Starbucks Verismo 580 review - Telegraph In the land of the coffee maker, the pod is king. Led by Nespresso and George Clooney, millions of pounds is being spent on machines that meld the convenience of quality coffee in pods with our unending love of coffee. Yet Starbucks, the chain that fostered that fascination, has not had a machine of its own. On the down side, it produces coffee that is adequate rather than great. While some would say that's just like Starbucks itself, I'm not in that camp; in fact my problem with the machine is with the technology rather than the design, and with the fact that it doesn't match the experience in the shops. For instance, with a Nespresso machine such as the Citiz, a shelf folds up or down so you can have a big cup or a little one. Cups on the Verismo must use a removable plastic booster seat, leaving you with a lump of plastic to either store in a cupboard, lose or leave on the kitchen work surface. After you've made a cup of coffee, from the limited Starbucks range, the machine wants you to flush it through; hygienic but impractical and not demanded elsewhere. And then it also uses milk pods, which has something of the air of those Millac Maid pots that inconsiderate train companies force on passengers. That powdered milk tastes better than it sounds, and the limited range is decent for its size. Starbucks says it's focusing on quality rather than quantity, but other brands manage both, better. The Verismo has just three buttons and occupies a small footprint in the kitchen: it's simple to operate and it looks perfectly nice. If you're a Starbucks fanatic, you'll no doubt be delighted; but if you go to Starbucks because you like coffee, buy the Verismo 580 and you risk disappointment.