Best pod coffee machines – the top capsule espresso makers for your caffeine fix

While the weekends allow time to faff around grinding espresso beans, during the week we need our cappuccino a bit faster. Taking the time and mess out of brewing an espresso with a silky smooth crema, the best pod coffee machines deliver a barista-worthy cuppa every time. And all, conveniently, from your own kitchen.

Need more sound advice? See more of our buying guide reviews

Making café-style drinks something you can enjoy at home, many capsule coffee machines go further still. As well as including devices for warming and frothing milk, some can produce hot chocolate, tea and cold drinks.

In this way one machine can ensure an entire household can enjoy their favourite beverage.

Why do I need a pod coffee machine?

Image credit: Claire Lloyd Davies

Anyone who’s ever tried to use an espresso machine only to end up with soggy grounds and a dribble of brown liquid will have learnt their lesson. The biggest appeal of pod coffee machines is that you don’t need expertise to make a great espresso.

Instead, each capsule contains exactly the right amount of ground coffee, arranged so all you need to do is press a button.

Less costly and bulky than bean-to-cup machines, pod coffee makers also often take up less room on a worktop. This makes them a good fit for small kitchens, home offices and even bedrooms.

How much should I spend on a pod coffee machine?

Around £50-£80 should secure you an entry-level pod coffee machine but the thing to be most aware of is the system you’re buying into. None are compatible with the others, so investigate the cost of pods when looking at coffee machines.

Spend more than £100 and you’re likely to have the option of frothing and warming milk, either in a separate appliance or with a wand. Premium pod coffee machines can cost up to £400, thanks to additional features, a more robust construction and eye-catching design.

Best pod coffee machines 2020

1. Deséa coffee machine by Lavazza a Modo Mio – best pod coffee machine overall

Love cappuccinos but not the mess and clean-up that goes with frothing and decanting hot foamed milk? Then the Deséa is the pod coffee machine for you.

Compact, yet with a good-sized 1.1-litre water tank, and compatible with the brand’s eco-friendly compostable capsules, it comes with a dishwasher-safe glass cup that serves as both your frothing vessel and mug.

This means that you can fill the cup with milk, slot it into the machine, add a capsule, and the machine will do the rest, producing a café-worthy latte or cappuccino with a single button press. There’s no pouring or splashes – so you can walk away and return to find a drink that’s ready to go.

It’s not just convenience that the Deséa has in spades, it also comes with more options than the average pod coffee machine. For example, there’s a button for more foam, a coffee temperature boost and a cleaning cycle that can be run to make sure that your first beverage will always be as good as the last.

Its five milk programmes include hot and cold frothing for making hot chocolate or milkshakes, plus there’s a choice of espresso, long espresso, long coffee and a free dose for those who like their drink just so.

A final reason to love it is how quiet it is during operation – a mere 43dB during coffee delivery. Perhaps the only downsides to be aware of are that capsule disposal isn’t automatic, so you’ll still have to remember to raise the lever at the end to release the pod into the integral bin, and that the frothing boost button isn’t suitable for larger volumes of milk as it’ll overflow.

Ideal Home’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Deséa coffee machine by Lavazza a Modo Mio, £149, John Lewis

2. CitiZ coffee machine by Nespresso – best pod coffee machine for small spaces

Slim, stylish and devilishly simple to use, there’s a reason why CitiZ has won awards for its design. Not only can it fit snugly into the most compact of kitchens (it’s only 13cm wide), there are just two programmable buttons, making it good for bleary-eyed mornings when all you want is a shot of coffee without any fuss.

There’s no waiting around – we found that it heated up in seconds, plus you can pop a pod in straight away, hit the button to brew and walk away.

Unlike some compact machines, the one-litre water tank is fairly substantial for its size, meaning it should last all day without repeat trips to the sink. There’s also an internal bin for used capsules that will only need emptying daily (it’ll fit up to 11), so it’s ideal for a home office.

A drop-down drip tray as well as the main one means it can adapt to any cup size, from espresso cups to your favourite mug, without causing splashes on the worktop. Another plus is the CitiZ’s build quality – it feels robust yet elegant, thanks to its metal drip trays, smoothly sliding moving parts and minimal controls.

All this sleekness wouldn’t matter if the coffee wasn’t up to scratch. Fortunately, it is. The Nespresso capsule system offers the widest choice of blends and varieties, and CitiZ makes the most of them, delivering a thick, velvety crema and a faultless brew every time. The espressos we made were short, flavour-packed and punchy, the lungos rich and aromatic.

The only areas that might give you pause for thought are the price, as the CitiZ costs more than most equivalent machines, and the fact that milky drinks aren’t catered for until you pair it with an Aeroccino 3 – by itself, this is one for black coffee aficionados.

Ideal Home’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Buy now: CitiZ coffee machine by Nespresso, £129, John Lewis

3. Nespresso Expert&Milk – best pod coffee machine for gadget lovers

Putting the connectivity into coffee, the Expert&Milk pod coffee machine is sleek in both looks and the way it operates. Not only can you push a button to produce a smooth shot of espresso, aromatic lungo or steaming Americano.

You can actually do so from a Bluetooth Smart app. This means that as long as you’ve put in a capsule beforehand, you can brew your coffee from the comfort of your own bed. What better way to wake then to the smell of fresh coffee?

Beyond its app, it has everything you’d expect from a stylish Nespresso coffee machine. That includes innovative flat design that allows it to sit flush against a wall, and 19 bar pump pressure.

With slightly more than a litre water tank, it even has an integral Aeroccino for frothing milk, meaning you’ll only need one plug socket.

A few other features justify the premium price tag of this pod coffee machine, too. These include a two-part used capsule holder, magnetic cup platform, choice of three temperature settings (for extra hot espresso) and automatic capsule ejection.

In tests, both the coffee and the warm, frothy milk were consistently smooth. However, pairing it with an Android phone resulted in multiple failed attempts.

Ideal Home’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Nespresso Expert&Milk, £239, Currys PC World

4. Nespresso VertuoPlus – best pod coffee machine for everyday luxury

If you’re the sort of person who opts for bedlinen with a high thread count, bone china on the table and beautifully scented candles, the VertuoPlus is the coffee machine for you.

The reason is simple – it delivers that little bit of a treat everyday – in this case, by dispensing rich, generous cups of aromatic coffee, topped with the sort of rich crema that feels more like a dessert than a drink.

Even using it feels indulgent, from the capsule holder that opens automatically with a gentle nudge and closes with the same action, to the chunky chrome cup platform that can be positioned at four heights, so you can accommodate tall glasses and shorter mugs.

There’s just one button on the top, which functions as the on-off, brew button or will run a deep cleaning programme. Each capsule has a barcode around the rim that’s read by the machine, so you don’t even have to adjust the volume for espresso or longer drinks (there are five drink sizes, each of which can be adjusted between 10-500ml).

When it’s finished brewing, simply open the capsule holder and the used pod slides backwards to drop into a used pod container at the back.

During testing, the machine proved to be incredibly intuitive to use, plus the large water tank (which can be positioned at the back or either side if you’re short on space) meant it didn’t have to refilled as frequently as some compact machines.

It was a little noisy while brewing, making a whirling sound, and took under a minute to make a 230ml mug of coffee, and about 30 seconds for 150ml. Also, if you love foamed fresh milk on top of your frothy drink, you’ll have to invest in one with an Aeroccino3, as the VertuoPlus is purely a coffee maker. Plus none of its parts are dishwasher-safe.

However, for generous mugs of joe, on-point espresso and luscious lungos that are as good for entertaining as they are on a daily basis, the VertuoPlus is a sleek solution.

Ideal Home’s rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Nespresso VertuoPlus pod coffee machine, £109.99, Amazon

5. Bosch Tassimo My Way – best pod coffee machine for Americanos

Long black coffee drinkers can feel a bit left out in a world that’s passionate about flat whites, gingerbread lattes and 101 things to do with alternative milks but never fear, the My Way has you in mind. That’s because you can make your Americano just how you want it with the minimum of button presses.

Select from three different strengths (think of them as ranging from all-day sipping to wake up now), three different volumes and even three temperatures – great for extra-hot drink lovers.

To make it even easier to get your ideal Americano, it’ll store up to four personalised settings, so you won’t have to constantly reset the machine to the way you like your coffee. Of course, this being Tassimo, it’ll also make tea, hot chocolate and a range of other drinks, so it’s good for a busy household who all like something different.

If you’ve used a Tassimo machine before, you’ll know it’s all about the barcodes. Each T-disc is placed into the My Way so it can read it and dispense an appropriate amount of water (keeping espressos short for example), with pressure as required.

Unlike many pod machines that use between 15-19 bar pump pressure to achieve a thick crema, the My Way only has 3.3 bar pump pressure, but during testing, it still produced a noticeably frothy finish on top of our Americanos.

On the plus side, this meant its warm-up time was almost instant (no waiting around for a thermoblock meant it initialised in 10 seconds), and its flow heater could keep going drink after drink without pauses to recover. It doesn’t froth fresh milk, offering creamer discs or combined discs instead, but they may not be for everyone.

A final reason to love it is because it’s low-maintenance. There’s a self-cleaning function, so your coffee will always taste great, and its parts are dishwasher safe.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Bosch Tassimo My Way coffee machine, £88.48, Amazon

6. Dualit Espress-Auto Coffee and Tea Machine – best pod coffee machine for commitment-phobes 

Are you the sort of person who likes the idea of a pod coffee machine but you can’t fix yourself to one system? Those clever folk at Dualit have the answer for you.

The Espress-Auto is a multi-brew 19 bar pump pressure pod coffee machine. This means that not only will it make coffee from Nespresso capsules and ESE pods, you can also pop in alternatives.

This includes tea capsules, its own NX capsules or even ground coffee, giving you freedom those with a single-pod system don’t benefit from.

There’s two buttons for single or double espresso and one for tea (which raises the temperature of the water and extracts for longer). This can be altered for warmer or cooler, too. An easy to clean steam wand is on hand for frothing milk and the water tank is a generous 1.5 litres.

There’s even a handy ‘drip tray full’ indicator to let you know when to empty the coffee machine dregs.

Its auto-off is a rather long 30 minutes, however, so it’s probably best to remember to switch the coffee machine off after use. During testing, using the ground coffee was the most tricky and messy part. However, aside from that, all the coffee brewed was velvety smooth and of a consistently high quality.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Dualit Espress-Auto Coffee and Tea Machine, £182.99, Amazon

7. JML San Siro – best pod coffee machine for iced drinks

Whether you’re hankering after a steaming espresso or an iced latte, the San Siro coffee machine can deliver. Nespresso pod-compatible, it can make both tea and coffee and switch between hot and cold brewing (though it takes a little while to cool between the two).

This means you don’t have to wait for hot coffee to grow lukewarm before making summer drinks or risk instantly melting your ice cubes.

It has plenty of other great features too, including 19 bar pump pressure for creating coffee crema, 15-min eco-off mode, a retractable spout, which lowers to reach small cups and raises to make room for taller mugs, plus there’s a rinse button that you can hit between beverages to ensure there’s no residue left behind.

It also comes in a range of eye-catching shades, so you can use it to add a splash of blue, green, pink or red to your kitchen.

There are a few niggles – the water tank at the back is on the small side at 800ml, and compared to some pod machines, it’s slow to dispense, which could become frustrating if you like to espresso and go. You’ll also need to programme the coffee size you prefer as there’s only one option as standard, which is lungo.

There’s no milk warming function either, so you might have to budget for a frother. In tests, we found that while it produced a solid crema and brought out the rich sweetness of the pods we were using, the coffee had less of the aroma we’d expect. The lever to close the capsule container was a bit stiff too.

On the maintenance front, you’ll need to be vigilant – there’s no descale alert, so you’ll need to remember to do this regularly or face the limescaley consequences, and clean its removable parts by hand. However, it’s pretty affordable for a Nespresso-compatible pod machine, so is a great way to find out if you like the range of drinks on offer.

Ideal Home’s rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Buy now: San Siro coffee machine, £99.99, JML

8. Nescafe Dolce Gusto Eclipse – best pod coffee machine for versatility

What do you do when everyone in the house likes a different beverage but you’re still a coffee purist? The answer is the exhaustive Dolce Gusto system. Specifically, one of its design-led coffee machines, the easy to use, feature-packed Eclipse.

Designed in a stylish loop that opens at the touch of a button, it manages to squeeze in a generous one-litre water tank. Its moveable cup platform is unencumbered by the rest of the machine, so it’ll accommodate everything from a dainty teacup to a mug.

Its auto-off is five minutes and the only niggle is that the loop doesn’t close itself automatically after use. While it’ll brew tea and hot chocolate, coffee is the machine’s speciality. With 15 bar pump pressure, there’s an option to position the cup platform just below the spout for espresso.

A touch-control slider dictates how much water is dispensed from the coffee machine, with the option of XL for longer drinks.

The choice of hot or cold allows you make a chilled cappuccino as easily as a warm one. During testing, the Eclipse coffee machine heated up quickly, in around 30 seconds. It made faultless, consistent coffee, although its milk pods tasted overly sweet.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Eclipse automatic pod coffee machine by Nescafe Dolce Gusto, £99.99, Amazon

9. Bosch Tassimo Vivy 2 – best pod coffee machine for beginners on a budget

Whatever your coffee of choice is, investing in a Tassimo machine will keep you supplied with all your favourite blends. As one of the smaller coffee machines in the range, the Vivy 2 is everything that’s great about the T-Disc system in a simple to use package. Each coffee capsule is barcoded so the machine knows how much water to dispense and all you need to do is push a button. There’s descaling and water tank refill alerts, too.

It’s also an eco-friendly design, with fast heat-up at the start, reverting to a standby mode after each drink. Where it differs from other coffee machines is its lower 3.3 bar pressure. How the coffee tastes will have more to do with the selected disc rather than the brewing process. In tests, the espresso was rich but with only a hint of crema, while the hot chocolate was indulgent and frothy.

Once or twice it had trouble reading the barcodes. However, this is a good coffee machine to go for if your household has a higher proportion of non-coffee drinkers who don’t mind regular refilling of its smaller-than-average 700ml tank.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Tassimo Vivy 2 coffee machine by Bosch, £59.99, Amazon

10. KitchenAid Artisan Nespresso – best pod coffee machine for retro style

Ticking the box for two covetable brands in one, this stylish pod coffee machine demands your attention. Rather than plastic, its body is glossy die-cast metal. Rather than light and compact, it’s a weighty 8.9kg – because, well, why would you ever want to store such a glorious machine in a cupboard? Find space for it on your worktop and you’ll discover that this coffee machine is every inch a modern marvel, brewing six pre-programmed cup sizes.

It operates its capsule holder by way of a chrome lever that closes with a satisfying thud. The Artisan also learns what your favourite coffee is by switching on at the setting selected most over the last 11 uses. As one of the most expensive pod coffee machines on the market, it’s more of an investment than most.

You’ll need to find a home and a socket for its separate Aeroccino if you like milky drinks – the Artisan is solely a coffee maker. However, it does make coffee very well, thanks to a 1.4-litre water tank, 19 bar pump pressure and drop-down chrome cup platform.

In tests, its ristretto was as sweet and flavourful as its lungo. Both came with an intoxicating crema. Beautifully designed and as robust as they come, this is a pod coffee machine built to last.

Ideal Home’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy now: Artisan Nespresso coffee machine by KitchenAid, £349, Currys PC World

Updating your small appliances? Best blenders – the top models for making smoothies, soups and much more

How to buy a pod coffee machine

Image credit: Dualit

1. Tank size

Every pod machine will have a refillable water tank so check its size before you buy. Anything less than a litre will require more frequent topping up, especially if you prefer long drinks. Some can be filled in-situ (for moments when you realise the water’s about to run out). Others will need to removed – if you have a small kitchen sink or short tap, check that you can fit the tank below the spout easily.

2. Bar pressure

This is how much force the machine uses to pump the water through the pod. Look for a minimum of 15 for a pro-style crema, though machines designed to handle a wide range of drinks can be lower.

3. Milk frothing

There are two ways a pod coffee machines can make frothy cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites. The first is by using dried or UHT milk pods – these are great if you don’t have access to a fridge but may not be to everyone’s taste. The other is by a separate or conjoined milk frother, such as the Aeroccino that often accompanies Nespresso machines.

4. Drink size

Great for those who like an espresso in the morning, but a latte at weekends, some machines have a choice of different-sized beverages. Often there is the ability to adjust the amount of water dispensed to suit your taste. You may also be able to save your favourite settings to create easily reproduced personalised drinks. The latest crop of coffee machines can even be controlled by an app, so you can set them to brew the moment you step out of the shower.

5. Spout size

Check there’s enough room for your favourite cup beneath the spout. Some pod coffee machines have narrow platforms that won’t accommodate big mugs. Espresso fans should look for spouts that drop down or adjustable cup platforms that raise smaller cups towards the spout. This not only helps prevent splashes on the worktop, but makes for a thicker crema on your espresso.

What drinks can your pod coffee machine make?

Most of the mainstream pod coffee machines can make basic milky drinks, but it’s common to find those that can produce anything from a chai latte to a caramel macchiato. Some coffee machines can also make cold drinks, such as chilled tea or coffee. There’s the option of branded drinks with the Tassimo T-Disc coffee system.

Machines that use ESE pods (which resemble a round teabag) will only brew coffee or tea, while other systems favour a variety of single-origin coffee types rather than a range of drinks.

What other key questions do I need to ask?

Image credit: Darren Chung

1. Can you recycle the coffee machine pods?

Check if your coffee pods can be recycled to help cut down on waste. For example, Nespresso coffee pods are made of infinitely recyclable aluminium.

2. How about descaling your pod coffee machine?

If you live in a hard water area, make sure your coffee machine has descaling alerts. Regular descaling is essential to keep your pod machine running smoothly.

3. Do pod coffee machines use a lot of energy?

Your pod coffee machine’s thermoblock (the part that heats the water) can be an energy guzzler. Choose a model that will switch itself off after a few minutes of non-use. This may be referred to as an eco mode.

More expert advice: Best kettles – the top models for the perfect cup of tea in a flash, updated for 2019

4. How easy are pod coffee machines to clean?

A clean coffee machine is a happy one, so buy one that’s easily maintained by a rinse cycle and with removable parts for cleaning, such as the drip tray. This will be especially relevant if your coffee machine uses milk pods, which can smell if not regularly cleaned away.

The post Best pod coffee machines – the top capsule espresso makers for your caffeine fix appeared first on Ideal Home.

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