I have been a huge Starbucks lover – ok, maybe I could even say an addict – for years, so you can only believe how excited I was when Marthafied got an invitation to an Exclusive Starbucks Coffee Morning with the Great British Bake Off 2012 Winner John Whaite. What a better opportunity to check out the newly launched Starbucks Verismo V600 at-home coffee-making system and see the GBBO Winner in action.
So I dragged myself to West End at 8am without my morning coffee as I knew there would be a lot of coffee to taste and hoped that I could get my hands on a Starbucks Latte asap. Luckily the Starbucks Coffee Masters were at hand to offer coffee immediately on my arrival. Of course made with the new Verismo V600!
My first thought while sipping my eye-opening latte was that Wow, this actually tastes exactly like a latte at a Starbucks Coffee Store. And I did watch the Starbucks Coffee Master making it with the machine, so no funny business was involved. It really did taste like a proper Starbucks Latte and was extremely hot, which I am sure David Beckham would approve as I remember reading that he usually orders his Starbucks coffee extra hot.
John Whaite had partnered with Starbucks to create 5 brand new recipes to reinvent the British Coffee Morning. All the recipes have been paired with different Verismo coffee flavors. John showed us how to make Cranberry, Orange and Macadamia Nut Buns and Mocha Choca Madelines while sharing little baking tips like:
Always check that it’s sugar in the bowl – not salt
Using fresh yeast with salt equals a disaster
Use hands in baking
Longer prove time equals better taste
When you sift flour into a batter, sift it all over the batter and not only into one place
The perfect place to prove a bread or bun dough is in the oven with the light on (not the oven on – only the light). Also place a tray of warm water into the oven
I tasted both pastries John made and fell in love with the Cranberry, Orange and Macadamia Nut Buns, which is now on my to-bake list for Christmas Morning. And of course the pastries were accompanied with carefully selected Starbucks coffee flavors. Yum!
If you want to try John’s recipes (and I urge you to), you can download John Whaite’s Exclusively for Starbucks recipes here:
Cranberry, Orange and Macademia Nut Buns (best served with Starbucks Verismo Pike Place Roast)
Mocha Choca Madelines (best served with Starbucks Verismo Espresso Roast Latte)
Caramel Shard Cookies (best served with Starbucks Verismo Guatemala Antigua Espresso Americano)
Chewy Breakfast Bars (best served with Starbucks Verismo Pike Place Roast)
Utterly Nutterly Shortbreads (best served with Strabucks Verismo Caffé Verona)
According to John “A morning coffee break is one of my favorite times of the day – it’s a chance to step away from the daily humdrum. The recipes I have created are designed to compliment your morning coffee get-together to make it that little bit more special. The Verismo V600 is really user-friendly, looks great and most importantly the coffee tastes fantastic, just like if you bought your morning coffee in a Starbucks. It’s certainly a gift that I would love to wake up to on Christmas morning.”
I second that John! Oh, but wait I already have the Verismo V600 as the Starbucks gift bag was quite heavy…
So of course immediately when I got home I had to try the Verismo V600 myself even though I had just had 4 coffees (all made with the Verismo system) at the Coffee Morning. The Verismo V600 works exactly the same way than other at-home coffee-making systems. You buy the little pods and put them into the machine. Fill in the water tank and press a button and voilá you have Starbucks coffee at home.
What surprised me about V600 is that the coffee is very hot – much hotter than from my Nespresso machine. This is because the V600 has a 19-bar high pressure and variable temperature system. It also has a fast heating up time of 15 seconds or less and separate hot water and rinse buttons. The machine looks very stylish and has a height adjustable drip tray which can be adjusted for an espresso cup or a taller latte cup. With the V600 you can make espresso and filter coffee.
The Verismo pods are available in several Starbucks coffee flavors (check out the full selection here) including my favorites: Caffè Verona Filter Coffee and Christmas Blend Espresso Roast Espresso.
Another thing which I absolutely love is that with Starbucks Verismo V600 you can make a latte without heating up your milk separately. Fair enough it does not taste as good as when the milk is fresh, but I have gotten quite addicted to it. Maybe its pure laziness, but it’s so easy and fast to just pop the little milk pod in and boom – there’s hot milk. Then pop the little espresso pod in and boom – there’s my afternoon latte. I am back to my laptop in less than 2 minutes. I only do this for my afternoon lattes – in the mornings I heat up fresh milk in the Electric Frother.
The Starbucks Verismo V600 is now available from Starbucks online and from a number of department stores including Selfridges, Debenhams, NEXT online and Robert Dyas. The Starbucks Verismo V600 is priced at £199.00.
The Starbucks Verismo pods are priced at £5.95 for coffee flavors and £5.49 for caffe latte (with milk pods).
This post was brought to you with Starbucks but all thoughts, reviews and opinions are our own.
Photos: Starbucks and Marthafied
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