Best Grocery Store Coffee

[MrBox]

So what in your opinion is the top grocery store coffee? Meaning coffee that doesn't have to be specially ordered and avail at most stores.

excluding starbucks, cause they don't count and I don't like them for a billion reasons

I'd say at the top is community coffee (which can be found in many places but not nationwide) I had some JFG the other day at Shoneys it was pretty good for a generic cup i need to get a bag of it


JM

[richedie]

What type of Grocery store coffee? Are you talking about the packaged coffee or the beans in the bins? I really hate the beans in the bins because it is so hit or miss. I have gotten beans from the bins that was fantastic! Problem is it only stayed fresh about 2-3 days. Sometimes I'll get coffee out of the bins and it will be stale and flat from day one. Now, I only stick to coffee from local roasters who are known to roast in small batches and ship immediately. Then, I make sure the store sells enough to keep the fresh bags coming in. This way, I have fresh beans at home that last 7-8 days or so. Even some of the pre-packaged brands on the supermarket shelves are hit or miss. No matter how well it is packaged...it will still go bad over time. Buy from local roasters.

[MrBox]

I'm weary of buying beans unless I know they are being rotated, sold frequently. So I don't think I'd buy the bin beans from a grocery store
I'd rather buy a vacum sealed pack.


I guess I was talking about what is ya'lls favorite coffee that is mass produced and Sold in various Stores.

Sometimes you can't get speciatly coffee and have to go for some grocery store coffee

There is a discount food store about 20 mins away. That one is fun because you can find cheap coffee with names you've never heard of.

lol

JM

[mrgnomer]

So what in your opinion is the top grocery store coffee? Meaning coffee that doesn't have to be specially ordered and avail at most stores.

excluding starbucks, cause they don't count and I don't like them for a billion reasons

I'd say at the top is community coffee (which can be found in many places but not nationwide) I had some JFG the other day at Shoneys it was pretty good for a generic cup i need to get a bag of it


JM

I've heard some people say that Costco's roast is not bad if you get it fresh.

What I've read about big commercial roasters and the unpreventable inevitablility of the staling of roasted beans is confirmed with my own experience buying grocery store beans. Stale no matter when I've bought them.

It seems that commercial roasters rest their beans to completely degass them before packaging/ grinding for packaging. If they didn't degass them I believe the containers they'd put the beans in would expand too much before shipping/sale. Unfortunately that length of time before the beans are even packaged starts them going stale.

After they're packaged the shipping time to the stores is probably long enough to stale them even more. Then they have to be stocked and finally purchased which mean more elapsed time. All in all, the race against time makes it unlikely that store bought coffee will ever be fresh.

I've also read that very little air is necessary to make a large volume of beans stale. There is no packaging process short of maybe freezing beans that prevents the staling process. Beans are compared to fresh baked bread in this regard.

Add the bottom line factor and not only are the beans you're getting at the grocery store probably stale the quality of the bean/bean blend is probably not that good either. A good conscientious local roaster that offers fresh roasted, high quality beans would be a better choice if you're particular about you're coffee's quality.

[richedie]

Buy from local raosters and store in the original bag, and then place the bag in an air tight container for the freshest coffee. Grind right before brewing. There are a lot of good roasters around the country but to me it always seems best to go local since even correctly packaged beans can go bad.

[MrBox]

I understand the whole buy local roasters ieal but that isn't possible all the time

so it was a bit of a light hearted convo to see what people felt was a good generic coffee

[dspender]

In my area (NorthEast) the only generic coffees (whole bean of course) available are:

Eight-o-clock
Folger's whole bean
Diamond Station (sometimes)
Millhouse (again, sometimes)

and I think either Maxwell House or some other brand was starting to do whole bean in our area.

For me, Eight-o-clock Dark Roast (not their terrible espresso/vienna roasts) is quite a good coffee for ~2.20-3.00/lb on sale.

I go through coffee SO fast I can't afford to use special roasted coffee all the time every pot I make, so I use Eight-o-Clock Columbian,Bokar, or Dark Roast and if its fresh, its pretty good.

[krivera1]

I second the vote for Eight O'Clock Bean Columbian Whole Bean (brown bag). I use this as my daily drinking coffee at work with a regular drip coffee maker (Braun with Gold Mesh filter). I have lots of coffee leetches who come by to steal coffee every day. I buy when it is on sale and grind a bag or two every couple of weeks to take to work. Very smooth and full flavor without much acidity or bitterness.

We drink the good stuff on the weekend - Koa Plantation Peaberry (Pure Kona!) with a Saeco V'spresso superautomatic. Ah, now that's good!

Ken

[shobber]

My fav grocery coffee goes like this


Eight O'Clock
Choc Full of Nuts
Maxwell House

If I dont want to buy the super premium take out a a loan coffee