Ready, Set, Joe.
Who is this for? A single-cup manual dip coffee maker is for the coffee drinker who does not mind putting a little extra time (or has a little extra time) into their coffee to make only one cup. It is also a great alternative to spending upwards of $100 on a single cup coffee maker but it is certainly not push-button operation.
Directions: A single-cup manual drip coffee maker is quite possibly the easiest and cheapest way to make one great cup of coffee. You can find some for as little as $5, but shipping costs can often be more than that, so make sure you reach the minimum free shipping target with that other thing you’ve always wanted. The cheaper ones will be plastic but make sure they are non-toxic or you can splurge for a ceramic or porcelain filter cone. Place the filter cone over your mug and all you have to do is put a paper filter in the filter cone and put in your ground coffee. Heat the water up to just off the boil and pour it over the grounds and watch your (favorite) beverage come to life.
More technical directions: The water that you pour over the grounds should be 200 °F so use a thermometer (which I do not) or just boil the water and wait 30 seconds or so. I purchased the Melitta Ready Set Joe which is raised off of the mug so you can see how much coffee has dripped into your cup so you will know when to stop. Or if you prefer, you can fill up your mug and then pour that water into the water boiling vessel. You are also going to want to wash out the filter paper and preheat the filter cone (with the filter paper inserted to wash out any paper taste) and mug and you can do that by pouring hot water from the faucet into the filter and having it drip into the mug (that is good water so waste not and water that plant you have sitting on the window sill). This way, the mug and filter will already by warm help to prevent heat loss from the coffee. And last, but not least, the rate at which you pour the water over the grounds is also important. If you are using freshly ground coffee (which I hope you are), pour just enough water to wet the grounds and allow them to bloom in order to open up the coffee grounds so their wonderful flavors can be extracted more efficiently. The fresher the coffee, the greater the bloom. Wait 10-15 seconds and then continue to pour. The total time of extraction should be from 2 to 3 minutes (it is your cup of coffee so do what tastes best to you). The manual part of this is that you must continuously pour for the 2-3 minutes in order to maintain a continuos flow of coffee. Don’t be afraid to give it all a little stir to ensure that all of the coffee grounds are completely saturated.
Clean up: What clean up? Just dump out the grounds into your favorite compost pile and give the filter cone a little scrub-a-dub-dub. Much easier than a French press!
Money Saved: Around $100 +. These filter cones are very cheap and some single cup coffee makers are upwards of $100. Not to mention costly coffee cups or pods that one must buy to accompany the single cup machines.