Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso Medium Roast Coffee, 10 Capsules 56g
Filter drinkers who have ended up owning a capsule machine are the people this suits. The roast stops earlier than the rest of the range, so the cup runs clean and brisk where its neighbours run heavy and dark; it sits nearer a good jug of filter coffee than anything you would call an espresso. It is the small Original-line capsule, so a Vertuo machine will not take it.
Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso Medium Roast Coffee, in brief.
Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso is a medium roast from the Starbucks by Nespresso range that keeps the brightness a dark roast burns away, picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the black morning capsule for anyone tired of a shelf that only sells dark.
Nespresso Original-line machines, lungo setting, and best drunk black or with a splash.
One thing to settle before anything else. The tube holds ten capsules and weighs 56g in total, not 56g each. The published listing renders that as "10x56g", which reads as though ten capsules of 56g were on their way, and they are not. A capsule in this system holds a few grams of coffee. another published listing writes the same product as a 56g tube of ten, which is the clearer description of the same pack, and the per-kilo prices published by both shops agree with it.
The other thing to check is your machine. This is the small Original-line capsule rather than the larger domed one, so it belongs in a Nespresso Original brewer or a machine that takes Original capsules. If your machine reads a barcode on the rim of a wider capsule, you have a Vertuo, and these will not fit it.
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. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Starbucks By Nespresso
Starbucks opened in Seattle as a coffee roaster long before it became a chain of cafes, and the roasting side of the business never went away. The capsule range is that side of it packaged for the Nespresso system rather than for a shop counter, and Breakfast Blend is one of the oldest names in the line-up: a blend intended for a first cup of the day, roasted lighter than almost anything else the brand puts its name to.
That matters because capsule ranges skew dark. Dark roasts are more forgiving in a small pressurised extraction, they survive milk, and they photograph as "strong", so most of a supermarket capsule shelf is somewhere between dark and very dark. A genuinely medium roast in a capsule is comparatively rare, and it is a different drink rather than a weaker one.
The bean composition, the roast description, the certification marks and the net weight are printed on the tube you receive. Capsule blends are reformulated from time to time, so read the pack in front of you rather than taking a figure from a listing written earlier.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the outer tube and the capsules themselves usually take different disposal routes, and capsule recycling is often a brand scheme rather than a kerbside one.
Why A Lighter Roast Tastes Sharper, Not Weaker
Roasting is a trade, and the trade is always the same. Early in the roast the bean holds a set of acids that taste bright and fruit-like. Push the roast further and those acids break down while bitter, dry, cocoa-toned compounds build in their place. A dark roast is not stronger in any measurable sense; it has simply moved along that line.
A medium roast such as this one stops earlier, so more of the brightness survives into the cup. If you are used to a dark espresso capsule, the first cup will read as sharp rather than as mild, and the usual reaction is to assume the machine has under-extracted. It has not. Give it three or four mornings before deciding, because the palate adjusts to brightness far faster than people expect.
It also means this is not the capsule for a large milky drink. Milk dilutes a cup and its proteins bind to exactly the compounds a dark roast is full of, so a dark roast reads through milk and a light one disappears into it. Drink this one black or with a splash, and use something darker for a latte.
Getting The Most Out Of This Tube
- Machine: Nespresso Original-line brewers. These are not Vertuo capsules and will not fit a Vertuo machine.
- Setting: lungo, or espresso with a little hot water added after.
- Storage: cupboard, out of sun and heat. Sealed capsules hold their aroma far better than an opened bag of ground coffee.
- Best with: toast and marmalade, a croissant, lemon cake, or anything you would normally eat at breakfast.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso Medium Roast Coffee, 10 Capsules 56g, 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; tube and capsules usually take 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
A capsule machine fixes the temperature and the pressure, so most of the advice that applies to ground coffee is irrelevant here. What you control is the volume, the water in the tank and the condition of the machine, and on a lighter roast all three matter more than they do on a dark one, because there is less roast character to hide behind.
The Settings That Suit It
Black, Long And Iced
Made with this tea
The Breakfast Lungo
The cup the capsule is named for, and the pour length that suits a medium roast.
- 1 Breakfast Blend capsule
- Fresh water in the tank
- A cup rinsed with hot water
- Warm the cup and tip the water out.
- Brew on lungo rather than espresso.
- Drink it black, before the food rather than after.
What you'll end up with: A bright, clean cup that finishes quickly and leaves the palate ready for breakfast.
Americano, Built The Right Way Round
Short pour first, water second. It keeps aroma that one long pour throws away.
- 1 capsule pulled on espresso
- 120ml hot water
- A warmed mug
- Pull the capsule short into the warmed mug.
- Add the hot water to it, not the other way round.
- Taste before adding more water.
What you'll end up with: A mug-sized coffee with the aromatic lift intact, rather than the flat cup a very long pour gives.
Iced Black With Orange
Brightness survives chilling, which is why a light roast makes better iced coffee than a dark one.
- 1 capsule on lungo
- Ice, added in two goes
- A strip of orange peel
- Half fill the glass with ice and brew straight over it.
- Top up with fresh ice once the pour has finished.
- Twist the orange peel over the glass and drop it in.
What you'll end up with: A cold coffee that still tastes of fruit rather than of old toast, with the citrus pulling in the same direction as the roast.
The Side By Side Test
Two capsules, ten minutes, and you will know for good which roast level you actually prefer.
- 1 Breakfast Blend capsule
- 1 dark roast capsule you already own
- A glass of water between them
- Brew both on the same setting, into identical cups.
- Taste the lighter one first, then the dark.
- Go back to the light one after a mouthful of water.
What you'll end up with: A clear answer instead of a guess, and a good reason to buy the ten-capsule tube before the bigger box.
Coffee And Marmalade Glaze
A kitchen use that leans on the citrus side of a lighter roast rather than fighting it.
- 1 capsule pulled short
- 3 tablespoons marmalade
- A pinch of salt
- Toasted brioche or ham to glaze
- Warm the marmalade in a small pan until loose.
- Stir the short coffee and the salt through it.
- Brush it over toasted brioche, or over ham for the last ten minutes of roasting.
What you'll end up with: A bitter-citrus glaze with more depth than marmalade alone, and no burnt-coffee note because the roast is light.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roast and ground coffee | 56g across the whole tube of ten | Everything you taste. Ground coffee sealed under gas in single-use capsules, so the machine extracts it fresh in the cup rather than rehydrating something dried. |
| Roast level | Medium, per the brand's own naming | Stopped earlier than the espresso roasts that fill most capsule shelves, so more of the bright, fruit-like acids survive and less dry cocoa bitterness has been built. |
| Bean composition and origins | Printed on the current pack | Starbucks states the blend and its description on the tube. We have not restated an origin, an altitude or a ratio we cannot read off the pack in your hand. |
| Water (added by the machine) | The bulk of the finished cup | One capsule per cup, on the lungo setting rather than the espresso one. The machine fixes temperature and pressure, so volume and water quality are your only real controls. |
Pack: Caffeinated. Nespresso Original-line machines. Best before date printed on the tube.
Percentages are not published for this blend and we have not invented any. A black coffee carries almost no calories; anything added at the cup, milk or sugar, changes that entirely, and the nutrition panel on the tube is the figure to work from.
That is a less common choice than it sounds, because capsule ranges skew dark for good practical reasons. Dark roasts are forgiving in a small pressurised extraction, they read clearly through milk, and they present as strong on a shelf, so most of a supermarket capsule aisle sits somewhere between dark and very dark. Stopping the roast earlier keeps the acids that give a coffee its brightness and builds less of the dry, bitter, cocoa-toned character that replaces them, which makes this a different drink rather than a weaker one. The trade is that it will not carry a large milky mug, and anyone moving over from a dark espresso capsule should expect the first cup to read as sharp. For the bean composition, the certification marks, the capsule material and the recycling route carried by the tube in your hand, read the current pack.
What is in Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso, and what is not:
- In: roast and ground coffee, sealed in single-use capsules.
- No sugar, sweetener or milk powder: this is a black coffee capsule, not a flavoured or milky one.
- Not a Vertuo capsule: this is the small Original-line capsule and will not fit a Vertuo machine.
- Weight note: 56g is the whole tube, not one capsule. The retailer title reads the other way round and it is wrong.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Starbucks Breakfast Blend by Nespresso Medium Roast Coffee, 10 Capsules 56g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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