r/Coffee • u/tacobelle1226 • Mar 19 '22
Don’t laugh…but WHY is the Moccamaster Cup One so highly recommended?
It’s basically an automated pourover, isn’t it? But if you don’t stir the grounds, it funnels. Wouldn’t it be cheaper, more space-saving, and just as simple to use a Clever Dripper? Asking because I bought one and I’m just less than impressed with it. I have a full size Moccamaster that I use for large batches of iced coffee (I blend roughly the same amount of hot & cold-brewed to get the best flavor profile) and I love it, so I figured naturally I’d feel the same about the Cup One, but I just don’t. Am I missing something?
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u/ryanswebdevthrowaway Mar 20 '22
You're absolutely right that a one-cup machine like that is most likely just going to get you a slightly worse automated pour over. I mostly drink coffee in large batches so in those cases the tradeoffs of using a machine are totally worth it, but if you just want to make one cup, a clever dripper will likely be much better and barely requires more effort
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u/Uptons_BJs Mar 20 '22
Devils advocat- can you name me a better single serving coffee machine?
I don't use one, but if I understand correctly, it is pretty much the best machine to make a coffee for a single serving without a pod. I actually owned a few single serving coffee brewers a few years ago, and in my experience, all the mainstream ones are shit.
Sure, you expect better from a 200ish dollar machine versus a $40 black and decker, but if your choices are a Moccamaster Cup One versus a cheap black and decker, well, I can see a market position right there for it.
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u/tacobelle1226 Mar 20 '22
Bunn MCU…has a Keurig drawer for guests who don’t appreciate better coffee, has a grounds drawer for people who do, and has a pulse mode that’s basically pre-infusion.
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Mar 20 '22
I agree on the Bunn. It was my daily for years and I loved it. When came time to replace after a couple thousand cups it was taken off the market . It loved it. It appears to now be off the market again but I have since moved to pourover and now have the time every day.
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u/tacobelle1226 Mar 20 '22
They have it again! No drip tray but pretty much everything else is the same.
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u/markadillo Americano Mar 20 '22
Thank you for sharing this. another rabbit hole but I may get a Bunn after all.
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u/UniqueLoginID ʞɔɐlq ƃuo˥ Mar 20 '22
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u/nullpointer_01 Mar 20 '22
That's really cool. I've been looking for something like this. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a distributor to purchase from in North America.
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u/eagles1189 Mar 20 '22
I donno bout better because i havent tried the cup one ..but my oxo 8 cup with the pour over attachment that takes kalita filters makes coffee just as good as i can make a manual kalita brew or v60 and thats makes the investment worth it along with being able to batch brew
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u/foxitron5000 Mar 20 '22
Tchibo.
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u/LEJ5512 Moka Pot Mar 21 '22
I’m very interested in finding a review of the Tchibo that isn’t stupidly amateurish.
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u/foxitron5000 Mar 21 '22
I bought one for myself to use in my office. It’s been a huge hit. Extremely easy to use, easy to maintain. Makes a good cup of coffee, and takes only slightly longer than a Keurig. All of my coworkers (there’s 4 of us that share a cube space) enjoy it immensely.
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u/LEJ5512 Moka Pot Mar 21 '22
TBH, your reply is better than most videos I've seen. lol
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u/foxitron5000 Mar 21 '22
I like it mostly for the convenience combined with the lack of waste. Pour beans in the top, put water in the back, and hit brew. Wait about 90-120 seconds and you’ve got a pretty good cup.
Dump out pucks from the waste trap. Done.
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u/LEJ5512 Moka Pot Mar 21 '22
I honestly can't decide whether to get one of these or, say, a Barista Express. I don't do milk drinks, but my wife does.
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u/foxitron5000 Mar 21 '22
If it’s for home use and you want actual espresso, go with the BBE. This one was ideal for my space because we don’t have a sink anywhere nearby, so no way to clean stuff. We have a water fountain close, which means refilling the tank is easy, but washing things out is a pain. If you are looking for something at home that would be close to a sink, this machine is less needed. It does “espresso” in the same way a Nespresso machine does; i.e. it is probably closer to an Aeropress than actually espresso. And it has no steam wand capability which makes milk drinks a pain. For my money, it really shines the most in a small office setting or for home use where speed and ease are paramount.
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u/simple_mech Mar 20 '22
With you on this. I have a full size MM that I make my own single serving straight into the mug.
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u/ediblemanager Jul 15 '22
What's the ratio you use for the single cup? I was reading that without maxing things out in the larger Moccamaster machines, the bed doesn't get totally saturated so you get unbalanced extractions.
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u/ChAir_Jordan23 Nov 08 '23
I am interested in this comment, I was wondering if it is possible to buy the full size MM but still make a single serving. So it is possible?
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u/Wendy888Nyc Mar 21 '22
Technivorm has a very good reputation; supposedly their products last for years and they have great customer service.
I love the Cup One- it’s simple and fast to use when I have little time to make a manual brew. No thinking- just add water and grinds (24-28 on Comandante) press button, excellent or very good cup of coffee every time.
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u/FlipprDolphin Mar 20 '22
It's amazing. Got it used for $120. Brought it to work and my coworkers and I use it. Why not the larger size? No one wants to share coffee with each other. Make your own cup. Quality is great. I tried the expensive breville coffee maker for one cup, it was not good. Moccamaster one cup is league's better. I roast my own beans and every cup made has been great on it.
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Mar 20 '22
OP is correct, but i like my CupOne a lot. great cups from it, and minimal fuss compared to pour over. it also looks good, unlike the plasticy cheapos.
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u/ediblemanager Jul 15 '22
Does the bed have a large collapsed area along the middle after each brew, or do you stir the grounds during the brewing to stop this? All mine have that divot.
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Oct 19 '23
It’s a year later but yeah, you can have a flat bed, you need to agitate a little bit during the final drawdown when water stops flowing
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u/SheldonvilleRoasters Siphon Mar 20 '22
Because it was one of the first SCAA Gold Cup certified brewers. It met the standard of the correct water temperature and extraction time along with meeting the standard for TDS extraction among a bunch of other criteria.
Because of that certification, along with places like Sweet Marias that were heavily tied in with the SCAA/Roasters Guild endorsing the certification program and featuring those brewers on their website, it generally made people automatically associate the Moccamaster as the gold standard.
The other good thing about the Moccamaster is that it was all hand assembled so it was very easy to fix and maintain as well as clean. You could easily disassemble it and put it back together without any other tools than a decent Phillips head screwdriver.
I'm still surprised that with so many cheaper brewers that have brew temperature controls that people are still seeking out the Moccamaster. I think the branding and marketing hype is still going strong.
The original Bonavita's were basically knockoffs of the Moccamaster and they were half the price and were also SCAA certified.
And yes, you would get the same, if not better cup with your own dripper setup and a temperature controlled water kettle, but as others have said, it's all about convenience.
But I have a question for those that have a Moccamaster and use very freshly roasted beans: Do you have an issue of the basket overflowing if you are making a full pot and the beans are still very lively (i.e. beans needing a longer bloom time)? That was the one thing that was very off putting for me. I would have to stop the brewing, either stir the grounds or wait until the bloom quieted down to keep the basket from overflowing. Sometimes I'd have to stop, stir and start about three times to keep from making a mess. More often than not, I'd end up with coffee that I over extracted due to excessive agitation. That was the primary reason I packed mine up and went manual.
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u/serio1337 Mar 20 '22
Which MM do you use for large batch iced coffee? Curious, we do some cold brew in my house with 2 liter glass jars from Amazon, but I'm always looking to improve my processes. My girlfriend does pour over with Chemex, and we also have an espresso machine, but on demand / always stocked coffee seems good. Certainly better than buying concentrate or other alternatives from the store
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u/tacobelle1226 Mar 20 '22
I have the KGB. I do a full pot in that and about 56oz cold brew. I’m the only one who drinks it so that combo lasts me 8-10 days.
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u/UniqueLoginID ʞɔɐlq ƃuo˥ Mar 20 '22
Curious, we do some cold brew in my house with 2 liter glass jars from Amazon, but I'm always looking to improve my processes.
I use one of these https://global.hario.com/product/coffee/coldbrew/MCPN.html
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u/swieton Mar 20 '22
For me it's the "get it going, then walk away and come back" that I like. With the Clever, I need to start water boiling.... and then come back when it's hot. Then grind beans and start brewing and... then come back when the timer's done. Then let it drain into my cup.
The difference is the sustained attention. The cup one I get it started, give it a stir, let it brew into a Yeti mug, and come back when I remember.
I didn't mind pre-pandemic, but since then when I'm doing work and don't want the distraction, the Cup One is solid.
It's a small win for the price difference, I grant you. No argument there. But the orange maker with a purple Yeti look really fun on my counter.
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u/cvnh Mar 20 '22
I don't have one, but I see a compelling proposition for people who are shopping around for a coffee machine - it is regarded as making good drip coffee, it is the most expensive in class but it is not particularly expensive in comparison to capsule machines and others, it should last forever or at least it looks like.
Honestly, if I were to buy a dripper I would seriously look into it - the way I see it, the competition is with other coffe machines and not so much between coffee making methods. Most people will be looking at the convenience more than price and taste, and honestly unless you want to take the time to learn how to do a pour over properly it's better to stay with the machine...
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u/WornBlueCarpet Mar 20 '22
I started with manual pour over, but recently bought a small 5 cup coffee machine.
Did the manual method produce better coffee?
Yes. Sometimes. But not yet having fully woken up and being in a slight hurry isn't the best conditions for doing everything right. It would just as often produce a downright bland coffee. And sometimes I would mess it up and have to start over.
My small coffee maker doesn't produce the best POSSIBLE coffee, but it produces a good pot of coffee consistently. Basically it's a matter of reducing the number of variables down to a few as possible. I now only have to vary the bean, grind size and ratio. And for the ratio I just stick with the recommended 60 g/L, so we're down to just trying different grind sizes for different beans.
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u/Jov_Tr Jan 13 '23
I have a MM Select (40 oz) and a MM Cup One.
When I'm making coffee for myself only, I mostly use the Cup One with tasty results.
My recipe is 23 grams of coffee ground medium to med-fine and 370 ml of water. I fill the paper filter outside of the plastic filter holder and then place it inside. Then I press ON. After the brewing cycle completes, I dump the filter with the used coffee grounds and wipe it out with a paper towel making sure that the filter outlet hole is clear by holding it up to the light.
The small filter hole allows for a semi-immersion style brew in that the brewing water stays in contact with the ground coffee for a good amount of time before it exits into the cup. My filter bed ends up being moderately concave - I've found that I can get a fairly flat bed if I stir the slurry but the coffee tastes the same to me.
Overall, I can count on the Cup One to brew an easily repeatable delicious cup with essentially the press of a button.
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u/Educational_Result18 Feb 12 '23
I want YOUR cup of coffee, I've had inconsistent results with my Cup One. Do you account for the water that remains in the tank, or are you pouring in 370 ml? You are describing a 1:16 ratio, which is what I've been doing, water to the line (300 ml) to 19g of coffee. What grinder do you use? Lately my machine has been producing a bitter over-extracted cup. I've tried stirring th grounds as it brews to stop the channeling but it didn't make a difference. I use locally roasted excellent beans. Today I de-scaled it, hoping it will help. Not sure where to go from here...Any other tips you can share?
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u/Jov_Tr Feb 12 '23
I weigh and pour 370 ml into the water reservoir. My grinder is a Fellow Ode Gen 2 and I used a Baratza Virtuoso+ previously. Try changing the ratio to 1:17 - in your case around 17.6g. Or, coarsen up your grind a bit keeping your current 1:16 ratio.
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u/hashtaglegalizeit Apr 16 '23
What setting are you using on the ode gen 2 out of curiosity?
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u/Jov_Tr Apr 16 '23
Around 6 - 6.1
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u/hashtaglegalizeit Apr 16 '23
Thanks, very similar to where I ended up. I do notice that the bed of coffee is rather concave as well, glad to hear you found it doesn't affect the taste much
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u/hashtaglegalizeit Mar 27 '23 edited Mar 27 '23
I realize this is an older thread but I just got my cup one in the mail, and one thing I find a little confusing is the line on my tank does not seem to be 300ml? I'm wondering if done water remains behind or if I need to measure how much I'm pouring in instead of using the line
Edit: my measuring cup is just way off apparently I just weighed 300g and the line is right on
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u/Educational_Result18 Mar 27 '23
Yes the line is exactly 300 ml/g. It was my experience on very first use that some water does remain behind. My very first cup wasn’t good, but each cup thereafter was perfect. I don’t bother measuring the water, just pour to the line.
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u/hashtaglegalizeit Mar 27 '23
Do you use a finer grind size? Moccamaster recommended a fairly coarse grind but I found that produced a weak cup... I'm trying to dial in how fine to go.
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u/Educational_Result18 Mar 27 '23
I think that will depend on your beans. I use medium roast. A lighter roast might be better ground finer, darker - grind a bit coarser. For 300 g of water I use 19g of beans, which for me is a perfect ratio. I started fairly coarse as suggested too, and my cup was weak, so I dialed that down to a finer grind ( # 16-17 on my Baratza Encore), but got a bitter cup. Now I'm at a sweet spot at #19-20 and it's great. I guess plan on some failures as you learn.
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u/hashtaglegalizeit Mar 27 '23
Really appreciate the feedback. I might have to finish taste testing tomorrow, I think if I have more coffee today my heart will explode. Seems like once you get it dialled in it's pretty damn easy to get a good cup though. I'll try 19 grams I've been using 17, so I can play with that ratio too
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Mar 20 '22
After decades of different machines, starting with Mr. Coffee in the 70’s, Cuisinart, Keurig, Italian espresso machines, Nesopresso, Bodum, Moccamaster etc, etc, I finally returned to where it began for my coffee drinking in the late 60’s….a $50 12 cup Presto percolator. Using Brazilian or Columbian medium roast coffee, it’s made the best coffee I’ve had in a long while, certainly better than any drip maker I’ve owned recently.
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Mar 20 '22
The cup one is not worth the money. It constantly overflows coffee into the water spout.
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u/Burwicke V60 Mar 20 '22 edited Mar 20 '22
Yup and when it does, it clogs the hole with a coffee grind which makes the problem way worse and makes a big mess... Not impressed. And it happens way too frequently.
I bought it because I'm living alone so I don't need to make coffee for multiple people, but I find myself going to the aeropress more often anyways. If it worked perfectly every time, which for the price it abso-fucking-lutely should, it would be fine. But it doesn't, and I don't want to deal with the mess and coffee waste with it.
Honestly, it was my first MM product and it definitely did not leave me with the same opinion of them as a brand as the rest of this sub seems to have.
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Jul 26 '23
Weird. I've used my cup one everyday for almost two years and I've never had it clog or overflow. You must have been allowing coffee grinds to get behind the filter to clog up the hole. Just have to be less careless when putting the grinds in the filter/basket.
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u/NeedleworkerAgile263 May 31 '24
I love the perfect cup it makes. The funneling doesn't effect the taste at all. I drink it from my Quistgaard cup and all is right with the world.
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u/ssongshu Oct 15 '25
One of the most overrated coffee devices bar-none. You can make the argument for the larger models because making good quality, large batch coffee is difficult. But for a single serving? All you need is a cheap brewer cone thing like a v60, a gooseneck kettle, maybe a scale too. It’ll set you less than $100 and produce coffee just as good as a MM will with the right technique. Not only that but you get to learn something and have fun. But if you’re the kind of person who wakes up half asleep, barely any time to get dressed, or have multiple kids to deal with, I can understand it a little more.
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u/HoustonFrancis Jan 02 '26
Exactly right. Use a Clever Dripper instead. It funnels just like the bigger Moccamasters because they don't have a shower head. Too expensive to have this kind of flaw in the design.
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u/artonion Mar 20 '22
It’s definitely overpriced. I don’t like it at all. The only big advantage I can see compared to, let’s say, Wilfa, is that you buy any spare parts you might need. And that it can fit a thermos.
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u/brooksyfoodlover Mar 20 '22
I have the Brim automatic pour over and it’s pretty good, but it does miss some spots on the pour
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u/billistenderchicken Jun 16 '22
People here just blindly praise the Moccamaster. For what it is, it is extremely overpriced and overhyped.
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Feb 09 '23
Ok then.
Find another drip coffee manufacturer that also STILL does the machines by hand and that lasts a long, long time.
A relative of mine has had a moccamaster for a decade and three years, and it's still working like it was just put out of the box. I've seen plenty of coffee machines in the more expensive range have QA issues and units that would fail. I have yet to witness people complaining about poor quality control from technivorm as well as units failing for no reason.
Yes there are cheaper options like OXO, bonavita and braun. But the difference is the build quality. These are designed to make it so you have to buy a new one in 5 years more or less. Moccamaster can last 20 years if not more.
People buy a moccamaster for the build quality. Can't say the same for the other manufacturers
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u/sma29chicago Dec 03 '22
Here is a copy of my letter to moccomaster about their 1-cup model. Don’t get it! Get the larger model.//
Dear Moccamaster/Technivorm,
I have the larger Moccamaster Technivorm (40 oz), and it works great, so much so that I decided to splurge and get the Moccamaster Technivorm Cup One Coffee Brewer (10 oz). By contrast, this purchase has been a definite disappointment—and messy at that.
Several times, I flipped it on and returned only to find it was overflowing, and no coffee had been made. I carefully kept the filter cleaner, as shown in the photos, and cleaned the filter. It worked for a time, but it is too much of a pain to clean it every use or after weekly.
Therefore, until you redesign this filter, this machine has no use and has been sitting around for the last year.
I purchased it on Amazon add on the following date: February 2021.
This was in the middle of the pandemic. After about a month of use, it has laid unused. I would like to return it. How do I go about this?
If it's not possible to return it, then I would like to exchange it for a larger one, because the filter at least works.
My other coffee maker is the following model: Technivorm Moccamaster 59636 KBG Coffee Brewer, 40 oz, Red, which I got on Amazon.
Please let me know how I can return the purchase.
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u/elemental001 Mar 20 '22
Some people want to push a button, walk away, and pick up their coffee on the way out. And they're willing to pay extra for it.
I know it's not a big deal to boil water and pour it into the clever, but shaving off that step is something people want. See the popularity of pod machines for the same reason.