Starbucks Clover Vertica Iced Coffee Review

How’s it going? Hope the coffee is flowing. This week I’m going to be doing something a little different with my weekly review. I’ve been sick and my palate has been off so I have not samples any new coffees to review. When I’m out and order coffee without the intention of making a review I still jot down notes, so this week’s review will be of Starbucks Clover Vertica iced coffee.

A cup of Starbucks Clover Vertica iced coffee.

Photo credit: Starbucks.com

The Clover Vertica coffee machine.

Photo credit: Core77

Clover was a coffee machine developed by The Coffee Equipment Company that expedited the coffee brewing process. They were founded in 2004, but were relatively short lived, as in 2008 Starbucks caught wind of their Clover brewing system and acquired The Coffee Equipment Company (you can read more about the history and acquisition here). The Clover machines did not become wide spread in Starbucks until relatively recently, as Starbucks spent time working on the machine to make it their own. The result is the Clover Vertica (read about it here), a single cup coffee machine which can grind and brew a cup of coffee in 30 seconds. It also is marketed as having a significant reduction in waste creation, such as water and paper filters. Essentially, it’s a fancy Keurig that makes slightly better coffee.

We all know corporations are generally happy to trade quality for speed and efficiency, while still charging (or in Starbucks, case overcharging), for the product. Will this increase in efficiency result in a poor cup of coffee? Let’s find out!

Starbucks Clover Vertica iced coffee review:

Full disclosure, I am not a Starbucks fan. I will drink their coffee when I have gift cards, or am desperate, so I went into this with low expectations. I find their coffee tends to be low quality, overly bitter, and overpriced. Sorry to my Starbucks fans out there, support your local roasters and you’ll get a better cup of coffee for the same price or less!

Okay, rant over. I had a gift card and some running to do and figured I would pop over to Starbucks as it wasn’t far off my planned route. When placing my order I saw the Clover Vertica iced coffee and admittedly had no idea what it was so I gave it a shot with lite ice.

The coffee had a light body with a very slight roasty nose. The front had mild roasty notes, with a pungent acidity. The acidity is less sharp in the middle, and gives way to a mild bitterness with a touch of sweetness to give the coffee some balance. The sweetness continues into the finish and gives the coffee a nice caramel-like ending.

Overall, this was one of the better drinks I’ve had at Starbucks, and if it is available it will be my go to when getting coffee there. It was slightly better than their traditional coffees, but still was unspectacular and I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Even when taking into consideration that it’s a large coffee chain, the quality is just not there to justify the cost. While the Clover Vertica iced coffee was better than most of the other drinks I’ve had from Starbucks, I would still always recommend a local roaster or coffee shop to get more value for what is usually the same price.

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