Back in July, Starbucks stopped by with a pair of its brand new Verismo machine which has just launched, and a bunch of us had the chance to try it out.
The Verismo is the first single cup machine that can make brewed coffee, espresso and lattes with fresh milk.
The machines weren't fully polished — for instance, one didn't have branding on it yet — but they were perfectly functional.
It's a simple two-cup process for lattes. One cup is the coffee, the other the milk (which is brewed at a lower temperature.)
Here's what the Business Insider newsroom thought of the lattes the Verismo produced:
The mostly positive:
- "Really good. A little bit on the milky side but that didn't deter me from drinking the whole cup in less than a minute."
- "You can tell it's made by a home machine because it's a bit thin. It's bland by itself, so I put two Splendas in — but my need for sugar in coffee is 10x the average person's. Other than that, it tastes great and it took seconds to make."
- "I thought it was pretty good, though probably not as good as a real latte from Starbucks. It was stronger than I expected, which was a nice surprise."
- "The flavor of the actual coffee was noticeable and delicious, but overall it was very milky. So the issue is, all of the drinks will taste that way because its a predetermined portion of milk. It was good, a nice home-made alternative to Keurig, and the option of an uncomplicated latte machine. But seems a little expensive for it to taste so milky."
- "I thought it tasted much better than regular Keurig coffee, but I think regular Keurig coffee is pretty gross for the most part. I usually get soy lattes at Starbucks so since we tried regular lattes, I'm not sure if it tastes exactly like a Starbucks one."
- "It was a tasty treat."
And the mostly negative:
- "The traditional milk to espresso ratio in a latte is one-third espresso, one-third milk, and one-third foam. The machine did not deliver these ratios and as a result the latte was way too milky. In fact, it tasted more like a Midwestern gas station latte than a quality product from Starbucks."
- "I don't think I'd buy one—I'm all about the nonfat vanilla latte, but the options were very limited on the machine. It was good, but tasted a little too creamy for my taste."
- "It was nothing special. Not bitter. And obviously I would have had it tailored to me — more milk, those kinds of things. The machine was powerful and looked impressive, but the latte didn't really wow me."
From the press release: "The machine comes in silver, black, burgundy, and champagne, and is available in two design options, the 580 base model and the V·585, which offers additional features like an LED display and temperature control, for $199 and $399, respectively."