Ran out of coffee this morning, so I ran to the store. I was in a rush, they were out of Peet’s, so I grabbed a thing of Seattle’s Best Saturday Blend.
This may be the worst coffee I have ever had, and I have had Army coffee. Not only is it bad, it is aggressively bad and appears to be a persistent agent. I have brushed my teeth four times since 9 am and I can not get the taste out of my mouth. I’ve had three club sodas today with a little lime, and every time I swallow I still taste the coffee.
Do people actually drink that crap?
Quaker in a Basement
Wow. I’ve seen house paint that was easier to wash away.
Keith
I used to work somewhere that had Seattle’s Best…nasty stuff. The ironic thing is that Starbucks makes (or used to make) it! My current employer’s coffee is even worse, though (and to top it off, our Mini-Moos curdle a few seconds after being introduced to the stuff)
The Saff
For really good coffee, you can’t beat Kaldi’s from St. Louis. The cinnamon hazelnut in the French press is pure ambrosia.
http://www.kaldiscoffee.com/
mantis
Yeah, nasty stuff, and the company is owned by Starbucks. The university I work at exclusively sells Seattle’s Best, so I’m forced to go off campus for a decent cup.
Incertus
I swear by Cafe Bustelo–cheap, but with a rich taste and enough caffeine to make you consider taking an assault weapon to a town hall meeting.
Chasm
Never had Saturday Blend. I do very much like their “Henry’s Blend,” not least because the cat on the label looks like my friends cat, Henry. But the coffee is good too. Must be something with that blend that sucks.
djork
I tried some of Newman’s own coffee recently. Not bad, if I say so myself.
Wastriver
Another coffee thread? Bored, JC?
Drink Gorilla. If can’t get freshly-roasted Peet’s.
Indylib
Wow, it’s worse than Army coffee?
If Army coffee is in any way related to Navy coffee that’s pretty damned bad.
Dreggas
Correct me if I am wrong but Seattle gave us grunge rock and that was “the best” too. For the most part it was repetitive and, well, kinda sucked. Why should their coffee be any different?
pharniel
more proof that starschumcks coffee is overpriced and overrated.
honestly i don’t think i’ve had store-baught coffee that didn’t suck so much that would have been better off just putting sugar and creme with some hot water.
Danton
Did you say you can get Peet’s in a store in West Virginia? A grocery store? Really?
Dreggas
oh, for what it’s worth, I am kinda partial to Folgers breakfast blend. I find it to be as good as what I used to get from trader joe’s and i don’t have to grind the beans myself.
Dreggas
@pharniel:
Foamy reference FTW!
The Saff
@pharniel: I think Starbucks is over priced and way too strong (to the point it tastes burned). IMHO, McDonald’s premium roast is a lot better and a lot cheaper.
Tracy
Permit me to shamelessly plug Chicago’s finest coffee roaster (and brewer of the best cappuccino in the city), Intelligentsia Coffee:
http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/
ricky
You oviously have not taken advanatage of the Mom’s formula in ads on your andf other blogs. It would have wiped out both the taste in your mouth and the teeth in them, but left a bright white glow which appears every time you open your mouth in the dark.
It is not availalble at Whole Foods.
Legalize
“Do people actually drink that crap?”
Coffee? Bugger that. Tea, please.
whetstone
@Tracy: Permit me to second it. If you live in Chicago, the blend they make specifically for Flo is my favorite.
Max
@Dreggas: I take issue with your grunge rock “sucks” implication.
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Alice in Chains
Soundgarden
Mudhoney
Sonic Youth
Pixies
I think your suckiness compass needs adjustin’.
My local Starbucks is a 15 second walk from my desk and somedays, its the only thing keeping me together.
Kennedy
People also drink Starbucks’ Cafe Verona, which is like swilling down a cup of 10W30. I hate that shit. It is vile.
mantis
@Tracy:
Intelligentsia is amazing coffee. I have to go out of my way to get it, but every time I bring it home and fire up the espresso maker, I wonder why I ever buy any other kind.
Tonal Crow
John, is there something you’re not telling us?
You haven’t joined the NYT, have you?
bedtimeforbonzo
Legalize: What kind of tea do you drink? I like Twinings Irish Breakfast, very strong.
Another non-coffee, almost 47, I have never acquired a taste for the stuff, not even close, but my 10-year-old son keeps bugging us to drink it. My brother started as an early teen.
geg6
I haven’t read any other comments yet, but I gotta say that Seattle’s Best is just more garbage from the biggest pusher of crappy coffee out there, Starbucks. It’s all we have on campus and it sucks so much that we got our own coffee maker for our office suite. I don’t drink the stuff at work, so I don’t know what they use for that. But at home, I only buy Dunkin’ Donuts. IMHO, it’s the tastiest coffee. In fact, I have to pick up a new bag on my way home. My John usually gets one of the more exotic types that Giant Eagle has under its house label of Market Fresh. I had some of the Kona and it was pretty good. I still prefer the DD brand, though.
mantis
@Max:
You forgot the godfathers of grunge, The Melvins, plus Mother Love Bone, members of which formed Pearl Jam after Andrew Wood died.
jibeaux
I get the Kirkland brand at Costco, which is fair-trade certified, roasted by Starbucks, and $10 for two pounds. I’m no connosieur (there’s no way I’m going to hit on the right spelling there, sorry), but I think it tastes fine.
Dreggas
I will give sound garden and Alice In Chains a pass
the others not so much.
Granted i liked most of it when i was younger but now looking back, well, it kinda sucked. Then again it was for the most part a fad pushed by the record companies as the next big thing.
R-Jud
@Tracy: This. Yet another argument for moving back to Chicago.
Alan
Starbucks is the Ellsworth Toohey of coffee.
Larsmacomb
Before entirely dismissing the Seattle’s Best line of coffee, you might want to try the Organic French Roast. In my assessment it is the best French roast that one can find in middling-quality grocery stores. Seriously. I am not making this up. I also do not doubt that some or even most of their other blends are terrible. But this one is not.
Dog is My Copilot
The only Starbucks brew I’ve tried that I really like is Arabian Mocha Sanani. Komodo Dragon Blend isn’t bad either. I’m no connoisseur either, but I like both of them. May have to try some of the others mentioned here – maybe I don’t know what I’m missing.
Butch
I get the Costco stuff, too, but to be honest I can’t drink any coffee unless I heavily doctor it with flavored creamer. I experimented for a while, going to one of the Starbucks wannabees when I was still working in the city. I still didn’t acquire a taste for the stuff but the guy at the counter (bar-something in coffee speak) always greeted me with “hi, Slick,” and now “Slick” is the name of one of my seven cats as a result.
Kanamit
Whenever I have to drink Seattle’s Best, I drown it in milk so I can barely taste the actual coffee. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks it’s terrible.
ruemara
I used to work in a bookstore that served seattle’s best in the coffee shop. Always had the smell of love seeking cat piss and possibly some of the taste. The only good flavor is the pumpkin spice holiday blend.
LarryB
If it weren’t for Starbucks everyone who lives outside of a big-city “little Italy” would still be drinking dishwater and praising its richness worth a second cup. I am grateful every day for the sea-change in American coffee culture that let’s me sneer at Starbucks. God bless ’em.
Max
@Dreggas: I still rock Pearl Jam and am bummed to not have been able to see them at the Outside Lands festival this past weekend.
I eagerly await their new album and the soundtrack that Eddie Vedder did for “Into the Wild” was extraordinary.
Karen
I bought a single serve coffee maker that came with samples of the different flavors available. My husband likes the “Donut Store” blend, but I prefer the “Kona” blend. They each have a ‘bite’, but not enough to take flesh.
Leo
@The Saff: Yes, Khaldi’s is excellent.
jibeaux
@LarryB:
This is similar to the plot of a South Park episode I saw years ago.
Crusty Dem
@Dreggas:
Seattle may have brought Starbucks to the world, but the coffee snobs here don’t drink the stuff. Frankly, any place who roasts their own and can give it to you fairly fresh can beat the best you can buy in a any chain store or supermarket. Here in the northwest, there are more than you can shake a stick at..
Karen
Really need that correction ability.
The coffee came with a Keurig coffee maker from Costco.
bob h
The “Kirkland” brand you get in Costco’s is really quite satisfactory.
Fwiffo
Dude, don’t tell me that. I was getting tea at the cafe in Borders and they asked me “Hey, donate a bag of coffee for the troops” (holding up a bag of Seattle’s Best beans) and I though to myself “Hey, sure, those guys deserve some fucking joe. It’s the least I can do.” So I bought a bag for the troops.
Now you’re telling me I got them something even worse than their government issue dirt. :-(
Roger Moore
@LarryB:
This. Well, this except that Peet’s was actually making a good cup of coffee before Starbucks and, in fact, Starbucks bought their coffee from Peet’s until they started
burningroasting their own. With that minor aside, I think that Starbucks is basically the McDonald’s of coffee. I once mentioned to my mother how bad I thought McDonald’s hamburgers are. She disagreed, and said that I just hadn’t had a chance to try any of the really lousy burgers she had eaten growing up, because McDonald’s had driven all those places out of business. The same thing is true for coffee fancy coffee; if your coffee can’t measure up to Starbucks, you aren’t going to stay in business.GReynoldsCT00
Apparently they do, it’s sold everywhere. Probably because people think it’s cool. Who knows. I remain a fan of Community Coffee. Thanks to their coffee club my cupboard always has a few bags in it.
HyperIon
@Crusty Dem: Thanks CD for trying to educate the non-PACNWers.
Personally I avoid grocery store coffee beans because one can never know the roast date, which is a pretty important piece of info.
CWD
@Max
Pixies and Sonic Youth are east coast bands, Boston and NY IIRC.
Screaming Trees should be on your list. “I Nearly Lost You” is one of the best rock songs from the 90’s – even if it was on the soundtrack of that horrible horrible movie.
Doctor Science
Ha! What do you know about bad coffee? Nuthin.
Here’s the scene for The Worst Coffee Ever:
You’re driving back from a week at the shore. You’ve been driving for 6 hours already because of the traffic. The kids can’t seem to get comfortable and unconscious in the back seat. It’s almost midnight, you’re at the last exit before the Tappan Zee Bridge, and you’re in a traffic jam. It’s a least another hour and 45 minutes from the other side of the bridge to home.
So you pull off at that last exit and look for coffee. You find one diner that’s still open, seedy and fluorescent. You buy two cups of coffee (one for the driver, one for the adult whose job it is to keep the driver awake).
It’s pale brown. I mean, I have seen darker dishwater. *That*, there, was the Worst Coffee Ever. It was bad, and it also lacked caffeine when we needed it most.
We might never have made it home except for the Dunkin Donuts in north Jersey.
CWD
SBC used to be the shit when they roasted it on Vashon Island. It was really sometheing special.
The only drawback was that roasting green coffee beans smell foul.
ironranger
“Do people actually drink that crap?” Only once.
LarryB
@Roger Moore: The point is that to change the culture, someone had to go national and put that latte into the strip malls of Podunk, USA. In that sense, your Mom’s right. Compared to Yuban, Starbucks is the shiznit. However, now that it’s come up I’ll go farther and defend Starbucks coffee in an absolute sense. Up until a couple of years ago, it was all too true: Starbucks coffee was watered down and tasteless. Then (surprise) they started losing market share. In the last year, I’ve noticed a definite improvement in the quality (of preparation, at least) in Starbucks stores. In fact it’s gotten good enough that it’s no longer the last resort when my wife and I are seeking coffee out-of-town.
Boston in the 80s
More to the point, the Pixies and Sonic Youth have absolutely nothing to do with grunge (though Cobain frequently cited the Pixies as an influence and copped the Pixies’ signature loud-soft-loud thing).
Max
@CWD: I loved that movie! It was a “grunge” chick flick. Who can forget the line… I was just nowhere near your neighborhood.
I still play that soundtrack (its in my car cd player right now), and love “I nearly lost you”.
Phyllis
Eight O’Clock Columbian Whole Bean. It’s the best. Yep, that Eight O’Clock from the long-defunct A&P stores.
I was drinking the Seattle’s Best stuff, and especially liked the Creme Brulee, until I realized that I literally stank of the stuff. It was coming out of my pores.
Crusty Dem
@HyperIon:
I’m not really a very good coffee snob (I like McDonald’s just fine), the best I’ve had is a good cup of Kona, but several local places here make coffee just about as good. The worst I’ve ever had was at a Starbucks in Boston; I was convinced the roast was 50% coffee, 50% Uniroyal, all thoroughly burnt, with unfiltered water straight from a tepid puddle in the Back Bay. Which is to say that it was very, very bad.
goblue72
@Max:
Sonic Youth is No Wave/noise rock who’s seminal is from the 80s. They aren’t Seattle grunge and they’re from NYC. Kim Gordon was probably getting smashed at CBGBs while Kurt Cobain was watching Romper Room. Not surprisingly, while trying to listen to Nirvana/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam songs these days is a painful experience, Sonic Youth’s 1988 Daydream Nation is still an 80’s rock masterwork.
The Pixies aren’t Seattle grunge, either. They’re from Boston and part of the late 80s Boston alternative rock scene that included Throwing Muses, Lemonheads, Blake Babies, & Dinosaur Jr. Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” wasn’t influenced by the Pixies – it was Kurt Cobain’s blatant rip-off of the Pixies sound in an attempt to write a Pixies-sounding song that would sell – he’s admitted as much. Not surprisingly, while trying to listen to Nirvana/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam songs these days is a painful experience, anything from the Pixies still blows most bands out the water.
shelley matheis
I’m a tea drinker in a coffee world.
But there are tea blends that have almost the same haunting-not-in-a-good-way.
Lapsang souchong. Always described as having a smokey flavor. Hoo-boy, does it ever. Take a whiff and it smells like it’s been sitting in a burnt-out hovel for a week.
Also not a fan of Earl Grey. The bergomant just overwhelms every other flavor.
So goes every other kind of ‘flavored’ tea. ‘Constant Comment’ and all that ilk. They always taste acrid and phony.
(I;m talking about black tea blends. Herb teas are another subject alltogether.)
My favorite black teas. Darjeeling, Irish Breakfast and Prince of Wales. Blends from Harney & Sons: Palm Court, Supreme Breakfast and Big Red Sun. And their tins make great pencil holders.
Joel
Did you check the date on the coffee?
Some vendors (like virtually all of the local Seattle and Portland brands) regular restock their beans with fresh roasts and discard the old ones. Others, and I can assume that Seattle’s Best is one of them, keep their product out for a long ass time before it “expires”.
The easy way to tell if the coffee is any good is to french press it. If the grind bubbles and rises, it’s good. Otherwise, watch out!
danimal
McDonalds makes a pretty decent cup of joe. The hamburgers are mediocre and leave a godzilla-sized carbon footprint, though.
mark
I’m a coffee snob of the highest order and the best I’ve ever had (been to Jamaica and Costa Rica several times) I ordered from http://www.mauicoffeeroasters.com. The peaberry will give your mouth the Big O.
PGE
@shelley matheis: I love lapsang souchong. I like Irish Breakfast, but if I need a jolt to wake me up in the morning, and have run out of coffee, it’s lapsang souchong for me.
Dr. Squid
As a vet, can you go to the nearest Army PX just to wash that taste out?
asiangrrlMN
http://www.deansbeans.com, bitchez. ‘Nuff said.
Max
@goblue72: I never said that Sonic Youth and the Pixie’s were from Seattle, I said they were part of what was considered “grunge rock”.
Case in point…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge_music
I disagree with you about Nirvana/Soundgarden/Pearl Jam… but that is what makes music so personal and subjective.
sacrablue
@Indylib: can’t be as bad as Air Force coffee. Years ago, during pregnancy, I used to drink it to control certain side effects of the pregnancy vitamins that were prescribed, especially when they decided I was anemic. Within two hours, Air Force coffee got the job done!
Barbara
You might want to consider patronizing your relatively near neighbors:
http://www.centralcoffeeroasters.com/newfiles/main.html
I’ve had the Ethiopian Longberry Harrar and it’s really good. I try to stop here once a year, but they do ship.
I also like the Rwandan coffee I recently got from Starbucks.
Steeplejack
This is a synchronistic thread.
I hope this doesn’t debase the tone too much, but does anyone have a recommendation for a good instant coffee?
I drink about 3-5 cups of coffee a week. I can take it or leave it, but sometimes it’s nice to have a cup on a slow morning when I’m thinking deep thoughts or doinking around on the Web. I was very satisfied with the stuff I was getting from Trader Joe’s, but they stoppped carrying it. I went without for a month or so, but now I find myself occasionally jonesin’ for a cup of joe. I have a French press and have thought about getting half a pound of something from Starbucks and making a real cup, but I just don’t drink enough to go to all that hassle. And I’m lazy.
This weekend I got the smallest possible jars of Folgers and Maxwell House to try them out. Had the Folgers and was underwhelmed. Might be able to tweak it by adjusting the strength of the mix, but it really pales in comparison to the Trader Joe’s stuff.
So can anyone give me a rec on a good instant coffee? I don’t care if it’s exotic or expensive, because it will probably last me a good while.
And, oh, yeah, I’ll go ahead and preëmptively accept the forthcoming abuse about how I’m a barbarian, instant is not real coffee, I might as well drink Juan Valdez’s burro’s sweat, yadda yadda yadda.
sparky
oooh a cafe thread–agin.
buying beans, counter culture (NC) or intelligentsia (IL)–prolly same shipping time to WV. freshness is IMO the greatest determinant after the beans themselves. i agree with the folks upthread about starbucks. say what you will about them, they brought passble espresso to places where you otherwise couldn’t get it. and while they went horribly downhill in the last couple of years they have gotten better, in that i don’t get an undrinkable espresso there any longer.
but since this post came about by virtue of the same problem i run into sometimes–running out of beans–i say go with the peets at the market (publix here) because it seems fresher and more reliable than the starbucks. forget the other stuff because it often has sat on the shelf for too long. i bought a bag of organic something or other at the winn-dixie a couple of weeks back and it was so bad i almost took it back to the store, not for a refund but to tell them to yank it off the shelf. of course the mistake was mine for thinking i should buy organic beans at a winn dixie in the first place. duh.
Comrade Darkness
I used to like Seattle’s Best rather a lot years ago, before Starbucks bought them out. Now I think they used it as a brand to dump the beans even they can’t stand to sell under their own name.
We’ve been patronizing a local roaster, who is . . . okay. Frankly, if the coffee is medium to good, rather than fantastic, it makes it easier to drink less.
I had coffee in portugal that brought me tears of pleasure. I probably don’t need that in my life every day, really, child of puritanicals like I am.
Dog is My Copilot
@Steeplejack: Starbucks has an instant coffee now, called Via, I believe. I have not tried it and don’t claim to be familiar with instant coffee. Funny story, though. I was in my usual Starbuck’s one morning and said, “You’re carrying instant coffee now, huh?” The person behind the counter said (in a somewhat snooty tone), “It’s not instant; it’s ready brew.” Okay, whatever.
Comrade Darkness
@shelley matheis: Gah, I have the same. SO loves lapsang sushong (spelling fail). Can’t stand it. Or earl grey, same. I did, however, pick up some bergamot-flavored chocolate from italy at my local coop. Oh, that’s nice. Really nice.
The Golux
Central Connecticut alert: Get thee to Daybreak Coffee Roasters in Glastonbury. A bit pricey, but they roast their own. Elliot’s Blend is damn fine everyday coffee.
Comrade Darkness
I have to link to this cartoon from ill will press
Indylib
@Barbara:
I just got some Rwanda from Starbucks yesterday and made some this morning. I though it was excellent. I don’t happen to think Starbucks tastes particularly burnt and I have tried coffee from roasters all over the country. But taste is a subjective thing. If you don’t like Starbucks don’t drink it.
Cain
@Dreggas:
Granted i liked most of it when i was younger but now looking back, well, it kinda sucked. Then again it was for the most part a fad pushed by the record companies as the next big thing.
It totally was.. it was almost like everything changed in a single day. They called “Alt Rock” or whatever. I was only 21 at the time and hated the music. I liked the 80s stuff.. now of course, the 80s stuff lasted a lot longer than grunge.
Stupid record companies. They destroy their product more than anybody else does. If it wasn’t for hte fact that the up and coming you don’t know any better they’d have gone out of business.
cain
BSR
Add my vote to the Intelligentsia comments above. Amazing stuff! It’s not cheap to mail-order it to Denver on a regular basis, but every time I try to find something local, I’m disappointed.
Damn you, Intelligentsia! Your Black Cat & Diablo blends have spoiled every other coffee for me!
Screamin' Demon
Drinking club soda to get the taste of bad coffee out of your mouth. Jeez, how prissy.
Worst coffee ever: Franklin County Jail, Pasco, Washington. Got a DUI at 7:30 p.m. on December 30, 1985. Woke up in the drunk tank at 5:15 the next morning. Guy came by and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. Why not, I said. Head was pounding and the cottonmouth was brutal.
I shoulda declined. Shit tasted like someone had soaked a brown crayon in hot water. Came in a green plastic mug with an old cigarette burn on the rim. Yum.
YellowJournalism
Hubby’s friend at work imports coffee from Panama. Everyone we’ve given a sample to says it ruins other coffees for them.
I’ve always found Seattle’s Best to be crap, though. That’s all they sold on campus where I went to university. I preferred going to all the little hometown places for my lattes and other caffeine fixes. They usually had their own brew and didn’t burn it like Starbucks and other big chains tend to do. Although, I will say Startbucks improved a little bit for a while after that three-day training session they shut down for some months back.
Comrade Darkness
Ah, someone already went to Foamy. That’s what I get for actually working today.
Venti is the only one that doesn’t mean large.
HyperIon
@Crusty Dem:
Starbucks IS burnt. I used to work for a company that consulted with Starbucks extensively to “chemically characterize” their various beans. It was pretty easy to see when we analyzed samples from lots of different vendors and with various roasting times, temps, etc. When comparing them, ALL Starbucks products clustered with the over-roasted types. Interestingly SBC had some products that did and some that did not.
Personally I do virtually all of my coffee drinking at home, using freshly roasted quality beans and a Mr. Coffee machine. It’s always yummy and costs about 25 cents a cup. I don’t understand paying multiple dollars for (badly) flavored water.
Roger Moore
The best coffee I’ve ever had was some of that really weird civet coffee (the kind that’s passed through an animal’s digestive tract) that a coworker brought back from Vietnam. I was prepared to be underwhelmed, but it’s damn fine coffee. Other good coffee:
Kopi C at any street corner stand in Singapore. Those guys really know how to make a cup of coffee.
La Mill in Silver Lake. Those guys are absolutely nuts. It’s the only sit down restaurant I’ve ever been in where the coffee menu is longer than the food menu, and they offer your choice of 5 different brewing methods.
CaseyL
Yes, Starbucks bought SBC many years ago. Those of us who loved SBC mourned that it would soon taste like Starbucks. Starbucks promised they would not change how SBC roasted its beans and, of course, broke that promise: it wasn’t interested in acquiring the product, just the market share. I don’t know if Starbucks now over-roasts SBC’s beans like it does its own, or just uses SBC to dump its lower quality beans, SBC is not what it used to be.
Here’s a funny: 3 years ago, while traveling in Prague/Budapest, my aunt and I found out that Nescafe (Swiss-owned, I think) has a line of coffee shops about as ubiquitous in Europe as Starbucks is here. And those cafes serve Nescafe instant – one of about 6 varieties, from a mild “breakfast” roast to a deep dark “espresso” roast. And they’re all *good*! I really recommend the stuff, esp. for people who don’t want to wait to make fresh brewed.
bedtimeforbonzo
“it wasn’t interested in acquiring the product, just the market share.”
Capitalism at work.
I don’t drink coffee but hear a lot of good things about McDonald’s brew.
From what I’m reading here, it wasn’t the recession that ruined Starbucks so much as it was the product.
Roger Moore
@LarryB:
That’s not the big complaint; the problem is that they burn their coffee. What’s the point in paying big bucks for super-premium beans if you’re going to roast them so dark you can’t taste their distinctive flavor over the burnt taste?
GusThePrimate
Undoubtedly, your surroundings influence your opinion of food and drink, including coffee. Just about the best coffee experience I’ve had was years ago at a beachside cafe in the British Virgin Islands. The coffee served there was sensational. So, I asked about it. It was instant Nescafe, allowed to steep for one minute before stirring. Very important to steep it, said the guy.
So, John, to improve your coffee-drinking experience, I recommend debarking to a small Caribbean island to have breakfast on the beach while you watch the sun rise over the dazzling blue waters.
GusThePrimate
Undoubtedly, your surroundings influence your opinion of food and drink, including coffee. Just about the best coffee experience I’ve had was years ago at a beachside cafe in the British Virgin Islands. The coffee served there was sensational. So, I asked about it. It was instant Nescafe, allowed to steep for one minute before stirring. Very important to steep it, said the guy.
So, John, to improve your coffee-drinking experience, I recommend debarking to a small Caribbean island to have breakfast on the beach while you watch the sun rise over the dazzling blue waters.
BoulaBoula
Seriously…..Check out the Cardinal Coffee web site for great coffee shipped on the day they roast it. They’re out of Portland http://www.cardinalcoffee.com and they ship for free!!!!
CafeMan
John, If you really want some good coffee with good karma. http://www.cafemam.com/store
The Tango blend is my favorite but if you like French roast. Check there darker roasts. And if you ever make it out to SF – Blu Bottle is sublime. Bella Donavan. Pure coffee crack!
bellatrys
Huh, I thought I was the only one who had the “ew, did they rinse the dishrag in this?” reaction to Seattle’s Best – I’ve never made it from the pot myself, but back when I could get down to Nashua I used to go the Borders coffee shop and they switched it to a Seattle’s Best from being an inhouse eclectic mix (they had mostly regional coffee lines and Tazo teas) and it was just nasty. Nasty enough to be a disincentive to shop there, where before the coffee shop had been an *incentive* to go there instead of the B&N down the street, in fact.
Unfortunately when I get coffee these days I usually get some eclectic local organic blends from the A Market (local hippie store) where they have a grinding machine, and basically go with whatever smells nicest that I can afford. Which is not particularly helpful for anyone not in southern NH, I’m afraid.
McDonalds is now serving Newman’s, btw.
goblue72
@Max: I know. I was objecting to Sonic Youth and Pixies being labeled as part of “grunge” – they aren’t. Sonic Youth waaaaaaay pre-dates the grunge sound/scene out of Seattle by like almost a decade. Noise rock – yes. Grunge – no. Their connection to grunge is mainly in their support of the Seattle grunge groups.
Ditto for the Pixies – they aren’t part of “grunge” – contemporaries, yes, but part of the scene/sound/etc – no. Their connection, such as it is, in this case, is as source material for Kurt Cobain to rip-off because he was tired of not selling any albums, which seriously interfered with his ability to feed his heroin habit.
Oh, and Eddie Vedder isn’t fit to carry Black Francis’ jockstrap. ;p
bellatrys
A number of local coffee shops serve this brand – Java Tree, roasted about a mile from me. It’s not bad imo (unless they water it down too much.)
Green Mountain is another larger line from my area, notable now b/c they are big into eco/sustainable/green/fair trade, but for which I will always have a soft spot because they made the Mobil station coffee – which was the only alternative to Dunkins when I was working the night shift – drinkable at long last.
–Don’t get me started on DD. Just – nope. Not going there.
Roger
I’ve made a great pot… and a lousy pot… from the same batch of beans. Having quality beans that are not burnt is key (and is far too often a problem) – but it is only the first step in a quality cup. Some chains vary significantly from location to location.
Seattle’s Best, on the other hand, has been consistently poor. And general rule… watch out for anything that brags loudly about being the best. …”doth protest too much” and all of that.
Crusty Dem
@HyperIon:
I’ve actually had good Starbucks, too. It’s just pretty variable, I (like most here) think they’ve improved greatly over the last few years, but even a good cup of Starbucks is not as good as what the small roasters can do. Which makes sense when you think about the volumes they’re dealing with.. Still, if you’re in a supermarket and can pick out a non-burned variety, well, you could do a whole lot worse.
shelley matheis
TimmyB
If you REALLY want great coffee, roast your own coffee beans. This coffee roaster cost me $89. http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.freshroast.php Then get some green African coffees, and roast them for 4 minutes. Makes great coffee. Plus green coffee keeps for a long time.
Simone
Why does Starbucks persist with their full city roast?
I don’t think I’ve ever – literally ever – heard a good thing about their drip coffee brews, and personally – I worked there a summer and have bought cups when desperate since – hate it. These kinds of coffee threads pop up all over the place, and the consensus is always the same: Starbucks’ coffee tastes terrible. It’s simultaneously weak, bitter, burnt, bodiless and acrid. I have yet to hear anyone rave about their drip coffee, and yet – they persist. [It reminds me of Patton Oswalt’s take on Paz, the easter egg dye company. “Fuck YOU! We’re Paz! We’re not going to change a God Damn Thing!”]
(I will say I’ve had probably – literally – one good cup there a decade ago, an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe).
There is so much venom and ill-will generated by Starbucks just by the quality of their primary product that I wonder about their long term viability, actually.
chuck
In San Francisco, Starbucks is marketing this “Clover” coffee, which is its own special little brand of coffee, made in individual with a vacuum brewer that according to one of the baristas, costs more than all their espresso machines put together. When it started, the brewer came with its own specially-trained barista, but now it just takes one of the baristas to babysit the machine which is of course on the other end of the bar from the espresso machines. And naturally each cup of this super-duper-special coffee costs twice as much as a regular cup, but it’s all so special and crafted and so forth, so I decided what the hell, I’ll try a cup.
It’s even *MORE* burnt than the regular stuff from starbucks. It was absolutely undrinkable.
Comrade Darkness
@Simone: I know people who loves them some Starbucks. They go all glassy eyed when discussing it like cultists. It’s loaded with caffeine. Based on the tremors a half cup gives me, I’m estimating one cup has more addictive compounds than one pot of my equal exchange stuff.
But, follow one of these friends into a starbucks and what do they do? The ask for extra space in the cup, pour in a 1/4 cup of half and half, several tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon powder and chocolate powder. THATS why they love it, it actually still tastes like “coffee” over the tongue coating effects of cow fat and sweeteners.
I’ve had it on ice once when very desperate (like must drive to see parent in hospital and falling asleep at wheel). It’s okay black iced as well. As in, the cold mutes the taste down to normal. The buzz tho, I can’t usually take it, it’s like epilepsy.
fliegr
goblue72 is entirely correct. As long as we’re adding Screaming Trees and Mother Love Bone, don’t forget the almighty Tad, whose physical appearance closely matched the weight of their music. I can still listen to Melvins/Tad/early Soundgarden probably because they were further out on the stylistic spectrum than Pearl Jam, but the more mainstream “grunge” hasn’t aged well.
Comrade Darkness
You don’t need an expensive machine for that super amazing classy coffee. I made this a few times but it uses a TON of raw material per cup… Warning, this is from memory: You grind up half a bag of coffee of your choice (I think drip grind), put it in a sealable glass container, add a bit more water than the grounds and leaving it in the fridge for 72 hours. Strain and serve, adding water to taste.
With no sugar, this tastes like the most amazing coffee ice cream. Every bitter flavor is left out, basically, just pure coffee goodness.
If I find the official version, I’ll post. Google is letting me down here…
Tim (The Oher One)
Too bad there’s no Trader Joes in WV Cole. You’d be fat city in the coffee dept.
Frank
A&P is not defunct. It’s SuperFresh now. Some kind of antitrust thing. The company that owns SuperFresh is the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. I heart my local SuperFresh–I’ve shopped there for 24 years.
http://www.aptea.com/stores.asp
(Gosh, I didn’t realize until I was writing this that they own Pathmark now.)
As for coffee, Starbucks coffee is burned. They got too big too fast and abandoned their ruts.
Good coffee? One word. Gevalia.
Kristine
After the last coffee thread, I ordered some Community Coffee, and wound up joining their coffee club. I wonder what I’ll wind up trying now.
FunkyDuck
For great coffee, choose any of the “third-wave” roasters:
Stumptown Coffee (Portland)
Intelligentsia (Chicago)
Ritual Coffee Roasters (SF)
Zoka (Seattle)
Counter Culture Coffee (North Carolina)
They do coffee at another level than most roasters, and it makes a difference.
Keith G
Well getting ready to make cup # 6 today (I brew by the cup) of Seattle’s Best, 6th Ave Bistro ground. It’s good.
I went to the store to try some Pete’s, but shit, the price stunned me. S/B was on a special. Not as good as my reg drink, Sumatra Mandheling, but still tasty.
Steeplejack
@Dog is My Copilot:
I looked at the Starbucks next to my B&N a week or so, just on the off chance that they might carry instant, and I didn’t see any. Maybe I missed the trendy packaging or something. Thanks for the tip; I’ll check again.
Steeplejack
@CaseyL, @GusThePrimate:
Will try the Nescafé and steep for a minute before stirring. Thanks for the tips.
Robert Savell
If you don’t mind paying shipping costs, this little store
roasts the best my wife and I ever had.
http://www.roosterbrother.com/store/
Damn that sure sounds like a paid promotional announcement. But just like the coffee. Really.
Morfydd
SBC was pretty awful long before Starbucks bought them. However, they owned Torrefazione, a very-Italian-style shop that was pretty good. I think Starbucks killed the Torrefazione shops but kept the line for ground coffee.
Starbucks has always been the McDonalds of espresso, but as was said upthread, they were a godsend outside of Seattle where you couldn’t get decent coffee before that. Or even in Seattle, before they helped the good coffee culture grow. I grew up watching my parents drink Yuban and Dunkin Donuts coffee, both of which are foul.
I know people drink Starbucks drip coffee and buy their beans, but I don’t understand why. Their strength, such as it is, is in their espresso drinks. Although my parents tell me of some legendary 80/20 brew they used to sell years ago…
As far as instant coffee, Nescafe Gold as sold in Europe makes me really happy. The stuff by the same name I’ve found in the states is either really bitter or presweetened to death, but the little packets here are strong but smooth.
CDT
As another who finds Starbucks to taste both bitter and burned, I recommend illy Italian, medium grind.
Barbara
Taste is really individual, isn’t it? I really dislike Illy, but I like Starbucks espresso. As for the non-espresso, I have bought the Rwanda and a few other of what they advertise as their higher end, and I have liked those too.
I have had Intelligentsia Coffee through a local coffee shop that closed and reopened further away because its rent became too high (boo hiss) and it was very, very good. Very rich without being too charred.
LB
Starbucks coffee is burned on purpose. In drinks with a lot of milk and sugar normal coffee taste is ‘buried’ unless you add a lot of it. Burned coffee taste still breaks through. Heard it from someone who works there, I assume it’s true.
crshedd
if you are ever in sacramento, stop by java city. my favorite one is downtown at 18th and m.
they have updated their look from when i first started going to java city in 1987. now they have that ‘cool’ coffeeshop look that is much too commercial. but the coffee is good. nice outdoor seating.
Dream On
Starbucks is very poor indeed – and more expensive then a grand cocktail. Seattle’s Best is awful – everybody in Seattle knows it. Any “sexpresso” stand (a new Hooters-like bikini-served coffee trend) has far better coffee. Usually cheaper, always sexier, friendlier too.
For home, I like Green Mountain Sumatra blend coffee. Kills me that I can’t find it in North Seattle.
Mac from Oregon
Twenty or more years ago, I truly enjoyed going to Seattle and hitting the Starbucks #1 near Pike St Market, and then the competition, SBC, moved in a block away and they were damn fine too. Since then, Starbucks got too big too fast and has lost the care that they had, same for SBC.
McDonalds has a decent cuppa, its all right for travel because of the manic consistency of the company.
For home, I like my Senseo single cup, Sumatra Blend. Good stuff, but a little on the expensive side. I used to drink 2 pots of coffee a day, and am down to one cup every other day or so. I am also retired and have no longer the need to stay up for a Graveyard shift of monitoring instruments.
Still the Northwest has it goin’ on with coffee. Its always a good time for coffee here.
bellatrys
Frank, yeah, I second you on the Gevalia – got some as a present last month, and mmm! – but it’s outside my price range for daily fuel.
(The worst, bar none, I’ve ever had was something called “Hotel & Restaurant Blend” that this 24-hour printshop I worked at got from a coffee service. It sort of clumped when you opened the packets…)
mak
In Philly: La Colombe Torrefaction.
Da Bomb
I admit that I have several different cups of Seattle’s Best. It’s not that bad. But I have never had the Saturday Blend.
But whatever coffee they use to serve at Fox was horrible.
Absolutely horribe. It tasted like watered down motor oil.
W. Kiernan
That bitter oil in that coffee of yours is soluble in ethyl alcohol. It has to be a pretty strong solution, though; 43% works well.
Now you can’t really get away with that, second thing in the morning (first thing being, drinking the coffee), when it’s 6:35 AM and you’ve got to go to work. Hence, “Saturday Blend.”
Tom Levenson
As a Berkeley kid, I’ve been drinking Peet’s since they kept my mum’s favorite blend written on a 3×5 card at the Walnut Square shop. Hers: 70% Top Blend and 30% French Roast. Top Blend has gone the way of the bean counters (sorry) since Alfred Peet died (a marvelous, quite mild mixture made terrific when given spine by the FR), so I’ve moved on to this really nice every-day coffee: 70% New Guinea Highlands 30% Italian Roast. For espresso machines (I have a coffee center at my office), I move the ratio to 50-50.
For Sundays it’s Peet’s (not charbux) Arabian Mocha Sanani (not the mocha java blend). Strong — so the chocolate overtones come through loud and clear.
If I’m out on the road, I look for the best local I can find, though I find that my various Peet’s outlets in Boston do best when you get them to make you an Americano with about half the water they usually use — not the bitterness of their brewed-in-bulk coffee, but all the punch.
And yes, when you grow up in Berkeley you do become a coffee snob.
ibc
For great coffee, choose any of the “third-wave” roasters…They do coffee at another level than most roasters, and it makes a difference.
Better yet, find a local roaster–talking about “who roasts the best coffee” is a little like talking about who has the best corn on the cob. It’s whoever’s closest and has even the slightest clue how to go about it. Buy in small batches, use it up quickly, and never ever grind it until you’re ready brew it.
http://www.sidamocoffeeandtea.com/
http://www.thirdcoastcoffee.com/
Don
N+1 for Dean’s Beans (if you’re anywhere near Northampton, MA)…also, their radio spots are a hoot! I’m fortunate to live in a place where there are *two* coffee places on Main Street that roast their own coffee or get it from a small local roaster. The folks at Prime Roast in Keene, NH have been roasting their own coffee for about 15 years, and Terranova is a local micro-roaster. Either way, I simply refuse to go into Starcrud’s (I’d rather give my money to people I know). Green Mountain is also pretty good, and I’ve always been impressed with Eight o’Clock and Bustela when I *have* to get grocery store coffee. From the comments on this list, I’ll have to find an excuse to give Peet’s a try.
Jason
Intelligentsia in Chicago is awesome. Metropolis Coffee in Chicago is awesome. Counter Culture in North Carolina is awesome.
Folks….Starbucks has, and has had for years, roasts that are not “burned’ nor dark. Their coffee was not watered down. House Blend tastes just the same now as it used to years ago…thats the point of Starbucks….consistency. It’s why they removed the real espresso machines and replaced them with the fully automatic machines…consistency. Pike Place is a good coffee. They have plenty of good coffees.
To the poster who claimed that McDonalds “Premium Roast” is good: your taste buds are dead.
As to the Starbucks Clover. The Clover is a really expensive machine….its not a vacuum brewer. Intelligentsia in Chicago has them and it takes a lot training to use them right. I’d expect the button pushers at Starbucks (they arent Baristas) don’t have enough training and knowledge to use them correctly. Properly made coffee from a Clover machine is fantastic.
Jason
round guy
I found Costa Rican coffee pretty weak and unimpressive.
Seattle’s Best was a favorite when we lived in Portland and before Starbucks bought it; tis crap now. Peet’s is also good stuff, but I highly recommend larrysbeans.com—a great assortment of truly phenomenal coffees, all fair trade and organic.
Even their decaf blends are tremendous (yes, I’m a bit of a caffeine wuss at times).