Make Your Own Verismo Espresso & Milk Pods

So you bought a fancy new Starbucks Verismo machine to make cafe lattes in your office. Congratulations! You are no longer dependant upon that cute, smiling barista to make your morning caffeine fix. This will save you money. This was a great idea.

And then, a few days (or weeks) later, you realize that buying replacement pods is really, really expensive. It's $11.95 and $9.95 for 12-packs of espresso and milk pods, respectively. That's $1.83 per 6-oz caffe latte, plus tax. That's basically the same price as having that cute, smiling barista make you a fresh one. Now you're thinking: "Why did I buy this? This was a terrible idea!"

Never fear, dear reader. I'm here to help you.

The obvious answer to your conundrum is to make your own pods. Why?

• It's much, much cheaper
• Don't like Starbucks' burnt-tasting espresso roast? Are you lactose intolerant or vegan? No worries: you control the type of coffee and milk in your latte.
• Because you re-use your pods, it's much more environmentally friendly.
• Did I mention cheaper? That's why you're here, right?

Let me give you a few warnings, though:

• Because you're recycling used pods, this is pretty labor-intensive at the beginning. Don't worry, it gets faster.
• I just can't make the milk foam the same as Starbucks' own pods. This might be because they use whole milk powder, and I use skim milk powder.

This is really broken out into two activities; preparing your used pods for the first time and then actually filling them. These don't have to be done at the same time. I tend to clean out my pods the same day I've used them, then I'll sit on the living room floor and fill them up one Sunday evening while watching TV.

Clean Out Used Pods

You'll need:

• Small, sharp knife
• Used espresso or milk pods
• kitchen sink

Step 1: Cut off the top of the pod with a knife

 

Warning: don't do this when they are fresh from the machine! They're hot!

Try to get as much of the plastic cover off as possible. This is the time-consuming part.

Step 2: Clean out the pod

 

For the milk pods, wash them out with water. They should be fairly empty anyways.

For the espresso pods, dump the grounds into the trash or compost them - never wash coffee grounds down the drain! They get stuck in the pipe and rot, making your sink smell terrible!

 

Filling the Pods

Step 1: Assemble ingredients

You'll need:

• Coffee of your choice. Important: Espresso is more finely ground than regular coffee, so you cannot substitute regular ground coffee. If you have to grind your own, either at home or in the store, make sure to select the "espresso" setting. If you're buying pre-ground coffee, make sure it is labelled espresso! How much do you need? Depends on how many pods you're filling. Each pod holds a little more than a tablespoon of espresso, so three cups' worth should do you well for twelve pods. 
• Milk of your choice. I've used Great Value brand powdered milk, but I suspect that any kind will work. Just buy a box - trust me, it'll take you forever to use it.
• Aluminum foil
• Paper (or cloth) towels
• Flat spoon or espresso tamper or clean, dry fingers
• Scissors

Step 2: Prepare the foil wrappers

You'll need to cut enough squares of foil to replace the wrappers you've cut off - one per pod. Actually, let's be prudent and make a couple extra - you're probably going to mess a few up.

A wrapper needs at least a 1.5cm (.5") margin from each side of an empty pod. Don't make them much smaller than that, or else the wrapper will come off, and don't make them much larger, or the extra foil will make the pod difficult to fit into the machine.

Step 3: Put down a paper towel

This might get a little messy, and nothing's worse to clean up than finely ground espresso.

Step 4: Start filling the espresso pods

I found this easiest to do if I put the espresso in a big bowl and filled the cups one at a time.

You will need to tamp the espresso into the pod. Use your tamper, the back of a spoon, your fingers, I don't care. It needs to be squished in there.

 

 

Pictured above: After tamping. Needs to be filled to the brim!

Now, wrap the top with your little foil square.

 

Be careful that there's enough of the foil foled under on each side. Not enough, and there's a chance that hot water and coffee grounds will fly out and dirty up your fancy machine.

 

Above: BAD

Above: Good

Step 5: Fill the milk pods

This is basically the same as filling the espresso pods, but with milk powder. Note that powdered milk tends to clump in larger grains, so you'll need to tamp it down as well when you put it in the pod or risk a watery latte.

 

 

Cover these with foil, just like the espresso pods.

 

These can leak out of the little hole in the bottom, so I advise covering it with a little bit of tape if you're going to be taking these somewhere (i.e. from home to work.) Take the tape off before you put them in the machine. If you don't, the milk has a harder time escaping and you will end up with a watery latte and a bunch of gross milk meal stuck in the pod when you clean it out later.

 

So, comments? Suggestions? Let me know what you think!