Serious Eats’ 2026 Gear Awards Pass Over Pod Machines Entirely

Serious Eats has published its second annual Gear Awards, and not a single pod or capsule machine made the coffee section. The site’s one-cup pick is a new stainless steel AeroPress.

The editors say they tested the steel AeroPress against the plastic original and much preferred the metal one, crediting its insulated brew chamber with a fuller, smoother cup. The other coffee winners, per Serious Eats, include the Cumulus, which makes cold brew and nitro coffee at the push of a button, the Ratio 6 Series 2 drip maker the site has recommended for years, a pour-over machine with a built-in grinder, and Breville’s newest espresso machine, which has its own grinder and dual boilers.

Serious Eats has also lined up discount codes with some of the brands for the first two weeks of November. It lists 15% off both the steel AeroPress and the Ratio 6 with code SERIOUSEATS15. We haven’t tried those codes ourselves.

Our take: a test kitchen leaving pods off its list isn’t a shock, since these awards reward flavor over convenience. The AeroPress pick is still a useful nudge for pod owners, though. It’s a one-cup brewer with no pods to buy, and it fits on the counter next to a Keurig. If you’d rather keep using the machine you own with your own beans, our reusable K-Cup picks are the cheaper middle ground, and our cost-per-cup breakdown shows what that switch saves.

Check the steel AeroPress’s price on Amazon