Pod coffee makers are more popular now than ever. They offer convenience, but the quality of the coffee offered with them is higher than it has ever been, making them more appealing to coffee lovers as well as convenience seekers. In the latest issue of Real Simple magazine, they asked the owner of a popular NYC cafe to test 29 models and see how they performed. Then, they narrowed the selection down to just five winners.

• Best for a full house: Keurig Special Edition Brewing System (which I have), which boasts one of the largest selections of coffee and the largest reservoir (48 oz), so you can brew multiple cups easily.
• Best Budget: Mr Coffee Single Serve, which is only able to brew one cup at a time, but is inexpensive and still offers many coffee options.
• Best for Small Spaces: Nespresso Pixie, which features a beautiful and sleek design and brews espresso, for those seeking a richer coffee. The coffee selection is limited, but high quality
• Best All Around: Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio took this category for being affordable, easy to use and offering the flexibility of brewing a few cups at a time. It’s cute, but the coffee selection is limited.
• Best Espresso: De’Longhi Pump Espresso and Cappuccino Maker EC279 brews quality espresso at the touch of a button, and even has a milk steamer so you can turn your shot into a latte. It’s very affordable compared to larger espresso machines, easy to use and offers a big espresso selection.

I remember when single serve coffee makers first came out. The coffee was terrible and I just couldn’t see the value in the machines when it took so little time to brew a pot of real coffee. Time passed and the coffee in those one-cup machines got better. Not only did the coffee get better, but the technology behind it improved to the point where I was very impressed by how much a Keurig machine impressed me the first time I used one.

This special edition brewer is the first Keurig I’ve had in my kitchen, and it is earning its spot on the countertop beside some of my other coffee makers. It is very fast, reliable and is especially handy when I don’t want a whole pot of coffee. The Special Edition is special for a couple of reasons, many of which I outlined in a previous review on Baking Bites. The machine has a large water reservoir and brews coffee (or tea, actually) in three sizes: 6oz, 8oz, and 10oz. I tend to stick to 8oz for most coffees. All of the Keurigs have similar coffee brewing abilities and can brew cup after cup rapidly as long as the basins are filled and will perform consistently over time. With the special edition, you are able to program water temperature and choose an Auto On/Off. The machine also has chrome accents and blue back-lit screen that Keurig says – and I would admit that I agree when I compare it with more basic models – gives the machine an “upscale” appearance. This model isn’t that much more expensive than other models, so it’s all a matter of personal preference when picking one out and I have had no complaints about the basic models (although I do like the chrome on this one) I’ve used in terms of basic functionality.

The biggest drawback of espresso is that you need a big and/or heavy machine to produce it. This is for good reason, since it takes a lot of power to force heat and force the water through the grounds to pull a good shot. At least, you needed a big machine until recently. This year, mypressi introduced the TWIST, a hand-held, portable espresso maker.

The Twist uses both fresh coffee grounds and ESE pods and pulls perfect shots of espresso at the touch of a button. It looks something like a baseball at the end of an ice cream scoop handle – but more stylish – and pumps out 135PSI per shot. The first models should be out this fall sometime and should retail for about $129.

You can see a video of it in action here:

Hands down, the new Nescafé Dolce Gusto from Krups is one of the cutest single-serve espresso machines on the market. Available in three different colors, they all basically look like little round birds perched on your countertop. The black model reminds me of a penguin. Cuteness aside, these are pod espresso machines and, like most, they do tend to put convenience over the coffee. The pods – called capsules, as they have a new design – are good quality and will brew a much larger cup of coffee than many other pod machines, and the resulting coffee will not taste as watered down as others (a big problem, I’ve found). This is because of an unusual feature of the machine:  it is not fully automated. There is a lever at the top that allows you to adjust the water flow, so that you can control the temperature of the drink – hot water or cold – as well as the strength, by adding more or less water. This is a nice feature when you compare it to many pod machines that turn out very watered down cups.

The capsules are not bad, but there is one that stands out from the rest. The Cappuccino Ice flavor is a cold, sweet, frothy drink that comes out of the machine perfectly mixed and ready to drink. This is made possible by the cold water control wand. This was, hands down, the best flavor I tried and good enough that I’d want to drink it again and again.