Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods
Where the milk pods decide the entire drink for you, this one makes only the coffee and leaves the rest to you, which is the reason to pick it if the house pours oat milk, soya, or nothing at all. House Blend is the medium roast Starbucks built its shops on, and sealed into a capsule it arrives as toasted nut and warm bread rather than the scorched note a lot of dark capsules land on. There is proper bitterness in it, enough to read as coffee after a meal and not so much that it wants sugar, and it finishes dry on dark chocolate. Scores are solid across a fair number of buyers, with no pattern of complaint worth flagging. It pours short by default, so for a mug rather than a cup, either run it long and accept a thinner cup or run two capsules. It also fits Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines and nothing else, which catches out people who have bought the same name in a different capsule shape.
Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, in brief.
Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto is the black coffee pod in the Starbucks at Home pod range, a long americano built on the brand's medium roast House Blend for Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the pod to buy when you want to taste the coffee rather than the milk.
An americano is an espresso lengthened with hot water, and in a pod machine the whole drink is made in one pass. That puts all the weight on the coffee itself, which is why the black pods in any range are the honest test of it. House Blend is the name Starbucks gives its medium roast signature, and the brand's published description sets it out as the balanced, nutty, everyday end of its line rather than the dark-roast end. In a Dolce Gusto machine it comes out as a full mug of clean, rounded black coffee with a thin crema on top.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Storage notes, machine compatibility and serving guidance are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
Teas.co.uk Curator Rating
4.7 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk
The Story Behind Starbucks at Home
Starbucks at Home products are Starbucks recipes produced under licence for other people's machines, which is why two names appear on one box. Starbucks sets the coffee and the recipe; Nescafé makes the pod and the Dolce Gusto machine it fits. House Blend is the blend the brand has built its everyday cup around, so a pod carrying that name is meant to read as the familiar high street mug rather than as a speciality roast.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- Pod disposal is a scheme, not a bin rule: whether these pods belong in a household recycling bin, a collection scheme or the general waste depends on the current pack and your council. Read both.
- A black pod wastes less: no milk portion means one pod per drink and nothing in the fridge going off between coffees.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Starbucks
Starbucks needs no introduction. Their at-home retail range covers the cafe-style favourites: Toffee Nut Latte sachets, instant coffee, and the wider iced and hot drink format. Particularly strong on flavoured latte sachets.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
To get the best out of Starbucks Americano House Blend, the variables are the mug, the water and the state of the machine. A black pod hides nothing, so a descaled machine and fresh water matter more here than they do in a milk drink.
The Machine Build
The Long Black Build
Made with this tea
The Proper Long Black
How to make The Proper Long Black with Starbucks Americano House Blend.
- 1 Starbucks Americano House Blend pod
- 120ml hot water
- A warmed mug
- Three minutes
- Warm the mug with hot water and tip it out.
- Pour 120ml of fresh hot water into the mug first.
- Brew one pod of Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods short, straight on top of the water.
- Drink it within a few minutes, while the crema is still holding the aroma in.
What you'll end up with: A rounder, more aromatic mug than the same pod run long into an empty cup, with the crema still on top.
Your Own Milk Flat White
How to make Your Own Milk Flat White with Starbucks Americano House Blend.
- 1 Starbucks Americano House Blend pod
- 120ml milk or barista oat milk
- A jar with a lid, or a milk frother
- A small cup, warmed
- Heat 120ml of milk until steaming but not boiling, then shake it hard in a lidded jar for twenty seconds to foam it.
- Brew one pod of Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods short into a warmed cup.
- Pour the milk in from low down, holding the foam back with a spoon until the end.
What you'll end up with: A milk coffee made with whatever milk you actually keep, which is the reason to buy a black pod rather than a latte one.
Iced Americano Over A Full Glass
How to make Iced Americano Over A Full Glass with Starbucks Americano House Blend.
- 1 Starbucks Americano House Blend pod
- A tall glass filled to the top with ice
- 80ml cold water
- A strip of orange peel, optional
- Fill the glass with ice to the top.
- Brew one pod of Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods short, straight over the ice.
- Top with 80ml of cold water rather than hot, so the ice survives.
- Twist a strip of orange peel over the surface and drop it in.
What you'll end up with: A cold black coffee with the cocoa note still intact, and orange oil sitting on top of it.
Cocoa Mocha Mug
How to make Cocoa Mocha Mug with Starbucks Americano House Blend.
- 1 Starbucks Americano House Blend pod
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 80ml hot milk
- Sugar to taste, optional
- Mix 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder to a paste with a splash of hot water in the bottom of the mug.
- Brew one pod of Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods short on top of the paste.
- Top with 80ml of hot milk and stir from the bottom up.
What you'll end up with: The cocoa already in the roast doubled up rather than covered up, at the price of one pod and two spoons of cocoa.
Espresso Martini Style Nightcap (Adult)
How to make Espresso Martini Style Nightcap (Adult) with Starbucks Americano House Blend.
- 1 Starbucks Americano House Blend pod
- 35ml vodka
- 10ml sugar syrup
- A shaker full of ice
- Brew one pod of Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods as short as the machine allows, and let it cool for five minutes.
- Shake it hard with 35ml of vodka, 10ml of sugar syrup and a shaker full of ice for fifteen seconds.
- Strain into a chilled glass and drink it while the foam is still on top.
What you'll end up with: The one cocktail a pod machine is genuinely good at, as long as you brew short and shake hard.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Milk, sweetener or flavouring | none | Deliberately absent. This is the black pod in the range, which is why it suits anyone adding their own plant milk or drinking it neat. |
| Water from your machine | the rest | More than three quarters of an americano is water from your tank, so fresh cold water and a descaled machine change the cup more than most people expect. |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Roast & Ground Coffee.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods; caffeinated black coffee for Nescafé Dolce Gusto machines. Use by the date printed on the pack.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods is a Starbucks recipe produced for the Nescafé Dolce Gusto system under licence, which is why two brands appear on one box: Starbucks sets the coffee, Nescafé makes the pod and the machine it fits. House Blend is the brand's own name for its medium roast signature rather than a description of a single farm or country.
What's in Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods, and what isn't:
- In: roasted coffee sealed in pods for one machine system, and nothing else.
- No milk, no sugar, no flavouring: it is a black coffee, so you control what goes in the mug after it.
- Not a grind you can use elsewhere: the coffee is sealed in a Dolce Gusto shaped pod and cannot be decanted into a cafetiere.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Starbucks Americano House Blend By Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Coffee (12 Servings), 12 Pods, please cite teas.co.uk.
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