Anyone here into coffee?

[Schwinn]

What coffee beans would you recommend as an alternative to Starbucks? I've grinding and brewing starbucks at home and I'm ready to try something better I think.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, please recommend something I can find in the usual store. I don't like having to special order things. Thanks!!!

 

[reiver1]

at least 2 pots per day of black coffee.

Rant: it's becoming very frustrating to go into a coffee shop and not have the person behind the counter understand that I simply want a cup of coffee.
NOT the flavor of the day
NOT a half caf mocha frappaccino
COFFEE
END RANT

 

[reiver1]

A little story to make the coffee lovers drool

Years ago I took a group of college students to Jamaica to do some community development work in small villages. Our village was Woburn Lawn, situated just below Blue Mountain peak and the center of a coffee co-op.
We drank Blue Mountain coffee every day and I brought home 10 lbs of beans. MMMMmmmmmmm

 

[Schwinn]

I'd recommend www.peets.com for excellent coffee. It's not a special order, just pick out what you want and they'll roast and ship it to you. No muss, no fuss!

Thanks Joshua, that sounds good. I checked out the website and it looks like they have fast service - the coffee sounds good too. I think I will try the sumatra.

 

[DigMe]

Dude even if you don't want to have to order it the prices at this place are too good to pass up. Try the Tip of the Andes beans. It's really great coffee:

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Those prices per pound include shipping! So you can get a pound of it to your door for $7.75 flat. I've been drinking Tip of the Andes from my local dealer but they just went WAY up ($12.50 a lb!). At these web prices I'm going to try some of the other ones too such as the Peruvian Gold.

brad cook

 

[Bassic83]

I'm almost afraid of the Peruvian- what if you got some that Paco slipped some Peruvian Marching Powder into? Hate to have to explain that to the boss!

 

[DigMe]

I'd recommend www.peets.com for excellent coffee. It's not a special order, just pick out what you want and they'll roast and ship it to you. No muss, no fuss!

I'm sure their coffee is great but too expensive for my daily brew.

brad cook

 

[BassGod]

I have some Columbian coffee in my kitchen that I drink often. And I really love the English Toffee cappucinos from Tim Horton's.

Graeme

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Mmmm.....nescafe.

the crap of coffees. Is Nescafe popular in Greece? curious.

Non-Edible-Swill Cafe

Supermarkets around here used to sell Nescafé French Roast Hazelnut whole bean coffee. It was really pretty good; dark and strong, and the hazelnut flavoring was just noticeable and not overwhelming the way most flavored (ugh!) coffees are.

I really like coffee, but not enough to drink decaf. I buy the darkest non-espresso roast I can find. Lately it's usually been Trader Joe's Double Dark. If the coffee is strong enough, I can drink it black if I have to and still enjoy it. If it's office-grade joe, it needs the sweetener-and-half-&-half to help out. The powder non-dairy creamer is gross, more because it leaves a gooey feeling in my mouth than because it tastes lousy; Disneyland has found a good use for the stuff: as fuel for the fire-breathing dragon in their "Phantasmic" show.

Starbucks has good coffee, but around here we also have Diedrich's, Coffee Bean, and Natale Coffee locations, along with some independent places.

 

[John Deppel]

I normally drink a roast from a local roaster, Mill Bay Coffee, called "Midnight Sun." It's about as dark as they come.

 

[DigMe]

Quality costs!

That said, it works out to @ 20 cents a cup. Perhaps it's just my distorted perspective, but that doesn't seem very expensive to me.

Yeah but compared to the fact that I can get superb coffee at under 8 bucks a lb it's expensive.

brad cook

 

[DirtDog]

I'm a coffee fiend. But only good coffee. I'm also a coffee snob. I drink it from the moment I wake up until set break at night. My espresso machine is the wellspring from which all knowledge and truth flows with a magnificence and beauty unsurpassed in this world. Or to put it another way, without coffee I'm a real jerk.

To quote Homer Simpson: "...sweet giver of life, mother of us all..." (I think he was referring to potato chips, but, hey, close enough).

I live within walking distance to four boutique coffee shops, several bakeries and an organic grocer. I buy my beans from the grocer - fairtrade Mexican, Guatemalan or French Roast $8 per pound - fine grind at home, drip filter and a touch of table cream. No fancy apparatus for me. It's all the rocket fuel I need.

DD

 

[Erlendur Már]

I used to drink a lot of coffee at work. Now I drink coffee once in a while, maybe once a week or something.

 

[frankosaurus]

coincidence I found this thread... I was on a major coffee-research excursion today.

according to consumer reports (report done late 2004 I think), the best coffee was Caribou Columbian, _whole beans_. I got some today and ground it up myself.

some runners up were..
8 oclock columbian whole bean
dunkin donuts 100% arabica ground

I intend to try these out sometime soon.

among the worst were starbucks, noting that they tasted burnt or charred. I'm glad someone else noticed this!

 

[baba]

coincidence I found this thread... I was on a major coffee-research excursion today.

according to consumer reports (report done late 2004 I think), the best coffee was Caribou Columbian, _whole beans_. I got some today and ground it up myself.

some runners up were..
8 oclock columbian whole bean
dunkin donuts 100% arabica ground

I intend to try these out sometime soon.

among the worst were starbucks, noting that they tasted burnt or charred. I'm glad someone else noticed this!

Who else was in the running? This data is useless if we don't know who they beat out.

 

[DigMe]

I looked at a Consumer Reports writeup on coffee once and I disagreed with some of their findings. For one thing there are tons of different coffee companies out there which makes their analysis fairly limited because they only reviewed the largest ones if I remember correctly. Taste is such a subjective thing too, although I definitely agree with them about Starbuck's coffee. I've tried 8 O'Clock coffee before and I have had many coffees that are much better. Dunkin' Donuts definitely has the best coffee of any fast food joint though.

brad cook

 

[Bassic83]

Has anyone tried Community "Between Roast" whole bean?

 

[FenderBender]

Starbucks french roast brewed extra strong!!!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[frankosaurus]

Who else was in the running? This data is useless if we don't know who they beat out.

The three coffees I mentioned above were in the top 2 echelons of taste ("excellent" and "very good"), according to consumer reports.

Those rated "Good" included:
365 columbian supremo
folgers columbian
gloria jeans columbian
trader joe's columbian
starbucks columbia narino
chock full o' nuts columbian
maxwell house columbian
hills bros columbian
berkley & jensen (bj's) columbian
kirkland columbian
wal-mart columbian
yuban

The rest were rated "Fair":
seattles best
archer farms
millstone
starbucks columbia

HTH!!!!
obviously, taste is subjective, so this is by no means definitive.

DigMe-- In an older consumer reports review, folgers 100% columbian was rated very well. I tried it and thought it was mediocre. In the most recent review, it didn't fare as well. I remember back in late 80s they rated yuban very highly. My guess is that the coffee sellers change their suppliers.

 

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Consumer Reports didn't call it "Columbian," did they?