Drinking 6–8 cups (12oz) per day makes me picky about my coffee. Luckily, I don’t like the burned tires taste and aroma of the really dark blends and do well with those with a more nut-like flavor. We have a local commercial roaster that does custom blending, but I found their house blend to be perfect to my taste if brewed in the half cup fashion you describe using two refillable Keurig pods and filtered water at 195 degrees. One would think that distilled water would allow the ultimate amount of solution of coffee oils, but I found it not to be so and just filter my tap water which is slightly alkaline.

The cleaning is not much of a chore if you spray rinse the screens from the outside, driving the grounds in the opposite direction as the brewing process. It seems less burdensome if done just before brewing when you need a coffee fix rather than just after when it is keeping you from your fix. I save the grounds to scatter around my vegetable garden to attract earthworms and avoid soilborne pests. It actually kills grubs in the yard if applied wherever you see their telltale dead grass circles and lightly watered in.