Everything You Need To Know To Find The Best cake cup machine

We looked for Keurig machines that could maximize on flavor without a jump in size or price. To that end, we primarily tested machines that had a setting or design that could result in better extraction from coffee pods and that wouldn’t take up much counter space. While testing, we focused on a few key criteria:

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Flavor: We made (and tasted) coffee of each size with each machine and combined different strength or temperature settings where applicable.

Speed: We timed each brew, starting from the moment we pushed the button to the last few drops in the cup.

Temperature: We tested the temperature of the stream of coffee, as well as the final in-cup temperature.

Ease of use: We took notes at each step of using these machines, from the setup process, to inserting a pod, brewing, and cleaning.

To decide which pod to test with, we first tasted a few medium-blend K-Cups, brewing an 8-ounce regular cup with each. We settled on using the Brooklyn Roasting Company’s Java Mocha pods for our testing.

To test the efficacy of Keurig’s new multistream technology, we brewed one 8-ounce cup in the K-Classic, which uses the older single-stream technology, and one 8-ounce cup in the K-Slim. We also compared the 8-ounce cup from the K-Slim against the 8-ounce cup from the K-Express with strong brew.

We used the My K-Cup reusable pod with our top pick and filled it with Ninth Street Espresso’s Hot/Cold blend, which we ground with a Baratza Encore. We used the same coffee and grinder when brewing with the K-Duo Hot & Iced carafe, following the SCA’s golden coffee ratio of 1:18.

Top pick

This machine is space-saving, fast, and easy to use, with a strong brew function that improves the flavor of your coffee.

The K-Express is one of Keurig’s simpler machines, but it gets the job done. It has a Strong brew button that delivers better-tasting coffee than machines without it, a removable water tank, and a high-altitude option. We also appreciate its small size, which takes up much less countertop space than the Keurig machines of old.

The compact K-Express is visually unassuming. Less than 5 inches wide and nearly 13 inches long, it can snugly fit between appliances on your countertop or in an unused corner.

The removable water tank adds convenience. The water tank on the back of the machine lifts out for easy cleaning and refilling. It has a 42-ounce capacity, which means it can serve a small household before it needs to be refilled.

The labeling is clear. There are five buttons on the front of the machine, just to the right of where your cup sits. These include an on button, three buttons denoting cup size (8, 10, and 12 ounces), and the Strong brew button. Lights alert you when the water tank is low (the machine also won’t brew) and when the machine needs to be descaled.

The “strong” setting is key for better coffee. The Strong button increases the intensity of the brew, which helps counteract the typical wateriness of Keurig coffee. While we wouldn’t consider the resulting cup to be strong by most standards, it is fuller and bolder than a normal Keurig cup. We’ve found this function to be a necessity with a Keurig machine.

The price is right. The K-Express is one of the few Keurig machines that currently retails for less than $100. For a basic Keurig machine, we don’t see the need to pay more. We don’t expect the machines to last, and none of them have the quality feel of a machine worth investing more in.

It comes in other colors. The K-Express is available in black, white, and a few fun colors for those that like a bit of brightness in their kitchens. But we do worry about the legibility of the button labels on the lighter colors.

The K-Express is covered by a limited one-year warranty. Just keep in mind that any damage resulting while using non-Keurig branded pods and accessories may not be covered. Also, some online reviews claim that Keurig isn’t the best about honoring its warranty.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The smallest serving size is 8 ounces. A larger Keurig serving is just adding more water to your cup, while using the same amount of coffee—whatever is in your Keurig pod. For this reason, we prefer the smaller servings on a Keurig machine. On the K-Express, that’s 8 ounces, rather than the 6 ounces that some other Keurig machines have. But we found that an 8-ounce cup brewed with the “strong” function still tasted better than a 6-ounce cup made without it on other machines.

The Instant Pot Dual Pod Plus Coffee Maker, made by the same company behind the Instant Pot, brews both K-Cups and Original line Nespresso capsules, making it a versatile machine for households with fans of both Keurig and Nespresso (as well as a handy way to outfit a vacation rental kitchen). The Dual Pod Plus isn’t particularly fancy and takes up a good chunk of space on a counter, but it beats having two separate machines.

It has a big removable water tank. The water tank on the Dual Pod Plus holds 68 ounces—plenty of water for the whole family to make their drinks and maybe a couple of guests, too. A large handle built into the top of the tank makes it easier to carry to and from the sink. But when full, it weighs nearly 5.5 pounds.

It makes fine espresso but needs a break between cups. We found the Dual Pod Plus’s espresso to be decent, though slightly weak compared with our Nespresso picks. Also unlike our other picks, the machine struggled to make espressos back-to-back, with each consecutive espresso more watery than the last. This isn’t a machine you can rely on for quickly whipping out drinks for a party.

It’s intuitive, but not easy, for everyone to use. The machine is user-friendly to beginners, with a grid of one-touch buttons on the top of the machine specific to each brew size. Still, although the touchscreen buttons are clearly labeled, they’re on the top of the machine, so you have to be tall enough to stand over the 13-inch-high machine to see what you’re pressing.

The lid is also difficult to open and feels likely to break—every one of our paid testers noted it as a problem.

The bold mode helps (a bit). Like the K-Express’s strong function, the bold mode supposedly brews the coffee or espresso for longer, allowing for a more intense flavor. We found it mostly added bitterness to still-watery K-Cup coffee, but it was preferable to a blander cup.

It’s monstrously large. The Dual Pod Plus’s biggest downfall may be its size. With a footprint measuring 7 inches wide and 16 inches deep, the machine is approximately the size of a large stand mixer and sits on your counter like a drab, black tank. But it’s still a more space-efficient option than storing both a K-Cup machine and a Nespresso model.

The Dual Pod Plus has a one-year limited warranty that covers manufacturer defects.

The K-Duo is a Keurig and drip coffee machine in one. The right side of the machine has a typical Keurig brewer, similar in functionality to our top pick, the K-Express, whereas the left side has a 12-cup carafe for drip. This makes it a handy machine for households divided by coffee preference.

It brews a solid carafe, and pretty quickly. The K-Duo has a glass carafe that can make up to 12 cups of coffee (the minimum is six cups). A heating plate under the carafe automatically turns on after brewing, and will stay on for two hours unless shut off. Heating plates can scorch coffee, and our carafe did taste slightly burnt after those two hours, so we’d recommend turning it off and gently re-heating your coffee instead.

The machine uses generic flat-bottomed paper filters and brewed a 6-cup carafe in a little over six minutes. We found that the coffee tasted surprisingly good—not quite as flavorful as coffee from the picks in our drip coffee maker guide, but like that from a decent, midrange drip machine.

It has a pause and pour function. If you’re feeling itchy for a cup of coffee while the carafe is still brewing, you can pull the carafe out to pour one without worrying about spills—the machine automatically pauses the stream of coffee. We had no trouble pouring a cup mid-brew, but we would recommend being quick about it, as the manual states that a pause of over 20 seconds could risk overflow.

There’s a “strong” brew setting. Like our top pick, the K-Duo has a Strong button for single-serve use that adds a little more flavor to your cup, and we’ve found this setting is a must-have. The K-Duo can also make a 6-ounce cup, which helps concentrate flavor just a bit more (but don’t expect a miracle).

The filter basket is a little too small for 12 cups. The K-Duo states a maximum capacity of 15 tablespoons of coffee in the filter basket. But that’s a bit low for the carafe’s 12-cup capacity and wouldn’t accommodate the SCA’s golden coffee-to-water ratio of 1:18 (or even 1:20). You could probably push that limit a bit, but we’d recommend just making a slightly smaller pot instead, to ensure your coffee isn’t watery.

The K-Duo is covered by a limited one-year warranty. As with the K-Express, using non-Keurig branded pods or accessories can void that warranty.

If you want cold coffee: The K-Brew+Chill can make the same hot coffee as our top pick, but it can also make a cup of pleasantly cool coffee in the same amount of time. We found that the 6-ounce cold coffee from this machine was one of the best cups we’ve tasted from a Keurig machine—it’s less cloudy and retains more coffee flavor, though it’s still a bit watery.

But the K-Brew+Chill is essentially a small refrigerator on your counter, humming and venting hot air, as it needs to run constantly to enable the cold coffee function. You can make only four cold coffees in a row before the machine needs to cool down again, and that takes up to six hours (we imagine it’s longer in a hot kitchen). If you’re an avid cold coffee drinker and you’re not attached to the Keurig system, you may be better served by a cold-brew coffee maker (or even store-bought cold brew concentrate). It’s also currently incompatible with the My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter.

Keurig has long been criticized for encouraging overconsumption, waste, and environmental damage—and not a lot has changed in that regard.

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Plastic Bags: Where They Come From And Where They End Up

At the end of , Keurig switched the plastic in its pods from the non-recyclable number 7 plastic to number 5 plastic, and marketed its new pods as recyclable. But the Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Keurig Dr Pepper with misleading consumers over these claims, because number 5 plastic is not always recyclable. Two of the country’s largest recycling companies have expressed doubt over the new Keurig pod’s recyclability and stated they would not accept them. (Even plastic that is technically recyclable is likely to end up as trash.)

Keurig has since launched a mail-in pod recycling program similar to Nespresso’s. Customers order a Keurig recycling bag, put their used pods in it (after peeling off the foil and emptying the grounds), and ship the bag back to the company, which it claims will then recycle them. But unlike Nespresso, which doesn’t charge you for these bags, Keurig charges $10 per bag.

We tried the My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter, which allows you to use your own coffee grounds instead of buying single-use pods. But we had to grind our coffee quite fine to get drinkable results, and even then they were excessively watery. Plus, filling a pod with coffee, emptying it, and cleaning it out—not to mention all the effort required to get the grind and ratios right—seems antithetical to the convenience of a Keurig machine in the first place (especially if the coffee doesn’t taste much better). But if you choose to go this route, we recommend using espresso grounds for the best results.

Keurig machines also have a reputation for breaking easily, and when they do, they’re usually irreparable. Even if you get your machine replaced, it’s likely to be landfill fodder within a few years.

We have to be honest—we don’t love the coffee that Keurig machines make. If you’re satisfied with Keurig coffee, then carry on. But if you’re on the fence about getting a Keurig machine, and you’re worried about the trade-off between flavor and convenience, then fear not—there are other options.

Instant coffee has come leaps and bounds in the past few years, with numerous specialty brands making coffee we’d be delighted to drink daily. One study also found it has a lower carbon footprint than either drip coffee or capsule espresso coffee (like Nespresso). But specialty instant coffee is significantly more expensive per cup than most K-Cups. Grocery store instant coffee is serviceable (and often half the price per cup of a K-Cup), but we found that it’s even less akin to coffee than Keurig coffee.

If you’re looking for a pod-based coffee machine, Nespresso machines are just as quick and convenient as a Keurig but produce much better results. What Nespresso machines do best is, of course, espresso, but there are models that make coffee in addition to espresso. The coffee made by these machines is oddly frothy, but it’s more palatable than the cups we’ve had from Keurig. Nespresso pods are made from aluminum, which is infinitely recyclable, but we don’t have data on how many are recycled. Nespresso machines and their pods are also more expensive than Keurig’s.

The Keurig K-Classic was our previous pick, but we now consider it a bit outdated compared with Keurig’s latest machines. It’s bulky, doesn’t have the strong brew function, and costs more than our top pick. We also found the coffee it brewed to be unpleasant.

The Keurig K-Slim looks similar to the K-Express—it’s also compact and offers the same range of cup sizes. But instead of the Strong brew button, the K-Slim has Keurig’s new “MultiStream Technology”—essentially, the grounds in your pod are hit with five streams of water instead of one—which the company claims extracts more flavor from the pod. But we found that the coffee from the K-Slim was indistinguishable from the K-Classic’s non-multistream coffee.

The Keurig K-Mini is Keurig’s smallest offering. You pour only as much water into the reservoir as you want coffee, which allows for more control over the size and dilution of your drink. But the water tank can’t be removed for refilling or cleaning, and we worry about mold and clogs.

We were excited to test the Keurig K-Supreme Smart, as it offers six strength and temperature settings, which the company says get as high as 206 °F. Most Keurig machines brew at 192 °F, which is below the Specialty Coffee Association’s recommended range of 194 to 205 °F. But we didn’t notice a substantive difference in temperature on the hottest setting, and the highest strength setting made a weaker cup of coffee than the K-Express’ “strong” setting.

In testing, we liked the Keurig K-Select because it offers the Strong brew button. But we couldn’t recommend it due to a worrying number of Amazon reviews that suggest a high rate of machine malfunctions. It’s also a bit bulkier than the K-Express.

The Keurig K-Elite boasts all the features of the K-Select along with an iced coffee setting that brews concentrated hot coffee over ice that Keurig claims will taste cold but not diluted. It also allows you to adjust the brew temperature anywhere from 187 to 192 °F (all below the National Coffee Association’s recommended 195 to 205 degrees). But we didn’t find any of its features remarkable enough for its $170 price tag to warrant testing.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.

What we looked for

Ease of use

The big selling point of any pod machine is convenience so we looked for machines that were easy to use and considered the following: How many buttons does a user have to push before brewing a cup of coffee? Is the interface intuitive or too complicated? If the machine offers options for different brew types and sizes, do they feel overwhelming or still convenient? Is the water reservoir sufficient for making multiple cups of coffee or does it need to be refilled for each use?

Coffee taste and texture

We won’t pretend that even the very best pod machine can compete with the flavor of coffee from a pour-over or French press, but within this category there’s a broad spectrum that ranges from “quite good” to “godawful.” We gave preference to machines that could produce a well-balanced cup of coffee with a smooth finish.

Size

These machines are made for use in residential kitchens and since not everybody has unlimited counterspace, we looked for machines that didn’t have a huge footprint. Even better if they could tuck under upper cabinets.

Quality

While most single-serve coffee makers aren’t prohibitively expensive, they’re still an investment, so we looked for machines that felt like they were built to last. We also considered whether the manufacturer offered any sort of warranty.

Cleaning and maintenance

Daily maintenance would kind of defeat the purpose of these quick-and-easy coffee makers so we considered the following: Does the machine require any sort of daily cleaning? If so, is it easy? Is there a receptacle for pods or do they need to be manually removed after each use? How often does the machine need to be descaled? Are the instructions for cleaning and descaling clear and easy to follow? Is there a disposable water filter that needs to be regularly replaced or a reusable filter that requires special care?

Look and feel

If something is going to take up semi-permanent residence on your countertop, you want it to look good. With that in mind, we paid attention to the style and finishes of each machine.

Other single-serve coffee makers I tested

We’ll note here that we limited this test to automatic single cup brewers because we think that’s what most people are looking for in a single-serve machine. We didn’t try brewers like Aeropress or the Clever dripper, both of which make coffee we like, but have brewing methods that take much more work than pod machines. We also really like the Spinn Coffee Maker, but since it’s closer to a super-automatic espresso machine than a Nespresso or a Keurig, we left off this list.

Bruvi

Epi’s reviews editor, Noah Kaufman is a big fan of the Bruvi single-serve coffee brewer—and for good reason. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, it has a lot to offer in terms of functionality. The touch-screen control panel allows users to choose between eight cup sizes and it features a selection of one-touch brewing options including buttons for low acid, americano, iced coffee, and cold brew. Of course, any single-serve coffee maker can be used to brew coffee or espresso-style shots over ice, but the Bruvi’s cold brew setting takes a few more minutes than a hot drink and uses cooler water, too. Similar to the Nespresso Vertuoline, the Bruvi reads data on the proprietary pods and adjusts a variety of brewing factors accordingly, but the user still can pick the highlighted default cup size or select another—and there’s always the option to make manual modifications by tapping the screen for “stronger,” “hotter,” or “low acid.” When brewed in eight ounce sizes without any additional settings, the light- and medium-roast coffees were well-balanced and nuanced—especially for something from a pod machine. That said, there was always a little sediment in the bottom of my cup and we were far less impressed with the espressos. One very nice environmental plus of the Bruvi though is that the brand promises that the treated polypropylene cups it uses, which are unlike any others on the market, will mostly break down in a landfill. That means no worrying about whether something is recyclable or what type of composter you should send your pods to (Bruvi also has a refillable pod for those who want to use their own specialty coffee). If you want the convenience of a pod machine with the kind of versatility and functionality you’d get from a high-end drip coffee maker, the Bruvi is a great choice—though it may be too robust and pricey for some coffee drinkers who just want something quick and easy in the mornings.

Nespresso Essenza Mini

The Essenza Mini is a compact single-serve espresso maker that’s part of Nespresso’s Original line. Unlike the VertuoLine’s centrifuge extraction, the Original machines use pressure-driven extraction and smaller, more angular pods. This mini brewer uses 19 bars of pressure to extract one of two cup sizes from Original pods: a 1.35-ounce single espresso shot or a 3.7-ounce Lungo. (It should be noted that while 19 bars of pressure is more than double the standard nine bars required of a professional espresso machine, the experts at Home Grounds advise against reading too much into that number because a lot of the pressure is actually diminished within the less-powerful brewing mechanisms of a plug-and-go machine.) Though the Essenza Mini technically doesn’t make regular coffee, it’s certainly worth considering if you want a high-quality compact machine and prefer to drink lattes, cappuccinos, or americanos over a standard cup of drip-style coffee. The removable drip tray and water tank also make this small machine super easy to travel with or store.

L’or Barista Coffee & Espresso System

Though L’or machines have been available in France since the 90s, the L’or Barista Coffee & Espresso System is only starting to gain popularity in the US. Like the Nespresso Vertuo, it brews both coffee and espresso-style drinks, but the process is slightly different. The L’or accepts both the brand’s proprietary coffee capsules as well as Nespresso Original espresso pods (you can use L’or espresso pods in an Original Nespresso machine and vice versa). Operating the machine is simple; for either drink style, you can choose between three brew sizes and coffee or espresso is extracted under 19 bars of pressure through two dispensing spouts—which produce a crema that rivals Nespresso’s. In the final round of testing, we brewed the same pods at the same size (3.7 ounces) in this machine and the Nespresso Essenza Mini and while the differences were subtle, we consistently found that the espresso from the Nespresso machine was ever-so-slightly more balanced with a smoother finish. Overall, this is one of the only single serve coffee makers that feels like a true competitor to Nespresso, but the system would benefit from printing cup size recommendations on the pods (e.g. “this pod tastes best when brewed small”).

Instant Dual Pod Plus

Of all the single serve coffee makers we tested, the Instant Dual Pod Plus was the most pleasant surprise. From the maker of the do-it-all Instant Pot, this machine has the ability to brew a good cup of coffee or espresso-style shot from K-Cups, Original Nespresso pods, and the brand’s own compostable pods (NOTE: they require an industrial composting environment rather than a regular old backyard compost pile). Additionally there’s an included refillable pod for brewing single servings of your favorite coffee, as well as a hot water button for tea. This brewer delivered on all fronts and even produced a nice crema on the espresso shots. The regular coffee was far better than anything we got from a Keurig, too. If you like really hot coffee, the Dual Pod Plus brews slightly hotter than the Nespresso and most other machines we tried, but not so hot that it scorches the coffee. While we wouldn’t want replace a Vertuo Plus with this (it’s pretty big and we prefer Nespresso capsules to K-Cups), we'd be happy if our hotel or vacation rental had this on the counter. Because it’s so versatile, it’s also a great option for a home with both Nespresso and K-cup devotees, as well as small offices and teachers’ lounges.

Nespresso Vertuo Next

The Vertuo Next is another machine from Nespresso’s Vertuoline and while it brews just as beautifully as the Vertuo Plus we recommend above, it has a few features that set it apart. First, the pros: Though this is smaller than the Vertuo Plus, it can brew bigger coffee sizes. Where the Plus brews four sizes and can make a maximum of eight ounces of coffee from one pod, the Next has five brew size options and accepts pods that brew 18 ounces at a time (there’s a compatible carafe that can be used with the larger pods, too). If you love the quality and ease of a Nespresso but want the ability to brew more than a single cup at once, this is a good option. But because the Next is a smaller machine, it has a slightly smaller water reservoir than the Plus, and the top of the Next doesn’t open automatically, either. Instead, you have to lock and unlock it via a lever on the lid. It feels like it takes a little too much force to make it happen, especially until you get used to the mechanism. Finally, it has Bluetooth and Wifi connectivity—which seems kinda gimmicky, but some users may appreciate receiving maintenance alerts and firmware updates, as well as capsule tracking so you can remember to order more before you run out. Overall, using this machine was a less pleasant experience than using the Vertuo Plus, so if you don’t need the 18-ounce pour or the app connectivity, you may want to pass on this model in favor of the Plus.

Nespresso Vertuo Pop+

Nespresso’s space-saving, colorful follow up to our reigning favorite, the Nespresso Vertuo Plus comes with a slightly lower price tag and produces the same quality coffee. The Vertuo Pop+ has the same smart tech as the Vertuo Plus—it can read each pod to determine how much water to use, though there is an option to top up your beverage with additional water if you don’t like your coffee as strong. Unlike several other machines we tested (including some other Nespresso machines), the Vertuo Pop+ won’t accommodate a standard pint glass for iced coffee, even with the cup shelf removed. We found this a problem using the Iced Leggero pods, that brewed 7.7 ounces of coffee, which overflowed smaller ice-filled cups. Also, unlike some other Nespresso machine models, the water reservoir on this one is fixed in its position at the left rear of the machine. You can’t pivot it to make it more streamlined or shift its position to the other side. The reservoir is also smaller than the Vertuo Plus. Vertuo Pop+ machines offer options of 25.4 ounces on the standard model and 32 ounces on the deluxe. But because Nespresso uses precise brewing amounts ranging from shots to full cups of coffee, we  could go several days without a refill. Still the Vertuo Plus has more convenient features, so we continue to recommend that machine unless one of the nine colorways of the Pop+ strikes your fancy.

Cuisinart Premium Single Serve Brewer

The Cuisinart Premium Single Serve Brewer is a popular one-cup coffee maker that works with K-Cups and also comes with a reusable mesh pod you can fill with your favorite ground coffee. It’s billed as fully programmable, and the simple control panel allows users to pick one of five cup sizes and two brew temperatures (other features, like the auto-on and shutoff seem somewhat unnecessary for a single cup coffee brewer). The removable 72-ounce water tank means you won’t have to fill it too often, but it does require a charcoal filter insert that needs to be replaced every 60 days or after 60 uses. While this machine can’t compete with the Nespresso, it’s certainly an upgrade if you’re used to using a Keurig. In multiple rounds of testing using the same K-Cups in both, the coffee from the Cuisinart consistently had more depth of flavor and was less murky. (One thing to note about the reusable pod: We initially had issues getting the machine to register it and only got it to work after rotating the adapter about 5 degrees clockwise from the supposedly proper alignment.)

Cuisinart Grind & Brew Single-Serve Coffee Maker

The Grind & Brew takes the Single Serve Brewer and adds the option to use fresh coffee beans instead of the pre-ground stuff, which we are always in favor of. Like the Single Serve Brewer above you can chose to use Keurig-style pods or the built-in conical burr grinder. The grinder grinds beans into what Cuisinart calls a HomeBarista cups, which acts as a sort of reusable pod. It comes with three preset brewing volumes — eight, ten, and twelve ounces — though it used 10 grams of coffee grounds regardless of the size if you chose the freshly ground option. This freshly-ground option beat out the K-cups in taste and complexity (though was still not as good as Nespresso capsules). Using the eight-ounce brew option produced the best results with both the pods and fresh grounds, however the fresh grounds fared better than the watered-down pods when opting for ten- and twelve-ounce pours. The mesh filter did leave a bit of silt at the bottom of the cup so the last couple sips were gritty. Another disappointment: The grinder lacks any settings, so it’s impossible to change to a coarser or finer grind for different beans. It also retains some loose coffee grounds in the dispenser, so when the machine is knocked or jostled, it creates a bit of a mess on the drip tray. While the 48-ounce water reservoir is big enough to keep refills to a minimum, dumping, rinsing, and emptying and refilling the HomeBarista cup every single time we wanted another cup of coffee was tedious, especially in a two-coffee-drinker household like the one we tested in.

Ninja DualBrew Pro

Ninja’s DualBrew Pro Specialty Coffee System is a modular brewer centered around a 12-cup drip coffee maker with a detachable milk frother and K-Cup adapter. While this machine has a lot going for it—including a bevy of options for brew size and strength—if you’re looking for the convenience of a pod machine, you’ll likely find this too big and too complicated. It’s a drip coffee maker first; the frother and K-cup capabilities are add-ons and the whole thing has to be reconfigured to switch between carafe mode and single-serve mode. That said, if you mostly make pots of coffee but want the ability to pop in a pod every once in a while, this could be a good choice if you have the counter space to spare. It brews K-cups better than a Keurig machine and while the model we tested came with a few starter paper filters for brewing into the carafe, you can also get a reusable mesh filter if you want to cut down on waste. We didn’t find Ninja brand refillable pods but there are some compatible aftermarket options that look promising.

Keurig K-Mini

When we first published this story the Keurig K-Mini is Amazon's top-selling single-serve brewer. And it's clear why: It's incredibly compact, it comes in a variety of pretty colors, it has a price point around $100, and K-Cups dominated the market long enough that they became the default for tens of millions of American households. If we didn’t know anything about coffee or just wanted something to have on hand to offer guests a cup, we might pick this machine too. But we do know better and after trying a wide variety of pods, we didn’t get one decent cup of coffee out of the K-Mini or the more expensive Keurigs we tested. There was no depth of flavor, and the coffee was consistently watery and overly bitter at the same time. Additionally, the internal water reservoir in this machine only holds enough for one cup and needs to be refilled with every brew.

Keurig K-Supreme Smart

The K-Supreme Smart Single Serve Coffee Maker seems to be Keurig’s attempt to compete with the Nespresso Vertuo line. It is not a close second. Even if you ignore the fact that it makes bad coffee, the technology doesn’t live up to the marketing claims and the machine itself can’t seem to handle some of its own features. It does have options for brew strength and temperature, and you can save up to 10 of your favorite settings as presets, but the whole system leaves a lot to be desired. One of the main selling points is that the K-Supreme Smart is supposed to recognize what K-Cup pod you put in it and customize the brew settings accordingly, though you do still need to choose your brew size  (6, 8, 10, or 12 ounces) and you can adjust the brew temperature if you’d like, too. App connectivity allows for remote brewing (a feature that seems pointless for a single-serve device) and K-cup pod inventory management (possibly helpful), but the machine froze when we tried to brew back-to-back cups of coffee. We actually had to unplug it a few times to get the “please wait” message off of the display. This Keurig does have a 66-ounce water reservoir, but no pod receptacle; the used K-cups need to be removed by hand after each brew.

Keurig K-Iced Essentials

We haven’t liked Keurig hot coffee, but this newer machine offered the option to try it cold. Unfortunately a drop in temperature couldn’t save the flavor of the K-cups. Even the most concentrated 6-ounce size was weaker with less aroma than a pot brewed with the same brand and roast of beans in a drip coffee maker, and it came with a metallic aftertaste. The iced setting also only reduces the finished coffee by nine degrees, dropping it from 165℉ to 154℉, so we still got a watered down drink as much of the ice melted into the coffee (and then required more ice to properly chill, to boot). It does brew quickly if you’re in a hurry, it takes just 72 seconds, but fast brewing can often run counter to quality brewing as speedy flavor extraction is usually weaker flavor extraction, so your coffee may benefit from a little more patience. One nice thing about this machine, though, is that the pour spout is high enough to accommodate a pint glass—the kind you’d probably want to drink iced coffee out of. But if we’re comparing apples to apples, or, rather, capsules to capsules, it still produced lackluster coffee compared to the whole line of Nespresso machines

Hamilton Beach FlexBrew Single-Serve Coffee Maker (DISCONTINUED)

The coffee from the Keurigs was not great. The Hamilton Beach FlexBrew unfortunately went under that low bar. It is a versatile single-serve coffee maker that allows for brewing three cup sizes and two brew strengths, comes with a reusable pod for brewing your own ground coffee, and has a removable 40-ounce water tank. It also has a hot water button for tea, instant ramen, and the like. On paper, it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, it makes a lot of noise when it’s working, and worse, brews noticeably hotter than the other machines we tested. It brewed so hot that it scalded the coffee. Even locally-roasted, freshly-ground beans couldn’t redeem this thing. If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to the Keurig that also lets you use whatever type of coffee you want in a reusable pod, this is not it.

Amazon Basics Compact Dual Brew Single Serve Capsule Coffee Maker

The Epi product testing team has been pleasantly surprised by a handful of Amazon Basics gadgets (Exhibit A: the kitchen scale) so we were curious to see if the single-serve coffee maker was worth considering. It is not. When we brewed the same K-cup pod in this machine and a Keurig, the dark liquid that came out of the Amazon house brand’s coffee maker was worse in every way (taste, texture, and temperature). The only thing we can compare it to is what you'd drink out of styrofoam and desperation while waiting all day for a car repair. Sadly, the freshly-ground, high-quality coffee we put into the reusable pod wasn’t much better. This one is a hard pass.

Additional testing and reporting by Adam Campbell-Schmitt

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