At first try, Gevalia pod coffeemaker is a nonstarter
The promise of single-serve coffeemakers is that they make the flavor of coffee you want at the moment you want it. So when our testers plugged in the Gevalia G90 Reversible Pod and it just sputtered over and over again, they began to lose their patience. And so have other owners of this coffeemaker, who have taken to YouTube to vent their frustration. In our case, it took multiple attempts with two different models to finally get our first cup of hot coffee.
The manuals for all new coffeemakers typically advise you to run a water-only cycle before you brew any coffee. And with a few of the machines in our pod coffeemaker tests, you're required to "prime" the lines when you first set them up. But a second and third time? On two different samples of the Gevalia G90 Reversible Pod, $35, the coffeemaker groaned and steamed as it released a few drops of condensed water. Following the directions in the owner's manual, our testers made multiple attempts only to get the same results. The Gevalia eventually started working after no heroic efforts on our part other than patience. And we aren't alone, as one of the many videos on YouTube shows.
After all that waiting, the Gevalia wasn't among the better pod machines we tested, although it was fairly quick at brewing. Where it fell short was in size consistency between multiple cups. And in our new pod coffeemaker taste tests, our experts found its coffee "dominated by off-notes," especially of plastic.
Our top-rated pod coffeemaker, the DeLonghi Nescafé Dolce Genio EDG455T, $130, was also a little persnickety out of the box but not nearly to the degree of the Gevalia. Lesson learned: Read the owner's manual first.
Our new pod coffeemaker Ratings now include a score for taste. None of the two dozen models we tested scored excellent for taste or even very good and four, including the Gevalia G90 Reversible Pod, failed to make a pleasing cup of coffee.
—Ed Perratore
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