it’s a bargain thanks to its very quick use and extreme portability.

The Aeropress uses a paper microfilter which is even better at filtering than french press filters, so your coffee will be virtually grit-free.

The only downside is that the filters are not reusable so you will have to keep buying filters when you run out. Luckily, they’re cheap.

Single Serve Coffee Makers: what are they?

A single cup coffee maker is an ideal choice to those who aim to brew cup of coffee for single use. Most single serve machines use K-cups to brew one cup of coffee very fast.

A single serve coffee maker brews you a steaming cup of coffee within just minutes. In case that there are many people to serve, you can set this small single serve machine up and it can offer up to 10 or more servings at a time, and amazingly with some models, you can bring it with you to wherever you want thanks to its compact size.

There is currently a variety of singe serve coffee makers for you to choose from, ranging from basic and reasonable-priced ones to high-quality and expensive-priced ones.

Advantages of using a single serve coffee maker

  • Rather than benefits that a normal coffee maker should have, a single cup brewer offers you much more things.As inferred from the name, the most noticeable benefit of a single serve coffee maker is that it allows you brew a proper amount of coffee(the single cup) at your own taste preference at any time you want.
  • To own a single cup coffee maker means that you no longer have to calculate how much coffee to put in, how to deal with sophisticated flavor coffees. Just by controlling built-in tools, such as capsules, pods, and K-cups you can brew nice-taste coffees of various flavors with ease.
  • Another benefit that you are about to enjoy with a one cup coffee maker is that it offers result quickly. A single cup coffee machine, in general, takes you under one minute to make a full nice cup of coffee.
  • If you are in a hurry for a trip, you can even more shorten the process by directly brewing it into your travel mug, then bring it with you. Spending your precious morning time brewing a full 12-cup pot of coffee that you probably won’t be able to finish can be avoided.
  • It allows serving a crowd within short time. Even though it can only dispense a single cup at a time, the machines can brew one cup after another with rapid succession.
  • But the fact is different, beside the function of serving single cup, these great brewing machines allow you to make different kinds of beverages, such as specialty coffees, teas, hot chocolates or lattes at the same time of brewing coffee. This requires patience, but it is worth every sip, right?

Single Serve Coffee Maker Buying Guide

More than nice cups of coffee, a right coffee maker can make your brewing process into a work of art, an important partner in your life. With the variety of single cup coffees in the market now, finding a proper one for yourself can be a hard work. The following tips will help to make this process easier and more effective.

Cost

As I mentioned above, there are a wide range of single serve brewers available on the market, which range from affordable-priced to expensive-priced. But it is suggested getting what you are ready to pay for, do not try to obtain a very expensive one which is out of your budget.

Remember that you are looking for a brewing solution, so the one which meet your brewing most and is affordable to you is the one that is worth investing in.

One very important factor of single serve coffee makers is the cost of pods – both monetary and environmental. Keurig K-Cups and Nespresso Pods are not cheap, and will end up costing you almost 1.5 to 2 times as much as a bag of similar coffee beans or grounds.

Additionally, K-Cups and Nespresso pods are not entirely environmentally friendly so you essentially have to throw out one pod every time you brew one cup of coffee.

This adds up over time and if sustainability is important to you then you may have to consider something else.

One workaround is using reusable K-cups. These are pods made by Keurig themselves in which you can fill in your own coffee grounds.

You get the benefit of using your own grounds to save money, the convenience of single serve coffee maker speed, and less overall trash generated.

Reusable options for Nespresso are not quite as straightforward, though.

Brewing Time

Most single serve machines take around one minute to produce the first cup and just a little less to produce the second one. So if you often have to prepare several cups in limited time, take a closer look at a carafe-free machine which can produce up to twelve cups of coffee at the same time, allowing you brew as much coffee as you want with a simple lever press.

This model, although, doesn?t accept pods or K-cups, it works fine in office environment and is also a good choice for home using when more than one cups are in need at once.

Machine Size

In general, single brewers are small-sized, but do not forget K-cups or pods as they will be involved in the overall amount of space the unit will occupy.

If your room is not large enough for a big machine, consider the unit which includes a top-mounted reservoir and a built-in rack that lets you store K-cups or pods close at hand.

Conclusion: Which is the best single serve coffee maker?

In conclusion, single serve coffee makers are becoming more and more popular in recent years, and now, as you see, there are various models of different features and different price tags on the market. Each model has its own remarkable features, pros and cons, so which one to invest in is up to your own demands and budget.

However, if I was asked to pick favorites, I would go for the Hamilton Beach Flexbrew simply because it is one of the best single serve coffee makers and one of the best drip coffee makers.

If you have the budget and don’t want to fully commit to single serve coffee pods, the Hamilton Beach is the way to go.

Last update on 2024-03-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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About Shabbir

Shab is the Chief Caffeine Officer at Coffee Brewster. When he's not weighing out coffee beans for his next brew, you can find him writing about his passion: coffee.