Single Serve Cold Medicine Cups Exist

If you’re a coffee pod addict, no doubt you’re already well aware that your single-serve beverage machine can make a lot more than coffee — you can get pods for everything from hot chocolate to hot cider to soup (yes, soup!). But did you know that you can get single serve pods of cold medicine? CVS is now selling pods for cold and flu sufferers. You just pop a cup into the machine, add water, and presto! Hot medicine for your aching, decrepit body.

As Refinery 29 points out, this isn’t the first time that someone has thought of making cold medicine into a hot beverage; Theraflu, for instance, sells a similar product that simply mixes into a cup of hot water. And it seems like a good idea — after all, you get medicine and hot liquid (which has been proven to improve cold and flu symptoms all on its own) in a single shot.

Your excitement over this news probably depends on whether you already own a single-serve brewing machine. I can’t imagine that the possibility of cold medicine pods would propel many people to go out and buy a whole new brewing system, but if you do already have a machine, having a stash of cold-and-flu pods in your kitchen could be extremely handy for when flu season rolls around, and you wake up one morning to discover that your brain has been overtaken by a hostile mucus army.

Daytime and Nighttime Combo pack, $6, CVS

CVS’s website currently has Day and Nighttime versions of the pods available. (You can get a twin pack for $8.) The Daytime Cup comes “[b]erry infused with menthol and green tea flavors” and the Nighttime Cup has “[h]oney lemon infused chamomile and white tea flavors.” Honestly, I’m not sure what those descriptions would actually taste like, but it certainly can’t be any worse than normal liquid cold medicine, right?

Editor's note: This post has been edited from its original version.

Image: damircudic/E+/Getty Images; CVS, $8.49