Lungo Intenso

After Starbucks pulled the rug out from under me by eliminating support for the Verismo, I took a leap of faith that a coffee company that shares my Italian heritage wouldn’t let me down. Amazing, complex flavor! I have no idea what the naysayers are talking about with this coffee. My wife and I sat down to do a serious coffee tasting of each of the four varieties in our sampler (Intenso, Brasil, Cremoso, and Ristretto), and each one delivered a complex tasting experience. From the full body of the Intenso, to the herbaceous and citrus nature of the Brasil, to the earthy and creamy Cremoso, and the dark complexity of the Ristretto, each delivered waves of flavor and acidity sip after sip, all well balanced as an espresso should be. To top it all off, the price per cup is far less than my previous Starbucks varieties, making my wallet as happy as my taste buds. As it did not feature Prime delivery, it took a solid week to get to me in Ohio, but it was well worth the wait. My wife and I couldn’t pick a favorite, so the four variety box is going on the Amazon Subscribe and Save list immediately. One quick note on the Intenso: as it is designed as a Lungo-sized portion (essentially a higher volume espresso), I found that three pulls of the espresso setting on the Verismo was optimal, with four pulls muting the subtle flavors. Using the milk pod button on the Verismo also yielded an excellent result, and while this may just be the power of suggestion from the button, I felt it delivered a thicker crema. Five stars, and you have yourself a new repeat customer!

Great espresso. Love that it’s decaf. So hard to find. So delicious and rich in flavor but smooth at the same time.

I have a CTBL machine and CTBL coffee pods are very expensive. These are an economical and taste great. My favorite is the Cremoso which leaves a creamy smooth froth on top. Ristretto is a dark bold flavor, Lungo is a medium body, and Brasil is my least favorite, as it taste more on the bitter side. Of course I put 2T of vanilla sweet cream in my cup in order to drink it. I don’t think I could drink this coffee black. Too strong. But that is why I have this on subscription shipment, because I love this coffee’s boldness and flavor and look forward to my two cups each morning.

I’m a Starbucks fanatic-ever since the first one opened up near me when I was a teen I’ve preferred their signature strong, over roasted flavor to the other coffee chains open at the time(such as Arabica & Caribou),although Caribou is second best imo. I Bought a Verissimo machine on clearance 5yrs ago and buy the Starbucks espresso pods in bulk thru Amazon’s subscribe & save, but it’s still pretty pricey at 85-68cents a pod, so I decided to give these pods a try. •TECHNICAL/FIT issues: They WORK! Although they fit & released 99% of the time without getting stuck or jammed up in there(one pod out of 20), I had to press down so flippin hard on the lever in order to break through the foil seal, I worried it would break the lever over time. But that wasn’t a true deal breaker for me. •FLAVOR: ehh🤨 My husband is far less picky about his espresso than I am(strong=good),so he didn’t notice a huge difference between Starbucks and these-when I pointed the switch out to him he said he could tell something was different but not in a bad way so it IS good coffee! BUT...... I AM picky and these taste nothing like Starbucks, imo. There’s little to no creme’(foam on top)and it’s muddier in appearance(like a dark,almost murky gray river clay as opposed to a rich/dark,earthy toned clay...if that makes sense?). It’s also a strictly single serve pod(one pass before it’s mostly water), whereas the Starbucks pods can take 1.1/2-2 runs through the espresso cycle before reaching a similar watery state. Flavor wise it IS good espresso and plenty strong; just don’t expect a Starbucks equivalent, especially in terms of an overly roasted flavor. I highly recommend trying them out cuz worst case scenario, you have an emergency espresso stash if you’re short on Starbucks pods-or simply don’t wanna share your precious Starbucks pods with less picky/discerning family members & your guests☺️

I bought these for my Verismo because Starbucks no longer makes their own pods (funny that they were selling the coffee makers last year...hmmm) and I’d have to pay $25-40 for one box of pods on EBay. The first one I popped in was hard to snap down and it made a loud sound but I chalked it up to being a different product and nobody is perfect, right? The coffee pod worked and tasted adequate (by my own admission I am a coffee snob, which is why I bought a Verismo in the first place). On to the second one and whoa! Snap, pop and ugh! Coffee grounds in my mouth before my eyes are fully in open in the morning is not the wake up call I’m looking for. But OK, maybe I just have to get used to the new pods (I’ve had a Verismo since 2014 so maybe I’m a novice). Nope, two weeks later and 1/3 of these babies cracked and deposited grounds into my cup. What a waste of money and my time! They don’t let you return and they make it hard to contact them to discuss the issue, so instead they get a bad review for all to see! I just bought a pour-over and love it. I miss my Verismo but sadly, because of Starbucks and companies like this that chapter is finished.

I had my Verismo machine packed up and ready to be donated to goodwill, even though it looked and worked like new. Starbuck’s just quit selling pods for their machines, so I hadn’t used mine in a couple years. Quite by chance these coffee pods showed up when I was browsing on Amazon. I read some reviews and decided to give the variety pack a whirl since it was only around $20. I figured if they didn’t work, it wasn’t a huge loss—and the machine was on its way out the door anyhow. That one last hurrah turned out to be the best thing ever! I found the coffee pods to be better than the Starbucks ones because they taste just as good and they’re less than half the price I was paying for Starbucks. I am beyond pleased with this product. Just ordered another set of 80 pods in the Cremoso flavor.

capsules fit my caffitaly, coffee is good

I am very happy that this is compatible with my Verismo & I can still use it. Coffee is also nice & strong.

Tired of being held hostage by Starbucks' exorbitant pricing and limited availability for its Verismo dark roast espresso pods (also, Bed Bath and Beyond online recently discontinued the sale of Starbucks Verismo espresso pods), I was thrilled to find this compatible sample pack to try at a much more reasonable price. My husband tried Ristretto first and declared it "better than Starbucks". I have only tried Lungo so far, and found it comparable to Starbucks dark roast espresso, maybe better - smoother. The product works in our Verismo machine, no problem and the order arrived faster than the anticipated 2-day delivery I think it would be a good idea to somehow visually distinguish one flavour from another though - maybe colour-code the bottom and/or top of each pod. I dumped a second box of pods into a basket on the counter before realizing that each flavour of pod has exactly the same appearance so now I won't be able to make an assessment of which of those two flavours I like best nor will I be able to store them together outside the boxes. Otherwise, these are worth trying. Thank you very much Italian Coffee for providing this alternative to Verismo users!

This doesn’t fit cafeitaly had to throw them out as no return over $70 wasted

These generic capsules are incompatible with the Caffitaly machine; the bottom of the capsule has a "protruding bottom" while the Caffitaly original capsule is flat. Our Caffitaly machine stopped working after using the generic capsules; we initially thought that the machine needed service, so we called a technician who seemed to have fixed the problem after removing the generic capsule that became stuck inside. We went away on vacation and just returned, and the same problem happened... we called the same technician who removed once again the stuck generic capsule, but then tried an original Caffitaly capsule and the machine is now working fine. I am attaching a picture of the bottom of the capsule... the left is the generic brand with the protruding bottom and the right is Caffitaly original. What am I to do with the left overs boxes of generic capsules? These capsules are expensive... can I return them and order original Caffitaly capsules?