Taste of Home’s Pod Brewer Tests Put Ninja’s Pods-and-Grounds on Top

Taste of Home’s product testing team has named Ninja’s Pods and Grounds single-serve brewer the best one-cup coffee maker after running 14 machines through roughly 10 tests each. The ranking was last updated in June and is making the rounds again on MSN this week.

The testers liked the Ninja for doing a bit of everything. It takes K-Cups or ground coffee, has a slim frother tucked behind the brewer, and holds 56 ounces of water. Taste of Home also credits its iced setting with brewing a stronger, cooler cup so the drink doesn’t go watery over ice, which it says few of the other machines pulled off.

Keurig fills most of the other slots. Per the ranking, the K-Elite is the pick for crowds thanks to its 75-ounce tank, the K-Mini Plus wins on color choices, the K-Express is the fast, slim option and the K-Café Barista covers lattes. The Nespresso Vertuo is the splurge pick, with the usual catch that it only takes Nespresso’s capsules, and the $399 Bruvi BV-01 is called the most versatile. Among the machines that missed the cut, the testers flagged a Black+Decker brewer as a safety concern because its heating element seemed to be on before it was switched on, and said a Hamilton Beach model splattered while brewing.

Our take: it’s the frother-equipped Ninja we’ve flagged at $100 a couple of times this fall, so it’s no stranger to these lists. The grounds basket matters more than the frother, since brewing your own coffee most days is where the savings are; our cost-per-cup breakdown shows by how much. If you’d rather stick with a Keurig, a reusable K-Cup gets you the same pods-or-grounds choice.

Check the Ninja’s price on Amazon