The Best Coffee Pod Machines for Lightning-Fast Brews

The Keurig K-Mini is cute and positively tiny. It was the first coffee maker I ever purchased for myself, years ago, and the new model I received for testing is just as adorable as my old one. It does a solid job at what it’s meant to do: brewing exactly one cup of coffee. Rather than a large reservoir, this itty-bitty brewer has enough room in the tank for one K-Cup of coffee. The easiest way I found to use it is to fill up my chosen mug with water, and then just pour that into the single-serve tank before brewing. There are no bells or whistles or strength levels or fancy water temperature settings—just lift the handle, pop in a pod, and close it. Press the button to brew. I kept my K-Mini on my desk for a long time simply because it was easier to brew myself a cup of coffee that way than to deal with my stove, a filter, and the whole rigmarole of a pour-over.

This coffee maker isn’t ideal for anyone who wants customizable options, scheduling, or fast back-to-back brewing. But if you just want a simple cup of coffee on demand, it’ll do the trick.

Note that these go on sale on basically every shopping holiday, and you can often find them for as low as $50. Another thing I want to note is that, while my previous model held up fine for years, it did stop working around year four or five. That’s not a guarantee that this model won’t last a long time, and it’s worth noting that I never tried to contact customer service to replace or fix it, but it is something I wanted to mention.

The Keurig K-Brew + Chill can handle both hot and iced coffee. It has two tanks—a main water pitcher that it’ll automatically pull from for hot coffee and as needed, and a chill tank that constantly runs to keep the water supply cold. The fan starts and stops on its own, and I didn’t find the noise disruptive—it reminded me of a fridge running. It does have a quiet mode that significantly reduces the noise, but note that the water takes longer to get cold if you use that setting. I filled mine with cold tap water, and it took about an hour to get fully chilled, though Keurig says room temperature water takes about six hours. In any case, this machine is great if you prefer iced coffee. Keurig has had iced coffee pods on the market for a while, but usually they’re brewed with less-hot water. You still have to add ice, and it isn’t immediately chilled like what you get with this brewer. There are a few different buttons—you can choose between hot or cold, choose your coffee size, and choose to make it stronger.

I compared hot and cold coffees using the same K-Cups, and they were both equally strong. This brewer uses MultiStream technology, which basically means it saturates the grounds in the K-Cup evenly to ensure full flavor extraction. The machine can brew cold and hot cups back to back, but the cold brews will get less and less cold unless you give the tank time to cool down again. Indicator lights will let you know how charged the chill tank is. Cold brews came out at about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and rose up to around 65 degrees after five back-to-back brews.

This machine does have some quirks. One minor detail that irked me is that the chilled-water tank can only be filled from the back side of the brewer, which means depending on your kitchen cabinet configurations, you might have to pull it away from the wall to refill it easily. It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but it is something to note. This brewer would take up a lot of room if you’ve got limited counter space. And it runs a rinse cycle after every cold brew, which takes about a minute and a half and is quite noisy. The rinsewater drains into the drip tray and it takes five cold brews to fill the tray up. The tray has a little floating indicator to let you know when it’s time to dump it out.

This machine isn’t going to be ideal for everyone, especially if you don’t really love iced coffee. But if you like cold coffee that isn’t diluted, it’s definitely worth checking out.

I was really annoyed when I realized that Nespresso sent me this brewer in black. Champagne problems, I know—but this brewer comes in so many delightful colors, from deep red and orange to pastel lavender and pink. It looks cute on your countertop with its little rounded figure and relatively short stature. The Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ can handle all Vertuo coffee pods. The pods are aluminum and can be recycled by ordering free recycling bags or taking them to a drop-off location. To brew, simply open the machine by twisting the lock on the lid, choose a capsule, and press the button. You can physically move the adjustable drip tray between two ladder-like rungs on the front of the machine. There's also a companion app that gives you maintenance alerts, video walk-throughs, and easy pod reordering.

Closing and locking the machine, or pressing the coffee button while the machine is locked, will start a heating cycle that takes about 30 seconds. The machine automatically recognizes the capsule you insert, and it extracts brew size based on the capsule as well. For example, espresso capsules will brew 1.35 ounces, double espresso capsules brew 2.7 ounces, and coffee capsules brew 8 ounces. This is different from other machines where you select the capacity you want. In the app you can make minor tweaks, such as making espresso shots shorter or longer. You can press the coffee button to end brewing early (a very handy trick if you accidentally use a 6-ounce mug for an 8-ounce brew, which I may or may not have done.) The machine has a waste basket that'll automatically collect spent capsules. I'm not a huge fan of Nespresso's flavored coffee and espresso capsules, simply because I would rather make traditional coffee and then add any whimsical flavorings later to suit my tastes. But if you prefer your coffee with a side of caramel or gingerbread or almond or some other decadent altering, there are many flavored options for you.

With plain old coffee and espresso capsules, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the body and mouthfeel of the drinks. Technically, these espresso pods are not making espresso. But it's a darn close espresso-like beverage, and you can get it without needing an entire separate machine with a tamping weight and a portafilter and a pressure gauge. And the coffee is on par or slightly better than other machines I've tried, with a nice acidic bite that isn't too watered down. If convenience is what you seek, this do-it-all machine is worth a look.

I was sent the bundle that comes with an optional milk frother. I like having the option, but be aware that it will take up another wall outlet. But the Aeroccino was easy to use—pour in your milk of choice and press the button. It'll heat and froth your milk automatically—it takes about a minute and it's whisper-quiet. Every Nespresso capsule I've tried has featured a thick layer of crema, and having whipped, thick milk on top of it made my average cup of coffee a more elevated experience.

This sleek-looking coffee maker is a good choice for people who want to be able to choose their coffee delivery method. You can use a K-Cup pod or supply your own ground coffee to brew a cup of joe. It also has a built-in, foldaway frother that lets you make specialty beverages like cappuccinos or lattes. (Note that the frother doesn’t steam milk—it‘s more like a mini immersion whisk. The manual suggests microwaving milk before frothing if you want your foam to be warm.)

I was honestly amazed at how much Ninja managed to pack into this brewer, which is only slightly larger than the similarly priced Keurig K-Mini. It has so many bells and whistles for the price. The design is user-friendly, and it makes it easy to see how things are meant to fit together. The clever pieces are designed in such a way that it’s obvious if you’re doing something wrong.

A permanent brew basket is installed in the machine. There are two adapters—one for grounds and one for K-Cups. Whichever you aren’t using stores cleverly in a little drawer, and the machine also comes with a marked scoop for measuring grounds that stores on a hook on the side of the machine. There’s a display that lets you choose your coffee style—classic, rich, over ice, or specialty (which only brews in 4-ounce sizes). The machine beeps when you start a brew, and there’s a progress bar and a series of beeps to let you know when your coffee is ready.

The only thing I didn’t love was the drip tray. It brackets onto the front of the machine like a ladder. It wasn’t unstable, and I could see it coming in handy to minimize splatter on shorter cups, but I didn’t like running the risk of knocking over a hovering cup of hot coffee. I just kept mine firmly on the counter and was resigned to wiping up any erroneous splashes.

All in all though, this machine offers fantastic value for its low price, and it could be a better solution if you don’t want to solely rely on K-Cups to get your coffee in your face.

The Cumulus cold-brew machine promises something that seems impossible: instant and frothy nitro cold brew from a capsule. It’s not just a chilled coffee pod, either: It’s actual cold brew, made over the course of many hours using cold water and time, then vacuum-distilled and condensed down to fit in a wee capsule. Insert the capsule into a Cumulus Machine, and it’ll unpack that super-dense concentrate using a powerful compressor. The result is a frigid 10-ounce glass of cold brew, a fabulously frothy nitro version made by pressure-injecting raw air into the coffee, or an intense and bracing cold espresso that dispenses beautifully into martini form.

The abundant nitro froth, and espresso crema in your martini, are absolutely the strongest selling points for this $700 home machine (each capsule makes enough coldspresso for two martinis, or a hefty double). But note that the capsules, which mostly amount to $2.50 a pop, don’t quite have the character of cold brew: There’s a little tang, something a little sharp. But a luxury “Wush Wush” Ethiopia, which costs a whopping $6 a capsule, shows what’s possible for the machine. The resulting cold brew was a legit achievement: full-bodied, smooth, and wildly aromatic. —Matthew Korfhage

The xBloom is like a coffee pod machine that went to college and got a fancy degree. This Swiss army knife of a machine contains a built-in conical burr grinder and scale, offers the option for minutely programmable pour-over coffee, and even has a new option for brewing tea. But if you want no effort? The xBloom is also maybe the only pod coffee machine on the market that’ll make coffee fit for the snobbiest of coffee snobs. Order roast-to-order xPods ($1 to $3 a pod, depending) by mail order or subscription, and you’ll get single-serve pods filled with fresh beans from the hypeiest third-wave roasters in coffee, whether Bean & Bean, Onyx, or Black & White.

Your compostable pods will arrive with an RFID recipe card, preprogrammed and theoretically optimized to each bean. Just swipe the card, dump the fresh beans into the grinder, then push the button. Chances are, you’ll receive some wildly interesting coffee, after about three minutes of robot grind and robot pour-over. Results will vary depending on how well the roaster programs the machine, but I’ve gotten some seriously good cups from this machine. —Matthew Korfhage