diff --git a/build.sbt b/build.sbt
index bd9bb98..ed587a2 100644
--- a/build.sbt
+++ b/build.sbt
@@ -20,13 +20,13 @@ lazy val commonSettings = Seq(
 )
 
 lazy val commonLibrarySettings = libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
-    "org.scalatest" %% "scalatest" % "3.0.1",
-    "org.apache.kafka" %% "kafka" % kafkaVersion exclude (slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
-    "org.apache.zookeeper" % "zookeeper" % "3.4.8" exclude (slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
-    "org.apache.avro" % "avro" % "1.8.1" exclude (slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
-    "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-actor" % akkaVersion % Test,
-    "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-testkit" % akkaVersion % Test
-  )
+  "org.scalatest" %% "scalatest" % "3.0.1",
+  "org.apache.kafka" %% "kafka" % kafkaVersion exclude(slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
+  "org.apache.zookeeper" % "zookeeper" % "3.4.8" exclude(slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
+  "org.apache.avro" % "avro" % "1.8.1" exclude(slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact),
+  "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-actor" % akkaVersion % Test,
+  "com.typesafe.akka" %% "akka-testkit" % akkaVersion % Test
+)
 
 lazy val publishSettings = Seq(
   licenses += ("MIT", url("http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT")),
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ lazy val embeddedKafka = (project in file("embedded-kafka"))
   .settings(publishSettings: _*)
   .settings(commonSettings: _*)
   .settings(commonLibrarySettings)
+  .settings(libraryDependencies += "org.mockito" % "mockito-core" % "2.7.14" % Test)
   .settings(releaseSettings: _*)
 
 lazy val kafkaStreams = (project in file("kafka-streams"))
@@ -78,6 +79,6 @@ lazy val kafkaStreams = (project in file("kafka-streams"))
   .settings(commonLibrarySettings)
   .settings(releaseSettings: _*)
   .settings(libraryDependencies ++= Seq(
-    "org.apache.kafka" % "kafka-streams" % kafkaVersion exclude (slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact)
+    "org.apache.kafka" % "kafka-streams" % kafkaVersion exclude(slf4jLog4jOrg, slf4jLog4jArtifact)
   ))
   .dependsOn(embeddedKafka)
diff --git a/embedded-kafka/src/main/scala/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerExtensions.scala b/embedded-kafka/src/main/scala/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerExtensions.scala
index a8f6d84..742b873 100644
--- a/embedded-kafka/src/main/scala/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerExtensions.scala
+++ b/embedded-kafka/src/main/scala/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerExtensions.scala
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ import org.apache.log4j.Logger
 
 import scala.util.Try
 
-/** Method extensions for Kafka's [[KafkaConsumer]] API allowing easy testing.*/
+/** Method extensions for Kafka's [[KafkaConsumer]] API allowing easy testing. */
 object ConsumerExtensions {
-  val MaximumAttempts = 3
+
   implicit class ConsumerOps[K, V](val consumer: KafkaConsumer[K, V]) {
 
     private val logger = Logger.getLogger(classOf[ConsumerOps[K, V]])
@@ -18,14 +18,16 @@ object ConsumerExtensions {
       * to consume batches from the given topic, until it reaches the number of desired messages or
       * return otherwise.
       *
-      * @param topic the topic from which to consume messages
+      * @param topic           the topic from which to consume messages
+      * @param maximumAttempts the maximum number of attempts to try and get the batch (defaults to 3)
+      * @param poll            the amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait in the buffer for any messages to be available (defaults to 2000)
       * @return the stream of consumed messages that you can do `.take(n: Int).toList`
       *         to evaluate the requested number of messages.
       */
-    def consumeLazily(topic: String): Stream[(K, V)] = {
-      val attempts = 1 to MaximumAttempts
+    def consumeLazily(topic: String, maximumAttempts: Int = 3, poll: Long = 2000): Stream[(K, V)] = {
+      val attempts = 1 to maximumAttempts
       attempts.toStream.flatMap { attempt =>
-        val batch: Seq[(K, V)] = getNextBatch(topic)
+        val batch: Seq[(K, V)] = getNextBatch(topic, poll)
         logger.debug(s"----> Batch $attempt ($topic) | ${batch.mkString("|")}")
         batch
       }
@@ -34,18 +36,20 @@ object ConsumerExtensions {
     /** Get the next batch of messages from Kafka.
       *
       * @param topic the topic to consume
+      * @param poll  the amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait in the buffer for any messages to be available
       * @return the next batch of messages
       */
-    def getNextBatch(topic: String): Seq[(K, V)] =
+    private def getNextBatch(topic: String, poll: Long): Seq[(K, V)] =
       Try {
-        import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
-        consumer.subscribe(List(topic))
+        import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+        consumer.subscribe(List(topic).asJava)
         consumer.partitionsFor(topic)
-        val records = consumer.poll(2000)
+        val records = consumer.poll(poll)
         // use toList to force eager evaluation. toSeq is lazy
-        records.iterator().toList.map(r => r.key -> r.value)
+        records.iterator().asScala.toList.map(r => r.key -> r.value)
       }.recover {
         case ex: KafkaException => throw new KafkaUnavailableException(ex)
       }.get
   }
+
 }
diff --git a/embedded-kafka/src/test/java/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerOpsSpec.scala b/embedded-kafka/src/test/java/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerOpsSpec.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d5ba43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/embedded-kafka/src/test/java/net/manub/embeddedkafka/ConsumerOpsSpec.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+package net.manub.embeddedkafka
+
+import net.manub.embeddedkafka.ConsumerExtensions._
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.{ConsumerRecord, ConsumerRecords, KafkaConsumer}
+import org.apache.kafka.common.TopicPartition
+import org.mockito.Mockito.{times, verify, when}
+import org.scalatest.mockito.MockitoSugar
+
+import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+
+class ConsumerOpsSpec extends EmbeddedKafkaSpecSupport with MockitoSugar {
+
+  "ConsumeLazily " should {
+    "retry to get messages with the configured maximum number of attempts when poll fails" in {
+      val consumer = mock[KafkaConsumer[String, String]]
+      val consumerRecords =
+        new ConsumerRecords[String, String](Map.empty[TopicPartition, java.util.List[ConsumerRecord[String, String]]].asJava)
+
+      val pollTimeout = 1
+      when(consumer.poll(pollTimeout)).thenReturn(consumerRecords)
+
+      val maximumAttempts = 2
+      consumer.consumeLazily("topic", maximumAttempts, pollTimeout)
+
+      verify(consumer, times(maximumAttempts)).poll(pollTimeout)
+    }
+
+    "not retry to get messages with the configured maximum number of attempts when poll succeeds" in {
+      val consumer = mock[KafkaConsumer[String, String]]
+      val consumerRecord = mock[ConsumerRecord[String, String]]
+      val consumerRecords = new ConsumerRecords[String, String](
+        Map[TopicPartition, java.util.List[ConsumerRecord[String, String]]](new TopicPartition("topic", 1) -> List(consumerRecord).asJava).asJava
+      )
+
+      val pollTimeout = 1
+      when(consumer.poll(pollTimeout)).thenReturn(consumerRecords)
+
+      val maximumAttempts = 2
+      consumer.consumeLazily("topic", maximumAttempts, pollTimeout)
+
+      verify(consumer).poll(pollTimeout)
+    }
+
+    "poll to get messages with the configured poll timeout" in {
+      val consumer = mock[KafkaConsumer[String, String]]
+      val consumerRecords =
+        new ConsumerRecords[String, String](Map.empty[TopicPartition, java.util.List[ConsumerRecord[String, String]]].asJava)
+
+      val pollTimeout = 10
+      when(consumer.poll(pollTimeout)).thenReturn(consumerRecords)
+
+      val maximumAttempts = 1
+      consumer.consumeLazily("topic", maximumAttempts, pollTimeout)
+
+      verify(consumer).poll(pollTimeout)
+    }
+  }
+
+}