“Our lattes. Our espresso. Our brewed coffee. Your home. Impossible until now,” Starbucks boldly proclaims on the home page of its website, promoting its brand-new Verisimo coffee brewing system that uses K-cup-style single-serve coffee pods.
Starting this week, Starbucks will begin selling its proprietary Verisimo system for $199 on its website, and next month it will be sold in its coffee shops. Verisimo will also be sold shortly in specialty stores such as Williams-Sonoma and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The coffee pods will also be sold in stores and online.
Starbucks announced earlier this year that it was developing Verisimo as Green Mountain Roasters’ patent on its Keurig K-cup technology expires this month. With the pending patent expiration, many coffee companies and retailers have developed private-label K-cup product knockoffs.
Nearly a year ago, Starbucks partnered with Green Mountain Roasters to make K-cups for the Keurig machines. In an interview with the Associated Press, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz said the relationship with Green Mountain will continue, and that it plans to continue selling the Keurig pods in its coffee shops.
The Keurig machine is “a fantastic choice” for customers who only want brewed coffee, he said, noting that Verisimo uses a high-pressure system that can make lattes and other espresso-based drinks, as well as American-style brewed coffee. “They’ll coexist and be complementary,” Schultz said.
Starbucks identified the single-serve coffee market as a “big opportunity” two years ago, Shultz said, adding that the market for single-serve brewers and pods nearly tripled to $8 billion. “It’s rare that you identify a category as large as this that’s growing,” he added.
Starbucks also plans to sell a $399 model of the coffee system with a larger water tank and LED display that tells consumers when the machine needs cleaning.
The coffeehouse chain plans to support the launch with a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign.
