I Replaced My Old Keurig with the Ninja Pods and Grounds Coffee Maker, and as an Iced Coffee Addict, I Couldn’t Be More Pleased

• Value: 19/20
• Ease of Use: 20/20
• Functionality: 18/20
• Aesthetics: 20/20
• Coffee Quality: 19/20

Total: 96/100

Describing my iced coffee habit is like something out of a Dr. Seuss book: I’ll drink it in the rain, on a train, in a park, in the dark—you get the picture. And while I’ll forever be a Dunkin’ stan, I’ve lately been craving the convenience (and cost reduction) of having good iced coffee available to me at home. But alas, the whole 24-hour cold-brewing thing just isn’t feasible for someone as impatient and caffeine-obsessed as I am. So when it recently came time to replace my ancient (and very basic) Keurig machine, I set out to find a coffee maker that was a) affordable, b) easy to use and c) able to brew me up a perfectly crisp iced coffee that didn’t just taste like lukewarm bean water—which is what I had to pinch my nose and suffer through with my last one. Thankfully, I met my match in the Ninja Pods and Grounds single-serve coffee maker ($130; $100). Here’s my honest review after using it for three weeks.

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And now for the big question: How’s the iced coffee? Well, friends, I’m happy to say it’s everything I could ask for from the simple touch of a button. To be clear, the over ice function still uses hot coffee, so it’s important to fill the cup up with plenty of ice beforehand. Miraculously, however, the result always manages to be bold and *ice cold* upon first sip, which is a far cry from the lukewarm and watery “iced coffee” I used to get when attempting to make it on my old machine. It might be magic, or it might be the Ninja’s smart, staggered brewing process, which slightly lengthens the java’s pull time to allow for the gradual cooling of the cup. Because the setting also accounts for the presence of ice, the machine knows to deliver a more concentrated brew. Even if the ice melts after sitting deskside for a few hours, what’s left in the cup remains dark, smooth and strong—so I can keep drinking it without having to pour it out and make a new one. In other words, it’s saving me money already.

I really don’t have much to complain about when it comes to this coffee machine, save for the fact that I can’t for the life of me figure out how to remove the nozzle, which is the round silver part at the front of the machine, in order to clean it. The instruction manual says to squeeze its sides and pull it off, but I haven’t gotten it to budge at all. It’s also a bit noisy doing the brew process, but it’s nothing that would wake the house up, and it only lasts for a few seconds.

Beyond that, I did have a little hiccup when I first used the machine because I didn’t realize that the blinking lines on the display indicated which point in the brew process we were at, or that their actual presence meant that the cycle wasn’t complete—and so I shouldn’t move my cup from under the spout just yet. Welp. Let’s just say I quickly learned that lesson and have advised everyone in my family to learn it, too.