If you're ho-ho-hoping for festive coffee flavors this holiday season, Keurig has them in spades. The world's most popular single-serve coffee maker has inspired dozens of companies to unleash a wide variety of seasonal specials, from spiced Christmas blends and cooling peppermint mochas to tried-and-true pumpkin spice lattes and indulgent sugar cookie espressos.
But not all K-Cups are on Santa's Nice List this year. I put my palate (and my stomach) through the wringer by sipping through a whopping 32 flavor offerings to identify the best of the best (the Nice List), the just OK (Middle of the Pack) and the ones to skip (the Naughty List).
Starbucks, Green Mountain, Crazy Cups and the Donut Shop all had multiple holiday K-Cups make it to my list of the top 10. Donut Shop
While taste is subjective, I kept brewing methods and preparation consistent. Each pod was prepared with a standard 8-ounce setting and combined with a tablespoon of vanilla creamer and half of a packet of sugar.
Though nothing was the caffeine beverage-equivalent of hot coal, some inevitably shone brighter than others. Here is a comprehensive ranking, keeping in mind that there are dozens of other companies and flavor offerings that we were unable to obtain in time.
I brewed all the holiday coffee pods to find these 10 bangers. Joey Skladany/CNET
And if you're not into sweet or spiced coffee, here are the best K-Cups (non-holiday) out of 40 we tested.
Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
10 best holiday K-Cups: The Nice List
Starbucks 10. Starbucks Smoked Butterscotch The notes were more caramel and toffee-like but this was a huge hit and practically demanded spiced rum and whipped cream. $65 at Amazon
... continue reading