Good Cof, Bad Cof
Yesterday I spent approximately fifteen dollars on coffee. An excessive amount, I know. But it was an experiment. I’m a coffee snob - not a Starbucks coffee snob, but a roast-your-own-beans if you can (I can’t because my roaster died and I haven’t had it repaired yet) type of coffee snob. So I decided to test out the difference between the cheap 24 ounces for $7.99 coffee verses the $11.99/pound freshly roasted stuff at my local Whole Foods. Here’s my dilemma: I, as a snob, need to figure out the cheapest way to consume high quality, tasty coffee. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
- Cheap coffee always tastes bad to me
- Starbucks coffee usually tastes funky to me (burninated) so its out
- The cheaper good stuff at whole foods is still $10.00 a pound
- Yes, I can taste a significant difference between a fresh roast and a not-so-fresh roast
- I like medium roast coffees the best
- I refuse to do various things to thin out the coffee ground usage: if you’re going to have coffee make sure it isn’t garbage. If you’re looking for cheap caffeine go with tea - it’ll still taste good, but not have nastiness like cheap coffee.
- I need to fix my roaster because then the beans can be had for several dollars a pound instead of 12 dollars a pound
- I do like Peet’s coffee, but it is as expensive, or more expensive than Starbucks
What things do you do to make sure you get a little luxury, but at a frugal price? Do you let yourself have a little luxury? When you go to the store do you wrestle with these things? I tend not to, but I find that when I have to buy coffee (which I actually drink sparingly contrary to what this post may imply) I convince myself to spend more every time. My expensive/cheap experiment proved again to me that I can taste a difference and prefer the good stuff. Help!
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January 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I’m giving up on cheap coffee.
When we make the cheap stuff, we drink less of it…which means we are ultimately wasting the dollars saved. Our local warehouse club use to have decent cheap decaf coffee, but they recently changed suppliers and we’ve been struggling ever since.
This morning, i didn’t tell the wife, and made a pot of decaf using some good beans from a local market. While she didn’t take the time to comment, i could tell she enjoyed it from how much she drank.
I too can taste the difference between good beans and great, but have found a decent “good” bean that i can drink daily. I ask for money/gift certs for great beans for my birthday or fathers day.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Thanks, James, that’s good information. So what company/supplier has good enough beans?
-Randy