How Much Coffee Does A Pod Really Make?

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The question of how much coffee one can (or should) get out of a single coffee pod is one I've never pondered, despite having owned various K-Cup coffee makers over the years. I always just stick the pod in and hit the 12-ounce button, since my travel mug holds 16 ounces. If I want to be fancy and drink from a mug, I go with 10 ounces, since most of mine are a standard 11-ounce size. Since I'm anything but a coffee connoisseur, the strength — or lack thereof — didn't bother me much, but as it turns out, I've been making my coffee all wrong. Some experts suggest that the average 10 grams of ground coffee found in a standard K-Cup is most suitable for a six-ounce brew. Eight ounces might work if you're pushing it, but I've essentially been drinking brown water all this time. (It still tastes good with enough half-and-half.)

So why do K-Cup machines even have 10- and 12-ounce settings? These may be intended for extra-strength coffee pods such as the Keurig-owned Community Coffee Dark & Bold Exxtra Boost, which suggests using at least an eight-ounce brew. "Dark roast," "extra-bold," and "intense" are other words that signal a stronger brew. Some Keurig-branded machines also feature a "strong" button that uses a bit less water and increased brewing pressure, so your larger-sized cup of coffee won't taste so weak and watery. If you don't mind spending twice as much money, you can also make stronger Keurig coffee using the pod hack; brewing two six-ounce cups (each with its own pod) for a 12-ounce pour.

Keurig machines might have been designed with the coffee dilettante in mind, which is probably why I like them so much. But people who are more serious about their morning brew may gravitate toward the Nespresso; a machine designed to make drinks with Italian names using metric measures. There are two main categories, and each requires its own type of Nespresso pod. (Nespresso pods never really expire, by the way, although they'll lose some of their freshness over time.)

Original Nespresso machines offer three brew sizes: the 25 milliliter ristretto, the 40 milliliter espresso, and the 100 milliliter lungo. There are actually two types of pods for these: espresso pods, which have five grams of ground coffee; and the lungo pods, which contain six grams. There are other numbers on the Nespresso pods, too, which indicate the intensity of that particular blend on a scale of 1 (mild) to 13 (very strong).

Vertuo Nespresso machines offer the standard ristretto and espresso sizes, as well as a double espresso (80 milliliters), gran lungo (150 milliliters), mug (230 milliliters), cold brew (355 milliliters), and carafe (535 milliliters). The rounded pods are a different shape than the ones meant for Original Nespresso makers, while the other style more closely resembles the K-Cup design. Like the Original pods, though, these are available in different sizes corresponding to the settings. Ristretto and espresso pods contain seven grams of coffee, double espresso and gran lungo pods contain 10 grams, mug pods contain 12.5 grams, and carafe pods contain 17 grams. So no matter how much coffee you're brewing for the day, there's a pod or capsule for every taste.