The coffee giant announced its new single-serve Verismo coffee machines are now available for purchase online and will go on sale at stores like Williams-Sonoma by the end of next week. The Verismo is made to fit Starbucks-branded coffee and “milk pods” that can be configured for all manner of lattes. It’s an interesting moment for the company, which partnered with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters just less than a year ago to sell Starbucks’ blends in other pods that fit that company’s Keurig machines. Awkward! “They’ll coexist and be complementary,” says Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz, who says Keurig and Verismo machines are (separately) fine for coffee, but the pressurizing capabilities of the latter make it best for espresso drinks at home. What all this makes totally clear is that someone really needs to invent an “open source” pod that fits all kinds of single-service coffee makers. That would be genius. [AP/NPR]
