Are you a fan of cool and refreshing iced coffee?
You might be surprised to hear that there are many coffee makers designed to provide you this chilly coffee shop favorite. Keurig is an example of a manufacturer that creates coffee makers capable of brewing iced coffee.
So if you’re interested in adding a Keurig to your home, but don’t know where to start, read on. We’ll guide you through the best Keurig machines for iced coffee.
This is what you’ll find out:
- Common features shared by most Keurigs
- What to consider before you buy
- Our picks for the best Keurigs for iced coffee
Quick Summary
In a hurry? Check out the chart below for our quick recommendations and their grades.
Product Name | Grade |
|---|---|
A+ | |
A+ | |
A | |
A |
Top 4 Best Keurig Machines For Iced Coffee
What sets the Keurig K Elite apart from any other in this guide is that it was specifically designed to brew iced coffee.
Among all its other advanced settings, such as temperature control and coffee strength adjustability, is its Iced button. When you push this button, the K Elite will use programmed settings to brew just the right amount of your drink over a cup of ice.
A huge 75-ounce water reservoir also gives the K Elite the power to march through several drinks in a row before it needs to be refilled.
Who should get the Keurig K Elite? Buy this one if you foresee several people using your coffee maker, like in a home with multiple coffee drinkers or one that entertains coffee-loving guests.
- K Cups Compatible: Yes
- Coffee Grounds Compatible: Yes (with purchase of Universal My K-Kup Reusable Coffee Filter)
- Water Tank Size: 75 ounces
- Cup Sizes: 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 ounces
- Dimensions: 13.1 inches tall, 9.9 inches wide, and 12.7 inches deep
- Iced Setting: Push this button to brew just the right amount over a cup of ice for a refreshingly cool beverage.
- Strong Brew: Do you ever crave a really strong cup of coffee? Just push the Strong button on the K Elite to get an extra flavorful mug of your favorite coffee blend.
- Indicator Lights: You won’t be surprised by your water tank running out mid-cup, as the K Elite’s indicator lights at the top will flash to let you know when it needs water.
- Removable Drip Tray: Brew directly into travel mugs up to 7.2 inches tall so you can take your beverage to-go by simply sliding out the drip tray.
- Fast Brew Cycle: Long waits are a thing of the past with the K Elite, which can brew a cup in 60 seconds or under.
Want the most authentic coffee shop experience possible without having to actually go to one? Then the Keurig K-Café is what you need.
This coffee maker is capable of making you timeless lattes and cappuccinos from easy K-Cup pods. It can even foam your milk for you with its simple milk frother built onto the side of the machine.
If you want an iced latte or cappuccino, just use the cold setting on the frother to make ice-cold milk foam to add to your drink and pour it over ice.
Who should buy the Keurig K-Café? This is the perfect coffee maker for groups of people who want to save themselves a trip to the local coffee shop. Its huge 60-ounce water tank will allow you to push through up to 6 cups before it empties, making it ideal for long mornings of drink-making.
- K Cups Compatible: Yes
- Coffee Grounds Compatible: Yes (with purchase of My K-Cup Universal Reusable Coffee Filter)
- Water Tank Size: 60 ounces
- Cup Sizes: 6, 8, 10, and 12 ounces
- Dimensions: 12.5 inches tall, 15.3 inches wide, 11.7 inches deep
- Cappucinos and Lattes: There aren’t too many coffee makers that can make cappuccinos or lattes from pods. With the K-Café, you can enjoy these luxurious barista classics from anywhere.
- Cold Milk Foaming: On those days where you need a cool drink, you can simply add cold almond, soy, or regular milk to your milk frother.
- Built-In Milk Frother: Conveniently located right on the side of the machine, the milk frother can make perfect foam for your cappuccino regardless of your skill level. All you need to do is pour in your milk of choice, push the button, and wait.
- Auto-Off: Do you ever forget to turn off your appliances? That’s no problem with the K-Café, which will turn itself off after 2 hours of being idle.
The Keurig K Classic takes some of the most popular features from Keurigs across the board and combines them into one sleek package.
Its buttons are clearly labeled for intuitive use, with only a few needed for day-to-day operation. No searching for obscure buttons to use this coffee maker.
When you want to make an iced drink, just brew your favorite over a cup of ice. The K Classic really can do it all.
Who gets the most out of the Keurig K Classic? Pick the K Classic if you’re looking for an extremely user-friendly machine to bring to your home. It has a 48-ounce water tank which could also be suitable for houses with a lot of coffee drinkers.
- K Cups Compatible: Yes
- Coffee Grounds Compatible: Yes (with purchase of My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter)
- Water Tank Size: 48 ounces
- Cup Sizes: 6, 8, and 10 ounces
- Dimensions: 13 inches tall, 9.8 inches wide, and 13.3 inches deep
- Simple Button Controls: With only a few neatly labeled buttons, even beginners will have no problem figuring out how to use the K Classic.
- Removable Water Tank: You won’t need to struggle to move the coffee maker around to get easy access to the water tank when it empties. You can just pull it out and refill it comfortably from your sink.
- Indicator Lights: You won’t need to play frustrating troubleshooting guessing games on the K Classic, which has lights on top that will tell you when it needs to be descaled or refilled.
The best Keurig coffee makers for iced coffee are the ones that take brewing a drink over ice into consideration. A recent example of Keurig's ability to make cold and creamy coffee simple is the Keurig K-Supreme.
Like the other machines on this list, this one has an Over Ice button. Brewing a refreshingly chilly drink is truly as easy as selecting your drink size, then pressing the Over Ice button.
But there's so much more to the K-Supreme that makes it worthy of its name. One thing that sets it apart from its counterparts is its innovative MultiStream technology. Rather than running a single stream of water through your coffee, the K-Supreme uses multiple, ensuring that every drink is as full-bodied as it can be.
What's more, this is the first Keurig model to feature a swivel water tank. That means you can slide the water tank from the side to the back based on what your spatial limitations are.
- K Cups Compatible: Yes
- Coffee Grounds Compatible: Yes (with purchase of My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter)
- Water Tank Size: 66 ounces
- Cup Sizes: 6, 8, 10, and 12 ounces
- Dimensions: 12.2 inches tall, 7.9 inches wide, 12 inches deep (depending on where you have the water tank)
- Color Options: If your home has a particular decorating style, you may want a coffee maker that matches. With the K-Supreme, this is a simpler goal to achieve, thanks to the multiple colors it comes in.
- Multistream Technology: The K-Supreme is designed to offer you supremely flavorful drinks by brewing each cup with multiple streams of water.
- Swivel Water Tank: Slide the water tank from the side to the back to make the K-Supreme's footprint either shallower or narrower as necessary.
- Back-to-Back Brewing: You can easily brew two cups in a row with no wait time between them, making it perfect for serving multiple people.
Common Keurig Features
K-cups Or Coffee Grounds
One thing that makes Keurigs universally appealing is that many can brew with K-cup pods or coffee grounds.
Grinding coffee right before brewing it is what the majority of experts recommend. On top of getting to choose any blend you can find, you’ll get a livelier coffee flavor when you buy it freshly ground or grind it yourself.
Yet if you don’t know much about grinding coffee or don’t know how to choose your own blend, using your own coffee grounds can be challenging. This is where K-cup pods become endlessly useful.
K-cups are capsules that contain one serving size of coffee grounds. It’s already been ground and measured out for you, so you get just enough for one cup in one convenient little container.
They come in hundreds of flavors, blends, or types, including coffee, tea, and cocoa. Users have only to pick what they want to drink, set it inside the Keurig, and push the brew button.
You really can’t get much simpler to use than a Keurig’s K-cups. However, if you’re craving a niche blend or the freshest possible coffee, most Keurigs will support your ability to use your own coffee grounds, too.
Pour-over Water Tanks
Every coffee maker requires water to make your coffee for you, and Keurigs are no exception.
Most Keurigs use pour-over water tanks to get the water they need, which means that they need to be refilled by hand when they get low.
The water tanks can vary widely in size from Keurig to Keurig. Some are huge, capable of making several drinks in a row before they run dry.
Others are one-cup tanks that only hold enough water to make a single serving at a time. These designs are built to be precise and compact, eliminating waste from brewing too much.
Single-serve Cups
While there are some capable of brewing whole carafes of coffee at once, most Keurigs brew single-cup portions.
There are many reasons why these portions are beneficial.
For one thing, it leads to less waste. Sometimes, when you brew a pot of coffee, there are leftovers because it’s too much to drink at once.
When everyone brews their own drinks one cup at a time, you’ll see the amount of leftovers drop drastically, as they’re getting exactly how much they want each time.
Single-cup portions also ensure everyone gets what they want. With large batches of a single kind of coffee, there’s bound to be a few people who don’t drink any because they don’t like the type that was brewed.
With the ability to brew one cup at a time, everyone can make each mug just the way they like it. No more having to struggle to find the blend that the most people agree on.
What To Consider Before You Buy
Keurigs come in all shapes and sizes with a ton of various features. There’s not one Keurig that’s the best in all situations across the board.
So how do you know which one to buy?
You should consider your own specific situation before you buy one.
Start by asking yourself questions like this:
- How many people will be using the Keurig?
- How much space do you have available for the Keurig?
- Will people using the Keurig have coffee-making experience?
How Many People Will Be Using The Keurig?
Are you planning on sharing your Keurig with other people, and if so, is it a lot of people?
If you’re only looking for a Keurig for personal use, there are a few designed with especially small water tanks that can only make one cup at a time before needing a refill.
But if your Keurig is going to be used in a home with a few coffee lovers, you’ll probably want a larger water tank.
A larger water tank would mean the Keurig could make more drinks at a time before you need to refill it. This can be huge in circumstances where more than one person is using the coffee maker, as it can be hard to keep track of the water level.
More users also most likely means you’ll want a faster brewing time. No one wants to wait in line long for their morning cup of coffee.
If you anticipate queues forming in front of your Keurig, look at its brew time. There are many capable of brewing a cup in 60 seconds or less.
How Much Space Do You Have Available For The Keurig?
Plotting out where you’re going to put the Keurig is crucial. You wouldn’t want to invest in any appliance, only to find it didn’t fit into your countertop.
While they’re generally small in size, there are a few models that are designed to be even more compact for those especially crowded kitchens.
At any rate, it’s always a good idea to measure out potential places for your coffee maker and compare it with the dimensions for any Keurigs that catch your eye.
Will The People Using The Keurig Have Coffee-making Experience?
Just as you should consider how many people will use the coffee maker, consider how experienced you and other users are at making coffee.
Are you a coffee expert? Then you might prefer using your own coffee grounds.
In that case, pay attention to whether or not a particular Keurig is compatible with coffee grounds. If it is, you’ll be able to use any blend you want in your coffee maker.
But buying or grinding your own blend of coffee can be confusing if you don’t know all that much about it. If that sounds more like you or anyone else who will be using the Keurig, then you’ll love using the K-cups that Keurigs are compatible with.
Or, if there’s a mix of experience levels in your home, you can purchase a Keurig with the ability to use pods and ground coffee. Then you get the best of worlds by having a coffee maker accessible to beginners and experts.
