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The winning athletes are already using heat to their advantage, because now they have to.

The first Keurig machine with PressureInfusion Technology, the K-Crema is a game-changer for lovers of smooth, flavorful brews.

Keurig K-Crema: one-minute review

Keurig has become a go-to coffee maker brand in the US, with its brewing products rivalling fellow big dogs like Nespresso, Breville, and Ninja. One of its latest innovations is the K-Crema single-serve coffee machine, featuring the manufacturer’s new PressureInfusion Technology, which (according to Keurig) delivers five times more pressure than its standard brewers.

What does that mean for you? Smoother coffee with bolder flavours and a visibly creamy texture on top — though just how much crema you get depends on the roast you use, with darker roasts resulting in more crema and lighter roasts producing less in my experience.

This high-pressure coffee maker offers four main cup sizes — 6oz, 8oz, 10oz, and 12oz — and two espresso options — single shot and double shot. While the pressure mode can be used with any of these, there’s also a classic mode. Using the brewer is straightforward, with its control panel easy to use and its removable parts requiring minimal effort to clean. The coffee-making process is also a joy, with brews taking around one minute, with minimal noise, and the results packed with rich flavor — regardless of the setting.

(Image credit: Future)

The K-Crema uses K-Cup pods, Keurig’s own coffee capsules specifically designed for use in its brewer, and there is an impressively wide variety of K-Cups available, including options from big coffee brands like Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Green Mountain, and McDonald's, offering a way to brew your favourite coffee at home.

While prices on these pods vary, a box of 24 pods costs around $20 (not including the delivery fee), making them more affordable than they would be in-store. However, you are restricted to using K-Cups in the machine.

The K-Crema uses K-Cup capsules, like all of Keurig's coffee makers (Image credit: Future)

The K-Crema itself also offers good value for money, given the quality of its design, features, and results. While $219.99 is still a pretty penny, it’s in line with the cost we’d expect for a single-serve capsule coffee machine, especially one of this standard. If that’s still a little out of your price range, look out for regular discounts that bring the K-Crema down to around $149.99.

Keurig K-Crema: price and availability

• List price $219.99
• Regular discounts drop it to around $149.99
• Available at third-party retailers like Target and Walmart
• Not available in the UK or Australia

The Keurig K-Crema retails for $219.99, putting it in the same price ballpark as the Nespresso Pixie — one of our best coffee maker picks — while offering more functionality. As such, the brewing machine offers excellent value for money, which becomes even better when regular discounts drop that price to $159.99. Unfortunately, those in the UK. and Australia are out of luck as the K-Crema is unavailable in those regions at the time of writing.

However, when buying any capsule coffee machine, you also need to consider the price of the pods. The K-Crema uses K-Cup pods, which can be purchased directly from Keurig or third-party retailers like Amazon, though subscription services are also available. A box of 24 pods from Keurig costs roughly $20 (with delivery free on orders over $35), working out around 80 cents a pod, with bigger discounts available on bigger boxes. While you can only use K-Cup pods with the brewer, the variety of brands and beverage options is pretty impressive, with pods available from Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Green Mountain, and more.

Keurig also offers an optional recycling and composting service called K-Cycle, whereby you can purchase a K-Cup pod recovery bin ($139.95 for a small five-pack and $189.95 for a large five-pack), fill it with your used K-Cups, and return it to the company. Keurig then converts 75% of the pod’s weight into compost and 25% into recycled product.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Keurig K-Crema: specifications

Type

Single-serve capsule coffee maker

Colour

Black

Capsules

K-Cup pods

Brew pressure

Two options: Classic or Pressure

Brew sizes

6oz, 8oz, 10oz, 12oz, shot, double shot

Water reservoir capacity

72 oz

Special features

PressureInfusion technology, energy saver auto off function, high altitude setting, multistream technology, adjustable drip tray, descale indicator, pressure lock

Smart control?

No

Dimensions

13.3in x 8.5in x 13.1in / 33.8cm x 21.6cm x 33.3cm

Dishwasher cafe?

No

Keurig K-Crema: design

• Stylish black and silver matt design
• Adjustable drip tray
• Removable hand-washable parts
• Descaling indicator

The K-Crema is a stylish-looking coffee maker, featuring a black matte body with silver matte accents. While it takes up a bit more counter space than, say, a Nespresso Vertuo, a good portion of the space it occupies is due to the removable, 72-oz water reservoir on its side. On top of the machine is a control panel, displaying a circle of large buttons, each indicating the brewer’s various cup sizes, with a Keurig 'K' button in the middle. Just above these buttons are two more for brew pressure: one for Classic and another for Pressure.

Around the base of the control panel is a handle that, when pulled upward, opens the top of the machine to reveal the K-Cup holder below with a needle inside and a set of (more noticeable) sharp needles above that pierce the cups. Underneath where the cup holder hits is a drip tray that can be adjusted to suit the size of the cup you’re using or removed entirely to accommodate travel mugs.

You can adjust the height of the drip tray to suit different sized cupsFutureThe dray is plastic, which helps avoid scratching your drinkware, but isn't dishwasher-safeFuture

The drip tray, K-Cup-holder, and aforementioned water reservoir can all be removed and must be hand-washed with soapy water, rather than putting them in the dishwasher.

The rest of the machine can be wiped down with a cloth, but be super careful to avoid the needles inside the machine and the K-Cup holder — and to keep little fingers away — as they’re extremely sharp. I did find that I had to regularly wipe down the base of the machine, above the drip tray, as coffee would often splash back during brewing.

The K-Crema uses sharp spikes to pierce capsules, and they are more prominent than those of similarly specced Nespresso machinesFutureThe used pods are easy to remove, but don't drop into a handy bin like Nespresso Vertuo capsulesFuture

Keurig recommends periodically hand-washing the removable parts and advises that if you taste a change in your beverage's flavour, or regularly use flavoured cups, you may need to clean them more often. At the very least, we advise rinsing your pod holder regularly. Fortunately, if descaling is your issue, the machine will display a light indicating that you need to descale the machine. Keurig offers its own descaling solution, as well as water filters and rinse pods to help maintain your machine.

Apart from the splashing, our primary issues with the machine’s design were the small response delay after pressing a button, and that the pressure lock, which was meant to automatically engage during a pressure brew — and is indicated by a red light — didn’t seem to work for us. The light didn’t come on, and the lock didn’t engage, allowing the handle to be lifted. However, this may have been an issue with our specific model, as we’ve not seen reports of this issue from other customers.

The buttons on top of the machine make it easy to select your preferred drink size (Image credit: Future)

• Design score: 4.5/5

Keurig K-Crema: performance

• Bold, rich flavours
• Brews in around one minute
• Pressure mode produces smoother brews
• Crema depends on roast type

Operating the K-Crema is wonderfully straightforward, once you’ve read the instructions. All you have to do is insert your K-Cup into the holder, pull down the handle, and then select either Classic or Pressure, followed by your brew size — select the large 'K' symbol to start .

We found that on Classic, with an 8oz brew selected, a coffee took around a minute-and-a-half to brew, including heat-up time. A pressure 6oz cup was similarly speedy, taking just one minute and 12 seconds.

Keurig advises that dark roasts produce the most crema (Image credit: Future)

Overall, the coffee taste on both modes was bold and flavorsome — especially on the shot and double shot settings — but you can definitely notice a difference in the Pressure mode: the brew is simply smoother and richer.

I was slightly disappointed by the crema, as there was only a small amount on top with each test. However, I was using a medium roast, and Keurig does warn that a dark roast will produce the most crema. So, if you want lots of crema but don’t like a dark roast, this may not be the machine for you.

The K-Crema is particularly quiet in use (Image credit: Future)

The machine was surprisingly quiet throughout our tests, registering an average of 64 decibels, most of which was the sound of the stream of liquid from the coffee maker hitting the liquid already in the cup below. We were also impressed by the heat of the brew: not so scalding hot that you have to wait to enjoy your drink, but just right for those of us who enjoy standard coffee shop temperatures. Once finished, the used, punctured cup was easy to remove thanks to the small lips on either side of the holder.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Keurig K-Crema?Keurig K-Crema score card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

At $219.99, this coffee maker offers excellent value for its price tag, offering more functionality than some of its competitors — and a better quality brew. Keep an eye out for regular discounts for even better value.

4.5/5

Design

The K-Crema is a stylish, fairly minimalistic coffee machine with clear, large buttons and straightforward functionality. It does splash a bit, but fortunately the clean up is pretty low effort.

4/5

Performance

This coffee maker makes flavoursome, rich coffee in around one to two minutes, with the pressure mode offering an even smoother brew. Just don't expect lots of crema if you're not a fan of dark roast.

4.5/5

Buy it if

You want coffee shop drinks at home

The K-Crema uses K-Cups, and the variety of pods available is pretty impressive due to Keurig’s many brand partnerships. Choices include Dunkin’, Lipton, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, Twinings, and more, allowing you to enjoy coffee shop coffee from the comfort of your kitchen.

You're serious about flavorful coffee

The K-Crema uses multi-stream technology to more evenly saturate the K-Cup’s coffee grounds, allowing it to extract more flavour and aroma, and it shows. The coffee brews are bold, rich, and, when using Pressure mode, super smooth. If you care about the flavour of your coffee, this coffee maker is well worth considering.

You want a quality coffee maker that won't break the bank

This brewer retails for $219.99, but offers high-quality performance and results for that price tag. While it may not offer the bells and whistles of more high-end coffee makers, it offers more functionality than similarly priced competitors. What’s more, thanks to regular discounts, you may even be able to pick it up for almost $70 less.View Deal

Don't buy it if

You don't want to be tied to using K-Cup capsules

While there’s a wide variety of K-Cups available, you may not want to be tied to using Keurig’s range. If you prefer alternative third-party coffee capsules or are moving from another brewer brand, like Nespresso, and hope to continue using the same pods, this may not be the coffee maker for you.

You want more than the basics

The K-Crema does what it does well, but if you’re looking for a more barista-style coffee maker with the ability to froth and steam milk, or grind your own beans, you won’t find that here. But, if you’re starting out on your coffee machine journey and simply want an affordable, easy-to-use machine, this is one to consider.View Deal

Keurig K-Crema: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Keurig K-Crema is the right coffee maker for you, here are two alternatives to check out.

Nespresso Vertuo Pop

The smallest and most affordable Nespresso machine around, the Pop produces rich, full-bodied espresso in a couple of minutes. The only drawback is that Vertuo pods are relatively pricey.

Bosch Tassimo Finesse Friendly

Another affordable capsule coffee-maker, the Finesse Friendly can also create authentic-tasting cappuccinos and lattes using capsules filled with long-life milk.

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