This Is Why Not All Machines Use The Exact Same Espresso Pods

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Say, you have a Nespresso and you're fresh out of pods, you might've wondered once or twice if you could swap in another brand's pod, like Keurig, or not. After all, they're all capsules filled with ground coffee... they should all work the same, right? Well, not quite — Keurig and Nespresso pods aren't universal, and there are a couple of reasons why.

First, it's physically impossible to fit a K-Cup into a Nespresso and vice versa. K-Cups measure about 2.08 inches across, while a Nespresso pod is much smaller at only around 1.45 inches. If you ever try to plug a K-Cup into a Nespresso, the pod would be stuck. Put a Nespresso pod into a Keurig and it'll just fall to the bottom without securing properly.

But they're designed this way for a reason: a big chunk of Keurig and Nespresso revenues comes from the sales of branded coffee pods. A universal pod would hurt their bottom line, so these companies have always maintained unique, non-interchangeable pod designs. In fact, both Keurig and Nespresso have gone a step further and controversially implemented a "gate-keeping" device into some of their more recent machines (all Nespresso Vertuo and some newer Keurigs like the Keurig K-Supreme). It's basically a reader that reads a barcode printed on the foil cover. If it doesn't recognize the code, the machine would just straight up refuse to work. Heavy-handed? Yes. Frustrating? Absolutely! But right now, it's just one of the things you need to accept when you choose a capsule coffee machine.

Every capsule coffee machine follows a basic brewing process: you put a pod in, the machine punctures the foil cover, injects a beam of high-pressure hot water inside to extract the flavors, and gives you your hot brew. But with that said, depending on the model you buy, your machine might've some "tweaks" to this procedure to differentiate itself from competitors.

Let's take a look at a Nespresso OriginalLine-series machine, like a Nespresso Essenza Mini. The machine punches three holes in the pod and pumps water until the foil cover pops, releasing your coffee out the other side and into your cup (no worries, there's a filter inside the pod to keep coffee grounds out of your drink). But if you were to buy a newer Nespresso Vertuo Plus Deluxe, after the pod is punctured and a teeny bit of hot water is poured in, the machine would spin the pod at upwards of 7,000 RPM to blend and infuse the coffee within for a perfect crema.

As for Keurig machines? It works by punching a hole both at the top and the bottom of the K-Cup. Pressurized hot water is beamed in from the top, is infused with the coffee grounds, then goes out through the bottom hole. All these teeny differences in the brewing process are why, even if you somehow managed to fit a K-Cup into a Nespresso and bypass the barcode reader, your brew most likely still wouldn't come out right.