Melitta Ready Set Joe Mug & Cone Coffee Maker - Red - 64074

This is an ingenious concept---a miniature manual drip "coffeemaker" for one cup. I saw this in my local grocery store for $6, and I thought, "Why not give it a try?" I'm really glad I did. It makes a great single cup of coffee, so it's convenient to take to work or to keep on hand if you just want one cup of coffee. Also, it's so small that it's easy to store it. Some tips to keep in mind as you make a cup of coffee:

1) A course grind doesn't work as well with this. If you use a course grind, your coffee will be weak. I have a burr grinder and use a medium/fine grind. It's perfect.

2) The perfect tempature for coffee is somewhere around 206 degrees. I don't bother with a thermometer, but I just bring about 1 1/2 cups of water to boil in the microwave (using a Pyrex cup). I let it boil, and then just let it rest for about 30 seconds or so.

3) Pour enough water in to cover the grinds. You'll see it foam up at the top (if your coffee is fresh). Let that water flow through. This initial "soaking" of the grinds is important to extracting the flavor.

4) Finally, just pour the remaining water through (or however much you need to fill your coffee cup). The slower you pour, the stronger the coffee.

It sounds complicated, but believe me, it was really quick--quicker than making a cup of coffee in an automatic drip coffeemaker.

It's rare to find something that is cheap and works great, but this is just such a product.

This cone is useful if all you want is one cup of ground coffee, and don't want to deal with the hassle of a coffee machine.

One of the attractive features of this cone is that it has a little window in which you can see the coffee drip into the cup. Just put your ground coffee into a #2 filter, put the filter into the cone, and add boiling water to the cone. You will have to add hot water several times (about 3 times) as the coffee will take a while to empty into the cup.

Personally, I prefer to extract more flavor from the ground coffee, so I put the coffee into another cup and add boiling water to it, and let that sit for about 3 minutes before pouring it into the cone + filter.

Buy Melitta Ready Set Joe Mug & Cone Coffee Maker - Red - 64074 Now

The cone filter holder works well for making single cups of coffee. It's not really necessary if you do have a coffee maker, but perhaps good if you just have a tea kettle or other means of heating the water.

The set of the mug and the cone is an odd pairing of two different shades of red that are not asthetically pleasing to me, but the cone fits on other mugs and travel mugs so I don't bother with the included one. I don't know why I expected it to match and look pretty!

Also, the shipping is a bit steep for such a small, inexpensive item, but it came well-packed in lots of padding.

Read Best Reviews of Melitta Ready Set Joe Mug & Cone Coffee Maker - Red - 64074 Here

We've had one of these for years and it's perfect for making one cup of coffee at a time. The pot really only works best if you make a full pot (which encourages a one-cup-a-day drinker to be a one-pot-a-day drinker) and the french press was a bit of a pain to clean. Our original made excellent coffee (probably aided by the fact that it was very simple to clean). Also, it's great for camping it's easy to carry with you + makes (great) coffee anywhere that you have boiling water.

Costs less, less packaging/resources needed to make it, lasts forever, can make great coffee almost anywhere? That's a five-star product!

Unfortunately, we recently had to get a new one (lost the old one) and this design looks great, but the hole the coffee drips through is larger, so the coffee is weaker. Well, unless you use more coffee we had been using a standard 2TBSP scoop to make a cup in the old one, this one requires almost 2 of those scoops to come close to the same strength of coffee.

This design does look much more modern, and it is nice to see how full the cup is without having to lift the filter off.

Want Melitta Ready Set Joe Mug & Cone Coffee Maker - Red - 64074 Discount?

I love having a simple, easily-cleaned, non-electronic way to get that one perfect cup of coffee in the morning. Because I can make it exactly as I like it, and in whatever amount suits me that day, I can get my coffee satisfaction for the day in one cup. The mug that comes with it is attractive but broke when I set it down. No matter, the cone goes over any mug. It was simple and affordable and does the job. I feel like I have my own Starbucks.

And I can use any kind of coffee, don't have to buy "pods", and the filters are readily available at the supermarket. And I just dump, rinse, and am ready for the next day. Such a simple thing, and such a great solution for me.