Good Coffee

Joined
Dec 19, 2005
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I'm looking for a new coffee to drink in the mornings. I like my coffee strong and would be interested in both regular and decaf. Also would like to keep the price reasonable. Any good suggestions?
 
I buy Sumatra from coffeebeandirect.

It's low acid but very flavorful.
 
Illy espresso-already ground. Makes great coffee if you add normal amounts of water, can make espresso. Not high in caffeine nor is it bitter; very easy to drink black though I don't. Honestly have not found one that I like better, ground, not ground, freshly roasted.....gourmet....

I would say, try it.
 
I add a couple of scoops of finely ground French Roast to our regular grind to give our coffee a boost.
 
I add a couple of scoops of finely ground French Roast to our regular grind to give our coffee a boost.

My wife and I prefer French Roast (or equivalent), anything else being too weak for our taste.

Funny that this thread popped up as we have been trying a variety of different coffees of late to try to find the one that provides the most satisfaction at the best price.

FWIW, Consumer's Reports just did a coffee review and gave big props to 8 O'Clock Coffee based on price and quality. We found it decent but a little on the light side for our taste, even with its darkest roast.
 
Here's a review-in-progress of various Community Coffee brews. Not expensive at all, easy to order, and great service.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4816586

"Rocky Mountain Thunder" from Boyer's Coffee in Denver is very good. The "Spoon Bender" blend sound intriguing, but I haven't seen it on the store shelves to try it yet. I've never ordered this online, and online prices are a bit higher; we get it at Sam's Club - about ten bucks for 2-1/2 lbs).
http://www.boyerscoffee.com/
 
Dont know if you have a trader joe's nearby where you are, but they have some great coffee for great prices. I'm partial to their "Smooth and Mellow" and their Kauai blend. But they have a ton of other kinds too.

Cadillac coffee is my budget favorite, and I think its kinda a Detroit regional thing, but maybe you can get it in IL.
 
My favorite is Peet's. I like the Major Dickason's blend. They are mostly in the SF Bay Area, but you order on line.


ric

Caffine... my drug of chioce.
 
Brazil Bourbon Santos "Fazenda Pindaibas",
Colombian Narino "Reserva del Patron",
Guatemala Antigua "Flor de Esperanza" &
Costa Rica Dota "San Gabriel"


from J. Martinez & Company (http://www.martinezfinecoffees.com/) are all really good. I prefer them in 'dark roast'. These types I listed are favorites of mine at 11 & 12 bucks a pound, but I find that I need to use considerably less than many store brands for a pot of good strong coffee. They also sell in half pounds and in either whole bean or a few different choices of grind. All of their coffee is roasted in small batches and right before shipping. There are others on the site at around the same price and up, but these listed here are what I usually order for the most part. Very tasty coffee! :thumbup::thumbup:

 
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Annr, you have to have pressure to create espresso, so having espresso beans won't cut it. Espresso is made at 8-9 bars. You can probably make strong coffee with espresso beans, but without pressure that's all you're getting.
 
I have tried Illy espresso and it's good stuff. I also have an espresso machine but it's too much work and time in the morning.


I would like to buy the coffee at a store rather than online, so I will try Trader Joes, 8 O'Clock Coffee, and Rocky Mountain Thunder.

Thanks and keep the suggestions coming.
 
I would like to buy the coffee at a store rather than online.

Meijer has an isle that has imported items. You can find Tchibo there in the German section in the grocery end of the store. There's one in Aurora.
 
Knowing how anal retentive the Illy people are, you probably can't go wrong with there stuff if you are talking about coffee that you can get at most decent supermarkets. I know that people badmouth Starbucks, but i have had some of their top shelf stuff, the Arabian style mocha and it was quite good.....bad news is that it is $16 a pound. Some alleged coffee heads refer to any espresso/French roasted beans as "burnt coffee' but I say that all of those Europeans can't be wrong. The Columbians seem to think so because once they cull out the best of the Arabica beans, they send almost all of the next best to France and Germany and send us the dregs blended with the Robusta (?) beans for Folgers, etc. The Nestle espresso that you get out of vending machines at French and Belgian autoroute rest stops is probably as good or better than the stuff you pay big bucks for at places like Starbucks and Illy is going to be much better than Nestle even after traveling across the ocean.
 
Annr, you have to have pressure to create espresso, so having espresso beans won't cut it. Espresso is made at 8-9 bars. You can probably make strong coffee with espresso beans, but without pressure that's all you're getting.
The trick to real espresso is not only pressure, but having the water below boiling, which is just the opposite of what you want to do with tea. The espresso heads from Illy call the non-pressure brewed espresso ground coffee mocha. The little Cuban style two chambered aluminum sotvetop "espresso" pot is called a mocha pot in Italy. so so I have read. it still makes good coffee. A buddy of mine in Miami used to make his regular brewed coffee using Bustelo in a saucepan on the stove and when it had brewed long enough, he filtered it through a drip machine paper filter. He said that it tasted much better than any drip grind American coffee that he could find back then (1980's)
 
We drink Starbucks Christmas blend in our home. It's a bold and full bodied (can you tell I'm from the Pacific Northwest?) coffee without the acidity of Sumatran and not quite as robust as French Roast. We have a discount grocery outlet here called Costco (Priceco in California) that sells $20 gift certificates for Starbucks coffees so they bring the price down to around $10 per pound. It's the best coffee we've found yet. $16 per lb is a lot of money- must be the shipping?
 
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if u have a costco, try the don pablo, it is great, the mention of consumer reports rating eight o'clock coffee the best is true and they also had high comments for the dunkin donuts brand, both are great coffee's, but the don pablo is excellent.

worth mention is, if the coffee is bitter. put a few grains of salt in the coffee before brewing, it does work.
 
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