Nespresso Orignal Line Starbucks Verona, 120-Pods

2025-05-22. Starbucks by Nespresso. Original line, dark espresso roast. 50 count espresso pods. Recently received a Nespresso machine and of course, it has to have unique pods. It was the CitiZ model with the milk frother on the side by De'Longhi. It was one of the older models with only two buttons (short and long), so it required the original pods. What's notable about Nespresso coffee pods (regardless of brand) is that you need to ensure that you get the correct ones based on your machine. Nespresso has two lines of machines; the Original, and the Vertuo. The Original machines (like the one I received) only accepts "original" pods, and the Vertuo only accepts the Vertuo pods. The Vertuo pods are flatter and slightly wider, so be sure to get the right pods for your machine. These are the "original" pods by Nespresso and they worked perfectly fine with my CitiZ machine. I used these pods with both the short (expresso shot) and the long (double shot), and flavor-wise, I was not able to discern any difference in taste; it was smooth with mild acidity which is what I expected from a dark espresso roast (a lot of the acidity is removed in the roasting process and the higher pressure combined with the shorter extraction time results in less acidity extracted from the beans.) This was a 50-pack of all the same flavor (no variety) and I wouldn't have minded if they had a variety of expresso roasts (a lighter roast espresso bean would have higher acidity levels), but I can't complain as I got these on sale for about 30¢ a pod which I think is fantastic value considering the original price is around 50¢ a pod. These came pretty fresh with a production date of Oct. 10, 2024, so they're about 6 months old. The shelf life of these pods are 2 years since they are completely sealed air tight. Overall, these Starbucks coffee pods by Nespresso were a little too intense for me. The espresso tasted like is was burnt, but to be fair, it was rated 11/12 on the roast intensity scale. I stuck with making only long shots and tried adding a touch of sugar to soften the blow, but it just didn't taste right. I also tried adding a splash of 18% coffee cream, which fared better, but drowned out a lot of the taste. Finally I tried adding even smaller amounts of both; a pinch of sugar and a touch of cream, and this seemed to have worked out best, but still needs some tweaking with the amounts, I just hope that I'll find the correct amounts before I run out of pods! Anyways, Espresso shouldn't have to be this much work though... Not sure if it's just the Starbucks brand, or if it's all espresso pods in general, but my next batch of Nespresso pods will definitely be a different brand.