Good coffee, in taste and price.

July 14, 2009 9:54 AM

What’s the best single serve coffee machine for around $100?

I want to give one to my husband as a birthday gift, even though he’s a very occasional coffee drinker. I’d like for the machine to be able to brew different types and flavors of drinks. This is what I was going for (we tried it at our hotel room during our honeymoon last year), before my sister told me she tried this at a friend’s house and really liked it (I hate the design, and the price isn't great either, but it does seem to have more variety in the drinks options.....?).

I looked at this question, but it’s too old to matter; this question’s best answers go to pretty expensive machines or things that only make espresso.

I thought I’d ask you all what you thought before making any decisions.

posted by CrazyLemonade to food & drink (19 comments total)

I have a Keurig machine (though not the one you've linked to). I absolutely love it. There's plenty of variety for drinks (tea, coffee, hot chocolate) and you can also buy a reusable pod thinger that's about $15.
posted by Lucinda at 9:57 AM on July 14

Consider the Aeropress. It's not an expensive machine, but it makes damned good single-cup coffee.
posted by zerokey at 9:57 AM on July 14

This is a good place to start.
posted by Jairus at 9:59 AM on July 14

I've had my Keurig for several years and love it.
posted by cerebus19 at 9:59 AM on July 14

Buy a melitta drip setup+filters for about $10 and spend the $90 on a decent grinder.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:04 AM on July 14

Seeing zerokey's and ethnomethodologist's answers, I should add that the "gadgety" aspect of this is more important than the "excellent" coffee aspect of this, as it is going to be a gift for my husband, who loves his gadgets more than he loves coffee.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:10 AM on July 14

Doubling the Aeropress suggestion. Best coffee I've ever made at home. Also, it's super handy for a desk at work or camping or whatever
posted by GilloD at 10:14 AM on July 14

An Aeropress or a Melitta pour over. Any other single cup is going to be expensive to operate and produce inferior coffee.

Get a fancy water boiler to go with it. A good coffee grinder would probably be overkill for the occasional cuppa, but a whirly blade grinder is around $20, and good enough.

All that, if you go for the fancy boiler, should be right around $100.
posted by QIbHom at 10:21 AM on July 14

If "gadgety" is the goal here, I would recommend the Keurig. I love playing with those things (although my personal coffee maker of choice is a French press). You may also want to consider the reusable filter for the Keurig, which allows you to use whatever coffee you choose and saves you from having to buy the expensive individual disposable inserts. This assumes, of course, that the disposability is not part of the attraction. Your choice.
posted by pemberkins at 10:23 AM on July 14

If "gadgety" is the goal and you don't mean electronic gadgets, you might consider a vacuum coffee maker. Here is a you tube video of one making coffee
posted by bdc34 at 10:36 AM on July 14

I have the Keurig that you linked to, and have been very happy with it. Our local grocery stores finally started carrying a good selection of coffee K-cups, but even when they didn't ordering boxes of K-cups off Amazon was always pretty painless.

The quality of the coffee is high, and the machine is reliable. But I am not a coffee geek, so YMMV.
posted by Lafe at 10:37 AM on July 14

The areopress isn't so gadgety, but makes great coffee. How about getting him an areopress and a small coffee bean roaster? There are some that can be had for under $100. Green coffee beans are about 1/3 the price of roasted, and can be stored fresh for much longer. The gadget factor is high because he can customize and experiment with the roast, and dazzle guests with an after-dinner ritual.
posted by fatllama at 10:42 AM on July 14

To the Aeropress suggesters: thanks but no thanks. I think getting my husband that would get me an expression similar to what I would get if I gave him a sweater.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:46 AM on July 14

As far as I'm concerned, your primary choices are Keurig and Tassimo. Each machine has its advantages. The Keurig has a much wider variety of coffees available, and gives you a greater ability to pack pods (the so-called K-cups) with your own choice of coffee. The Tassimo has a much more limited (though growing) selection of coffees, but it allows you to make non-coffee beverges (hot chocolate, teas), milk-based drinks (lattes and cappuccinos), and something that approximates espresso. None of these are top quality, but they're all reasonably drinkable.

Basically, if you want a wide selection of relatively high-quality coffee, go with Keurig. If you want a (somewhat gimmicky) wider variety of beverages, go with Tassimo.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:09 AM on July 14

Work has a Tassimo, and some close friends have a Keurig. I've tried both, and much prefer the Keurig. The milk-based drinks in the Tassimo were pretty revolting. I'm actually on the fence about getting a Keurig for myself, or paying a bit more and getting a Nespresso machine.
posted by backwards guitar at 12:26 PM on July 14

Not a machine. I'd recommend Folger's Singles. They're teabags with coffee in them. I love them.

If you're making just one cup, some sort of mechanism which requires cleaning is a bit overboard, don't ya think?
posted by phrakture at 3:43 PM on July 14

Very happy with the mini Keurig in my office. Nice variety of coffees and some of them very good. I'm enjoying a box of Coffee People's Donut Shop at the moment. Tea and hot chocolate also available. No fussy cleanup or maintenance required in ordinary use (descaling every six months). About 45 cents per delicious cup using a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon that arrives in the mail or in the newspaper practically weekly.
posted by cairnish at 3:54 PM on July 14

Consider one of the Nespresso machines as an alternative. You need to order the pods from the company, but it makes good espresso and a larger "lungo" coffee with a nice crema. This is from a non-aficionado point of view of course.
posted by objdoc at 5:42 PM on July 14

Thanks for the answers. I pretty much asked this question with the Keurig already in mind, and since I didn't discover anything new, just sort of confirmed what I thought, I went ahead and ordered the Keurig B40 ($89) and some boxes of variety flavored coffees, plus the reusable k-cup.

(Also: Gee, some of you people really seem to love your Aeropress. Thanks for the [4!] suggestions, but it's not really what I'm looking for...)
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:46 PM on July 14