my much better half is a coffee drinker. as for me, not so much so. i will, however, drink coffee on occasion.

for the most part, i make her coffee in the morning with our Hamilton Beach BrewStation. i have recently started buying specialty coffees that are significantly more expensive - twice the price, half the size. still, the cost per cup/cost per day is not very significant.

to me, this is a lot like wine in that i don't really notice a big difference unless there is a significant disparity. i would actually say that coffee is far less distinguishable. she seems to notice a difference which is good enough reason for me to continue buying premium coffee - 100% kona, panama esmeralda, etc.

realizing that what i am spending on coffee now is not truly consequential, i looked at other specialty coffees. after reading an FT thread on Hawaii, i found a link for coffeereview.com. from there i saw high ratings for both Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and PT's Coffee Roasting among others. one of the featured Green Mountain coffees (KHC) was $7.69 for 10oz whereas one of the featured PT's coffees (Pan. Es.) was $37.99 for 12oz.

1. money aside, is there a noticeable difference in these coffees?
2. can anyone recommend these or other specialty coffees that are definitely worth the price?
3. is the coffee in any way compromised by brewing it in the HB machine, and if so is there a better machine that takes up a comparable amount of space?

TIA