We’re really happy with our Bodum; we usually use an automatic drip coffeemaker, but the French press is nice to have when we need extra. It’s fairly large, but I’ve seen small ones just big enough for a single large cup or small mug. If I were the OP I’d consider that as a possibility. IME when you use a French press you do get a few grounds in the cup (which we sometimes call “cowboy coffee” here), but it still tastes very good if you do it right.
Been using one of these for years. Been adequate, but I’m not exactly fickle about coffee.
You’re describing my situation, except I have a Bialetti Mukka Express with tempered glass top instead of the regular espresso maker. I normally make cappucino or cafe au lait in the mornings, and save the French press for when I’m ingesting more than a cup of coffee before work. Both are easy to clean and can either hang out on the countertop or be put away.
I was going to mention this. I only drink coffee at work, but when my parents come to visit they love their coffee.
I’ll second the Aeropress. It makes a cup of coffee that compares to what you get from machines that are many times as expensive. The owner of the store where we bought our espresso machine confessed to me the last time I was there that he was seriously considering completely ditching his $2000+ espresso machine at home for the Aeropress. Make sure you buy some decent beans, and you’ll get the best cup for the price.
If I used any less it would just be diluted and watered-down!
The cocoa is nasty. Too watery on 8oz & higher cup size. And gritty on 6 oz. OTOH, you can use the Keurig to heat up water for anything, so your cocoa of choice can be made a fraction of the time it takes to heat up water any other way. I haven’t tried the tea.
I’ve had mine 4 months and don’t know how I lived without it. Best coffee ever!
The thought occurs to me that one of the reasons the single cup coffee makers with the horrendously expensive little pods are popular is that so many people simply don’t use enough coffee when they make coffee. The single serving pods ensure using an adequate amount.
I see a lot of people trying to brew an eight or ten cup pot of coffee with three or four scoops, thinking using more will it make it too strong or too bitter. That fact is, putting too much water through too little coffee grounds is what makes it bitter and nasty tasting.
It doesn’t require a whole lot of equipment to pour hot water through ground up coffee beans. Pouring the right amount of water through the right amount of grounds is the key. An expensive machine with an expensive pod will produce the same results as a cheap little cone if they both use the same amount of water and the same amount of coffee.
Thank you ! 
I do that all the time. If I want a single cup of coffee (12 - 16 oz or so) travel mug size, I fill the travel mug up with water, add it to my coffee machine, and add the appropriate amount of grounds using 1/2 cup per pot as my starting ratio. So I put about 1/8 cup of coffee in for 1/4 pot of coffee. Perfect.
Or using crappy coffee. You’re never going to get a good cup out of Folger’s, so the next best option is to use so little that you don’t actually taste it.
The Boyfriend has a Tassimo brewer. It does make a good cup of coffee, and most of the large grocery stores around here carry a decent range of the pucks for it - mostly Nabob brands, but Starbucks has also started producing pucks, and there’s also specialty two-step packs for things like chai lattes and cappucinos. I’ve even seen Earl Grey tea and hot chocolate pucks.
I can’t remember what the official name for the pucks/cartridges/pods is, but they’re round and flat, so we call them pucks.
I have a Keurig at work and a tassimo at home. The Keurig is good (when the Tassimo goes, this is my next purchase) but a package of K-cups can be a little pricey. But, there is a lot of variety.
The Tassimo pods are somewhat less pricey but have less choices. I can get a 16 pod pack of Maxwell House regular stuff at Target for around $5. Pretty reasonable for average coffee. Starbucks blend is around $8-$9.
Thanks for starting this thread & thanks to everyone who has participated. I bought my husband a Keurig for Christmas. He is British & definitely a tea drinker, but every now and then he hankers for a cup of coffee. When his mother visits, she only drinks coffee. I was never a coffee drinker, but since it’s provided at work for free, I’ve become accustomed to it. 
Anyway, the idea of a sealed, single-brew cup appealed to me because he can make coffee when he’s in the mood, but the rest will stay fresh. In the past we’ve bought either instant or a pound of ground coffee and by the time he’s in the mood again, it’s gone stale.
He was with me when I bought it, so there is no surprise gift, but I think he’ll enjoy it. And I can buy the hot dark chocolate K-cups for myself.
We even picked out some “seasonal” flavors, and some teas. Looking forward to it!
(Ooh! and I bought the stand/drawer to hold the extras, and even one of the filters for our own coffee “just in case.”)
You’ll want to pop into Kuerig.com to register your machine. You’ll get an extended warranty. Plus, if you order 2 boxes of kcups, you can get 2 boxes free. Right now, they have some seasonal flavors and blends that will not be restocked once they sell out.
i like the keurig, but my only complaint is that it uses the same size container for all their sizes. i like my coffee strong, and voluminous (~16 oz) so… i have to use 2 kcups for “1 cup” of coffee.
My Keurig maker died after about 18 months. Don’t know where to get it fixed - of course it died right after I bought a big box of k-cups. My wife liked the K-cup more than I did (though it was a gift for me). She likes her coffee a milder blend than I do, but I drink lots more coffee. So, when we make a pot, it is more to my taste, but with the Keurig, we could each get what we wanted. I never did like having tea out of the Keurig. It was never strong enough, and always had a coffee note to it. I never tried cocoa out of it.
We went back to the 10+ year old programmable Mr. Coffee that the Keurig replaced. I prefer the Mr. Coffee, even when I only have to make one cup. Of course, my “1” cup is actually a huge mug that fits 2 1/2 cups from the Mr. Coffee’s measurements, which meant two passes through the Keurig. Mr. Coffee makes 2 1/2 cups just fine. The only time I have waste is on the weekends when I think I want two cups (5 cups by the Mr. Coffee scale) plus 1 cup (1 1/2 cups on the Mr. Coffee scale) for my wife, and one of us falls one cup short in our drinking. Even then, if not drinking right away, I transfer the coffee to a thermal carafe which helps keep it fresher longer.
The Keurig did trump the Mr. Coffee on clean-up. That was its main advantage (and, IMNSHO, its only advantage)
I’ve had a Keurig for two years now, and I LOVE it. I never had time/inclination to make a pot of coffee before going to work, and even at the smallest amount, I couldn’t have a cup early in the morning without throwing away at least half…plus I like having the occasional cup in the evening…the Keurig makes it quite convenient. (on the weekends, I go through three cups each morning, but in the work week I have a cup before going in and then drink it at work too…but it’s free there).
As to the comment above about Keurig coffee being weak: It totally depends on the K-cup. The Green Mountain K-cups suck. They are weak, flavorless and, well, garbage. Get some good coffee, and it’s really good and plenty strong. Newman’s Own Extra Bold, Emeril’s Big Easy Bold, Coffee People Black Tiger or Jet Fuel, Timothy’s Midnight Magic…all are nice and strong (but not overpowering), with nice flavor. Coffee People Donut Shop is a bit on the weak side as well, but the extra-bold Coffee People coffees are really good.
Have you tried the ones made for the big travel mugs? I’m pretty sure they cost the same as regular kcups. My husband uses the regular ones in Extra Bold for his 14 oz travel mug, but that probably would dilute the boldness too much for you.
To add to the list above of good kcups- Caribou Blend!
I use the manual drip type now. 3 scoops of cheap coffee for 14oz of boiling water, and I think I get a nice tasting cup out of it. On the plus side, my coffee is good and hot, which is sometimes not a guarantee when you do 1-2 cups in a drip machine.
I still have a drip coffee maker for when company comes over, and a french press if I have just one additional cup to make for the wife or a guest.
(NOT A COFFEE DRINKER) We have a Keurig at my office, its always struck me as incredibly wasteful, generating all those plastic K-Cups that end up in the trash-trash (not the recycling trash). Me, I drink tea, which I could make with the Keurig, but instead I use teabags and hot water from the filtered water cooler. Just noticed that we’ve suddenly got a “Perfect Iced Tea” K-Cup option…which is right up my alley in theory…if it didn’t only brew a “coffee cup” size amount of iced tea and then require me to put the coffee cup of “Perfect Iced Tea” in the fridge for a few hours to turn it from hot tea to iced tea.