{A Review} Getting To Know My New Verismo

This post contains affiliate links :) 

I always find the best gifts to be the ones you didn't know you wanted in the first place.  I mentioned to my mom recently that I had a really good cup of coffee from my friend's Keurig (Seattle's Best House Blend)... and to my surprise I got a Verismo for Christmas.  I didn't even know Starbucks had their own version, and that it even did a little more than a Keurig, but I've been having fun familiarizing myself with all the new coffee systems.  So if you're in the market for a single-serve coffee do-hickey then keep reading on...


I have the newer model, the Verismo 600, and it came with the milk frother and some coffee and espresso pods to get your started.   (Here is an affiliate link to the Verismo580 that comes with 70 pods).  My mom also got us a nice variety of boxes of pods to taste.  My first question, of course, was can you use the Keurig pods with the Verismo and you cannot.  The Keurig pods are "k-cup" and the Verismo pods are "k-fee".  They are different sizes, and the Verismo pods have a little foil tab that you pull off before you put it in the machine.  I'm going to do another post soon comparing the major brands to make it all a little easier to digest.  If you're a Starbucks-a-holic you will be happy to use the k-fee pods which you can get at Costco, Bed Bath Beyond or online (that affiliate link is to a bulk pack but you can buy individual boxes of different roasts too, there are also coffee subscriptions as well).  The downside to the Verismo is that Keurig has many more k-cup options and is available at more retailers (cheaper too) - Trader Joes even has k-cup pods, and technically you can buy Starbucks coffee in a k-cup pod for the Keurig.  BUT the Verismo does something that Keurig can't... 

The major difference in the Verismo is it "pulls" espresso shots in addition to brewing coffee, which means mochas and lattes and Americanos, oh my!   The operation couldn't be simpler.  There's a button for espresso, a button for coffee and a button for milk/tea.  There's also a rinse button to keep the system clean, and an Americano button which draws just the right amount to add to your shot.  The water tank is easy to fill, and the used pods fall into a container that will hold 10 pods before you need to empty it.  {video coming soon}

There is this other cool feature that allows you to set the machine to brew coffee to the exact amount you like, up to 7oz.  Since the Starbucks pods are probably higher quality than most of the Keurig pods, it is a little on the strong side for me, so I prefer the blonde and medium roasts but also I set the machine to brew the largest possible cup.  If it's still on the strong side for you, you could use the rinse or espresso buttons to add a little more water.

If you're leaning towards the Verismo for the espresso option, I highly recommend getting a system with the milk frother, which you can read about here.

Hope this was helpful!  I'm going to repost the Amazon links below:

Verismo system:


Verismo k-fee pods:


Keurig system:


Keurig k-cup pods: