Cold Brew, Pour-Over or French Press: 5 Makers for a Small Counter

The compact cold brew maker turns a single overnight steep into up to a week of concentrate, and it nests into its own carafe for storage, which is why it wins this list for small kitchens. Grounds go in the 24-ounce brewer, water goes through the perforated top so it wets everything evenly, and after 12 to 24 hours you set the brewer on the glass carafe and it drains through a fine steel mesh. The cork stopper has a silicone seal, so the carafe goes straight into the fridge. The limit is the 24-ounce batch: a household of two heavy iced-coffee drinkers will brew twice a week.

This is pour-over without the ritual. A water tank sits on top of the cone; you fill it to the line, up to 12 ounces, and a pattern of holes releases the water over the grounds at a steady rate, so you get an even extraction without standing there with a gooseneck kettle. The lid keeps heat in while it brews and then flips over to act as a drip tray. It makes one mug at a time, which is the point and the limit, and it uses number 2 paper cone filters, ten of which come in the box. Small enough to live in a drawer.

The 8-cup French press is the classic method with the one annoying step fixed. After pressing, a handle lifts a silicone-edged disc up through the carafe and scrapes the wet grounds out in one motion, so you are not digging them out with a spoon over the bin. The glass carafe sits inside a steel housing that protects it and holds heat, the mesh filter is fine enough to keep grit out, and the handle is grippy when wet. It is the largest item here and the only one that is hand wash only, and French press coffee is heavier-bodied than pour-over, which some people love and some do not.

The collapsible pour-over is the same water-tank idea as the drawer version, built to fold flat and live in a zipped case. It uses the same metered tank, up to 12 ounces, and the same heat-retaining lid, so the coffee is the same; what changes is that it packs into a bag for a hotel room, a campsite or a desk at work. The case fabric is recycled polyester and the tank is a partly recycled Tritan plastic. You pay for the folding and the case, so at home the fixed version is the better value, and it still needs a paper cone filter wherever you take it.

The full-size cold brew maker works the same way as the compact one, water through a perforated top, an overnight steep and a steel mesh filter, but it makes a larger batch of concentrate and drains at the flip of a switch into a glass carafe with measurement marks. Lift the carafe and the flow stops on its own. It comes apart for cleaning and nests when stored, but it is taller and wider than the compact model, so it needs a real cabinet shelf. It can also steep tea. Buy it if a household empties the compact version in three days; otherwise the smaller one is the better fit.