Favorite Brand of Coffee

SoWal Expert

Mar 22, '08 · 9:18 AM17,400

For all you daily coffee drinkers who brew your own at home, what is your favorite brand and roast of coffee? What do you like about it? With coffee prices being so high, do you forgo your favorite and buy another brand to because it is cheaper?

My favorite is Starbucks whole bean, and I like the darker roasts, like Espresso, Caffe Verona, and Africa Kitamu, and will buy the even darker roasts, like Sumatra and French on occasion to mix it up a bit. Being a fan of Newman's Own philosophy and products, I decided to leave the Starbucks box to venture out, last week. I grabbed a bag of Newman's Own Organic French Roast whole bean coffee. It's okay, but it doesn't have that nice acidic bight of the similar roast that Starbucks has. It is giving me my fix for caffeine, but I probably won't buy it again.

This wasn't the first time I ventured away from my favorite brand. The last time I ventured off the norm, I ended up making soap out of the unused coffee, because my morning cup is just too special to not enjoy. Just curious to read which brand and roast you enjoy the most. :wave:

Replies

110

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 9:39 AM#2

Love love LOVE Starbucks as well. We don't buy it, though, for home unless it's on sale - I refuse to pay the $9+ dollars Publix charges - so I just go to Starbucks for my fix.

At home, we brew Paul Newman's Special Blend. It's made by Green Mountain Roasters - a certified "green" company. It's really a wonderful product.

bean

Mar 22, '08 · 9:50 AM#3

I love my morning coffee but I'm not a fancy coffee drinker. I use flavored creamers and that covers up the taste anyway. I prefer a smooth, mild blend. I usually buy

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 9:54 AM#4

I've been grinding, brewing and drinking Eight O' Clock Columbian for several years now, it's as much as I can justify spending on coffee on a regular basis now. For everyday brew it's pretty good. I used to spend much more before the kids, and felt much like Jimmy from Pulp Fiction...

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 9:59 AM#5

Nuthin' but Community Dark Roast.

needs to get out more

Mar 22, '08 · 10:09 AM#6

amavida jillicious blend. local, fair trade, excellent coffee.

SoWal ExpertAuthor

Mar 22, '08 · 10:15 AM#7

Love love LOVE Starbucks as well. We don't buy it, though, for home unless it's on sale - I refuse to pay the $9+ dollars Publix charges - so I just go to Starbucks for my fix.

At home, we brew Paul Newman's Special Blend. It's made by Green Mountain Roasters - a certified "green" company. It's really a wonderful product.

You are confusing me. :funn: You won't pay $9 for a bag of beens which will brew around 30-45 mugs of coffee, but you will pay retail price $3-5 +tip for a single cup at a Starbuck's store? :idontno:

Am I reading that correctly?

Beach Lover

Mar 22, '08 · 10:16 AM#8

amavida jillicious blend. local, fair trade, excellent coffee.

Please always try to buy fair trade coffee. Growers would be screwed without the fair trade program.

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 10:26 AM#9

You are confusing me. :funn: You won't pay $9 for a bag of beens which will brew around 30-45 mugs of coffee, but you will pay retail price $3-5 +tip for a single cup at a Starbuck's store? Am I reading that correctly?

Cute, SJ ... ;-) No, you aren't reading it correctly as I'm not a daily Starbucks junkie (thankfully).

Unfortunately, my physiological tolerance for java has decreased as I've aged so my jaunts to Starbucks for my beloved Americanos are very few and far between now. BUT, when I do go, my beverage only costs me $2. plus change.

SoWal Insider

Mar 22, '08 · 10:27 AM#10

Nuthin' but Community Dark Roast.

ohhhhhhhh, yes!! mine also!!!!

Beach Lover

Mar 22, '08 · 10:52 AM#11

I really wanted to like Newman's Own too SJ, because I admire how Paul Newman has used his celebrity to promote his charitable foundation.

Ironically, the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters plant is just about 7 miles from my home in Vermont, but I didn't try Newman's until my visit here. I found it stale and disappointing. I think you're right, bad coffee is better used for soap or mulch.

At home we replaced GMCR with http://tinyurl.com/32xhj6 years ago. It's still local, organic, fair trade, and fresh.

Here I've been using Seattle's Best organic breakfast blend.

SoWal Expert

Mar 22, '08 · 10:52 AM#12

Whole Foods Pleasant Morning Buzz. Thankfully, I will be back in Whole Foods territory very soon to re-load the cupboard.

When I run out? Any of the Starbucks bolds, or Community dark.

Beach Lover

Mar 22, '08 · 10:56 AM#13

For my once daily cup, I like Douw Egberts/Senseo dark roast. For coffee press, anything my friends have been kind enough to bring back from Costa Rica - yum!

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 11:29 AM#14

I don't drink coffee often, but when I do, the 100% Kona you can get from Bad (Donkey) on 98 in Miramar Beach is sublime. I've also had excellent cups of the day from Emerald Coast Coffee (Bluewater Bay & Destin) and Maas Coffee (FWB)

Don't much care for Starbucks unless I can douse it in syrups. I supertaste bitter, so their coffee seems far too bitter to me.

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 11:45 AM#15

Higher Ground - found at For The Health of It http://www.highergroundroasters.com/

Eight O'Clock Columbia Roast is our Winn-Dixie back-up.

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 2:47 PM#16

Arkiehawg Brand!

We go to Fresh Market and create our own blend from their barrels. A little bit of tis, a little bit of tat.... :cool:

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 4:14 PM#17

I was spoiled by my Senseo and then found fair trade pods at Whole Foods to go in it. I recently found a reusable pod that actually works so I can put any kind of coffee in it. A nice medium roast.
I remember when I was younger and poor I called my sister crying, "I can only afford 'snif snif' MAXWELL HOUSE." She overnighted some of the goodstuff to me. Ah, it's memories like that which make me so thankful for all I have today.

Beach Lover

Mar 22, '08 · 4:41 PM#18

Cool - I will look for some free trade pods, then, bluemtnrunner. I didn't know they existed.

Beach Lover

Mar 22, '08 · 4:59 PM#19

For the last few months I've been drinking PJ's Anniversary Blend. It's a medium roast but is a full-bodied blend. It does pretty good in my Bialetti stove top espresso maker. Before I started drinking the PJ's blend I was buying the Kona blend from Fresh Market, it cost a little less than the PJ's but I'd rather support a coffee shop. I drink Americano's almost exclusively because the "mouth-feel" of regular drip coffee just doesn't do it for me, I find that it's too watery. I owned a coffee shop for three years before moving here so I'm more or less a coffee bigot (I always assume the worst about coffee that's waiting around on me - I would much rather wait on good coffee). I have an old ulcer and acid reflux so I try to stay away from beans/blends with high acidity for everyday drinking. The process of drawing a shot of espresso vs. brewing regular drip cuts down on the acidity a good bit because there's less extraction time.

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 5:03 PM#20

I'm an Eight-O-Clock girl. Cheap and delicious!

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 5:20 PM#21

I wish I drank coffee, it smells so good when I walk by it in the store.

Skunky

Mar 22, '08 · 7:14 PM#22

La Minita whole bean from Kitchenique in Sandestin. Community Bourbon Santos is also a winner, but I have never seen it around here. I am proud to say I lived in a city where Starbucks actually went out of business when they opened next to two old local coffee houses...get that burnt junk off Magazine Street!!!

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 7:14 PM#23

I used to buy Higher Ground at For the Health of It, or when I went to Pensacola I would stock up on organic Costa Rican from the food co-op. In the interest of penny pinching, I am now buying Supreme by Bustelo from Publix. It's a Latino espresso style finely ground coffee, $3.89 a package. I just stumbled on it one day. In my opinion it's as good as Starbucks. I make it one cup at a time in a little Melitta cone that sits on top of a mug. With organic half and half and real sugar. :wub:

Beach Fanatic

Mar 22, '08 · 8:58 PM#24

I've tried many coffees in many brew machines with less than satisfactory results. Last fall, I bought a Cuisinart Cup-o-Matic and tried a bunch of different pods but none was really very good. I finally decided to try illy fine grind espresso in my Breville. Wow!! Hello!!

This turned out like (or better) than a Starbucks latte or cappucino. illy is not cheap at all at $15.00/lb., but it is the best coffee I have made at home. You can find it at Fresh Market.