15 Gifts For The Best Coffee Pod Machine Lover In Your Life
The Best Coffee Pod Machine
This sleek, brushed-steel model comes with Sage brand's distinctive quality and ease of operation. After switching on, it warms up and makes a scrumptious espresso or a slightly longer lungo in about 30 seconds.
The pod models are an excellent alternative to bean-to cup machines. They take the most messy aspects of making coffee off your hands, like grinding and measuring grounds.
1. Fast
Pod machines can be installed and used more quickly than espresso machines. Most of them can make a cup in just 30 seconds. The pre-portioned pods that are used in these machines are generally more expensive than freshly roasted coffee beans and a majority of them aren't recyclable.
The Nespresso CitiZ has one of the most efficient pod machines available due to the barcode scanner that scans every compatible pod's code prior to making coffee. This allows you to ensure consistent quality, high-end coffee each time, with next-to-no chance of a drink coming out horribly wrong. The machine is also among the tiniest and lightest available and does not require an additional milk jug, and the smallest footprint, making it a breeze to fit into even the tiniest of kitchens.
However, the CitiZ isn't the most efficient machine for those wanting to reduce their environmental impact. It doesn't come with an automatic descaling feature, and you'll have to clean it yourself every 300 cups if reside in hard water, or 1200 cups in soft water areas. Once the filter cartridge is out, you'll need replace it with a new. This could be expensive for certain users.
Tassimo Vivy 2 is a speedy machine that has customisable buttons. It can be used with either ground coffee or ESE pods, which are pre-dosed and tampered grounds compressed between filter paper. The model is B-Corp Certified, which means it is committed to lessening its negative impact on the environment as well as its employees. Its only minor drawback is the time it takes to warm up. Once it is heated, it can brew one cup in about 35 seconds.
Vertuo Creatista is a stylish sleek machine that is able to create a variety of drinks in different sizes and styles. This gorgeous, glossy machine, developed in collaboration with Sage, is not only simple and quick to operate but also comes with a milk frothing wand and an stainless steel Jug.
2. Removable parts
A pod coffee maker (additional resources)'s user-friendliness is a big selling point and the best coffee pod machine models are easy to use. The majority of machines utilize the same basic mechanism to brew your cup the water is heated in an internal reservoir, and then pushed through the chosen capsules and extracted to create rich, hot coffee. The majority of brands offer various sizes of drinks to meet different requirements. You can also save custom settings to speed up the process.
Keurig K-Cups are the biggest player on the market. However, Nestle Nespresso VertuoLine capsules also have a wide selection of capsules by popular roasters. Some pods are designed to be used once and get thrown away, whereas others are meant for multiple uses. Whatever the case, you'll need to plan out the way you'll dispose of your spent pods so they aren't thrown away in the trash.
The sleek SMEG model we tested comes with a water tank that is removable and easy to fill and the machine automatically pours a fresh capsule once the previous one has been cooled. It can brew coffee and lungo drinks and comes with a set of eight different blends to give you plenty of variety. This brewer is a great choice for coffee lovers who are looking to move away from drip coffee.
In our tests in our tests, the Tassimo My Way 2 proved to be the most enjoyable to use. Its sleek design is beautiful on your counter and opens with just a touch to reveal the compartment that stores empty pods. It has an in-built water filter system that is perfect for areas with hard water.
The machine is fast and can brew standard coffee (240ml) as well as ristretto and lungo espresso drinks. Its intuitive controls are a joy to use, thanks to aircraft-style toggles as well as a lever that retracts without much effort to reveal the opening that allows you to insert your pod. It takes a bit of force to close but our testers, including those who have limited mobility and hand strength, found it comfortable.
3. Size
The best capsule coffee machine coffee pod machines remove all the mess from coffee making. All you have to do is load a pod in the machine, press a button, and let it brew. You will still need to clean the machine from time to time but not as often as you would with a bean-to-cup cup or espresso maker. The pod machines are also smaller than their bigger counterparts and can be tucked away on the countertop and be stored away from view when not being used.
The decision of whether a coffee machine is the right choice for you depends on your preferences and what you're hoping to get from it. All pod machines are simple to use, however some provide more options for customization. Different pod types, brew sizes options, and milk frothing capabilities should all be considered to help find the perfect coffee pod machine for you.
The most well-known pod-based machines are Nespresso, Keurig and similar brands. However, there are some newer competitors worth taking a look at. Bruvi uses a bespoke system of pods, called B-Pods, which can only be used in its machines. The pods are marked with a barcode, which is scanned by the machine to adjust the brewing settings automatically.
The machine will take all the guesswork and ensure that each drink is perfect every time. It is able to save your customized drinks to a button so that you can create them with one button.
Other machines, such as Sage's My Way, offer greater control over your coffee than others models, allowing you to select the right size and temperature for each beverage. It's more expensive than other models, but it comes with a polished stainless-steel construction and the excellent customer service that is a hallmark of the brand. This is a great option for those wanting to get something more from their espresso maker that is based on pods.
While the majority of people will use pod-based machines to make single-serve drinks There are some larger models that can create longer shots, also known as lungos, also. The Lavazza A Modo Mio Smeg is a fantastic example of this, and it blends the retro-fifties style of SMEG with the retro-fifties design of SMEG Italian coffee brand, Lavazza. It's a bit difficult to use due to its airplane-style toggles and manual lever, but it's incredibly easy and incredibly enjoyable to use and brews a lungo in only 30 seconds, and the discarded pods are placed in an internal bin at the touch of a button.
4. Customization
One of the main reasons a pod coffee maker may not be the right choice for you is its lack of customization. If you don't have an additional milk frother then the only option to enhance flavor or creaminess is to use hot tea or chocolate option in your mug, or to manually add milk to coffee. For most people, this won't be a problem, but it could be a sticking point for those who prefer an automated experience in the morning.
Bosch's Intellibrew utilizes barcode scanners to scan each capsule. It then automatically pre-wets, infuses and dispenses the correct amount of coffee pods machine for the particular kind of pod. It's a simple, hands-off machine that does its job very well but lacks any options for making drinks that are customized or varying the strength of brew. Some buyers will be annoyed by this, but many will find the ease of use and variety of cup sizes (espressos and mugs, lungos and espressos) to be exactly what they're looking for.
Apart from filling the tank with water and decaffeinating the reservoir on occasion, this coffee maker will not require much maintenance. It can dispense short espresso-style shots or tall travel mugs with ease. As mentioned, the used pods are ejected in a hidden container which keeps your kitchen clean. It also does a fantastic job of delivering full-bodied, crema-topped coffees.
This is a stunning machine and part of Smeg's fifties style range. It's user-friendly with a simple panel of buttons, and it can handle ground coffee as well as ESE pods. The only downside is that it doesn't come with an indicator to let you know when it's time to descale and the maximum water level can't be set, which is a minor inconvenience. You'll also need to buy the capsules of the brand, which can be costly. Nevertheless, this is a good pod coffee maker for anyone looking for an attractive and convenient appliance that will provide them with quality coffee at a reasonable cost. For those who want some variety, a wide range of third-party capsules is offered for this model, and it's compatible with the Nespresso Vertuo line.