Great normal whole bean coffee?
 

I'm interested in hearing opinions on which whole bean coffees we should try.

I'm not wanting to start a debate about Keurigs or Nespressos, or pods vs. beans...

We have a integrated coffee maker/grinder we love and intent to continue to use it.

I used to have great luck buying beans at Costco, but over the past few months they're dramatically reduced the options to the point where I want to explore other options.

I'm not really interested in joining a "club" where they send me beans months, but rather in something I can buy as needed. I also see no need to spend a fortune for beans that have been fed to mountain goats and then gathered after they emerge from the other end and other similar exoticities. Just good solid flavorable beans.

Deep flavor is critical, fair trade is great but not an absolute requirement.

What do you all like?

Great normal whole bean coffee?
 

I really enjoy Zabars whole beans. You can order online as needed. The have many varieties so a good chance that one might appeal to you.

How about just getting a pound from your local Starbucks? That's what I do. Nothing fancy, but it's fine. I like their darker roasts.

Just noticed you're in Chicago. Ignore my Starbucks thought and run, do not walk, to either Intelligentsia (on Broadway at about Wellington, downtown, or in the Merchandise Mart) or Metropolis (on I think Granville by Sheridan). Metropolis roasts its beans on site, and Intelligentsia is similarly awesome. Another excellent option is Peet's Coffee on North and Sheffield (in the strip mall). Peets has a good selection and they will make you a taste of any kind you want.

All three are exclusively fair trade (or more).

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/
http://www.metropoliscoffee.com/
http://www.peets.com

I more than second Metropolis and Intelligentsia, as well as Gaslight and Buzz Killer.

Gimme Coffee and Atomic Cafe

I use to roast green beans and blend my own for my Gaggia. I'm now an unapologetic fan of Nespresso. It is 90% as good as of the best I ever achieved .......

A local store (actually a couple of them) roasts in the store daily, so everything they have is usually no more than a couple days old. If you have a grocery store that does that, give them a shot.

Starbucks is burned, sorry. Peets however is a good choice, but I may do mail order since I'll kill myself if I need to go anywhere near North/ Sheffield.

I guess you missed my line about "I don't want to talk about Nespresso..."

Thanks for all the ideas - Intelligentsia is also a good option.

I think a taste test is in order.

Then try the Starbucks blonde roast. Peet's is worth the in person trip (just take the red line) because they have this handy wheel at the cash register that lets you choose taste characteristics (roast, acidity, body, origin) and recommends a few varieties. And they'll make you a taste in store.

If you really don't want to go there, and want to order Peet's, get Arabian Mocha Sanani and don't look back. If that's too spendy, get Mocha Java.

Agreed!

No need to be rude when others are trying to help.:td:

Costco is limiting their fresh roast beans selection...

Last time they raised their price I went with CoffeeAM,com

Great selection, $5.95 on the ship, good fresh coffee beans.

Several years ago I saw a Cook's Illustrated review of coffees that rated Eight O'Clock coffee very highly. I've bought it ever since and have always enjoyed it. No need (for me, anyway) to buy anything more expensive.

We have recently been getting coffee from Justcoffee.coop in Madison, WI. Very good coffee, a variety of blends and I think all is fair trade. We particularly like "Bike Fuel" and "Cabin Fever" blends. Fast shipping also.

Buy freshly roasted from a local roaster , I find that after 6-8 weeks after roasting the taste goes downhill .

The beans you buy in supermarkets could have been roasted months if not years before you get them ..

Intelligentsia and Metropolis say that the flavor deteriorates after just a week or two.

Years seems excessive, but weeks or months is plausible.

I'm a fan of Indonesian, and I've been drinking Peet's 'Garuda Blend' for 30 years off & on. I've had better, but rarely. Here's a link for the adjectives: http://www.coffeereview.com/review.cfm?ID=1453 I like Trader Joe's Sumatra Lintong too, and it's a H*ll of a lot cheaper.

I just picked up a terrific Costa Rican coffee at Costco. My local Costco cycles through different coffee beans from around the world and we've been happy with them all.

Do you have Trader Joe's? Joe's Bay Blend is a really nice coffee.

Trader Joe's Bay Blend if you like dark roast.

Trader Joe’s – Organic Fair Trade Breakfast.Blend if you like mellower coffee with all those pedigrees.

At TJ's prices, you could try some of their other roasts to see what you like.

Edit: Looks like Michael El beat me to this recc. :D

My local Whole Foods carries both Intelligentsia and Metropolis. Certainly not cheap, but I do like the Redline Espresso. We have friends who love Intelligentsia, so we bring them some when we pop over to their house for a casual dinner, instead of the usual bottle of wine.

i am a total fan of audubon coffee, roasted by the rogers family in california.

pleases PM me if you intend to try it out, as i get a bonus if i refer you.

Yeah, it's less expensive if you buy it direct and not at Whole Paycheck.

That said, I think $12-17/lb is the going rate for high quality coffee these days.

Did some drinking with the Rodgers boys (Jim & John) in the old days. They were hooked up with Costco & building roasters at each store. They were always nervous since Costco was 80% of their biz. It's good to see they've branched out. I like their regular coffee and buy it a lot. It's priced well in 5lb bags.

I have been ordering my espresso from atomic cafe. Their shipping policy is in line with their roasting schedule to ensure freshness.

http://www.atomicafe.com/policies.html

:) ^

I live in Australia some supermarkets here will sell any old crap , including coffee roasted in Europe and then sent by sea to here !!!!

I just looked at a bag of whole bean EIGHT O'CLOCK coffee, it has a "best used by" date--so this gives you a rough idea of how long it's been on the shelf.

How does that give you any idea when it was packaged, though? I mean, you don't know whether the "best used by" date is stamped for 2 weeks after packaging, or 52 weeks... right?

I've got to 2nd (or is it 3rd or 4th by now?!) the Intelligentsia recommendation. I had the extreme luck of living in The Heritage at Randolph and Garland (aka right around the corner from the Loop Intelligentsia) and getting my morning fix there is one of the things I miss the most about Chicago. I have a chemex (actually bought it at that very store) and I get the beans from a place by my NYC apt that stocks Intelligensia beans, but it's still not the same!

Yes, when I had easy access to a Peet's store in Portland, Garuda Blend was my favorite.

Now that I'm in Minneapolis, and Peet's is hard to find, I go with local roaster Peace Coffee's blends.

Trager Brothers in Charlottesville, Va. All organic and fair trade. Stumbled on them during a stopover. They ship as well. tbcroasters.com

When I lived in Columbus, OH, Stauf's was a great local coffee house / roaster.

It looks like free shipping all this month.

http://www.staufs.com/default.aspx

in italy, expresso beans are robusto. that is a different plant and flavor from arabica. robusto is very productive, and the beans used for the likes of maxwell house, etc.most fine coffees are aribica.

no one has mentioned the water they use in their coffee. makes a huge difference. RO and distilled are probably best. we have a double filter, and the difference in the coffee taste is considerable between when using the filter water instead of plain tap water. i have considered buying a RO machine to further improve the taste.

As a long time home roaster my recommendation is to find a local roaster that knows his trade. Just doing a quick search in the Chicago area I found a few that got good reviews and it has the added bonus of supporting a local small business. If you are looking for a national brand that you can pick up without too much fuss then I would put another vote in for Peet's coffee. They seem to do a good job of roasting and seem to use a higher quality bean than most of the larger roasters. I could talk for days on the virtues of using good tasting water and making sure you get it hot enough (most coffee makers fall a few degrees short) but that is a thread for another day.

i stopped reading there

Surprised to see this as I haven't heard of anyone suggesting that all Italian expresso is robusta or of any Italian brands being 100% robustA - it would be a highly astringent and somewhat bitter brew. It's added - I would have thought in say around a max of 15% / 85% robusta / arabica. It is predominantly for crema and astringency and cost reduction.

Are you aware of some 100% robusta brands - as I've not heard of any before?

I agree with using filtered water. It really does improve coffee.

Both of you: espresso, not expresso.

Gfunkdave
Chief Proofreader

I'm also a fan of Trader Joes' coffee beans. Their Trader Joe's "Joe" Medium roast is really good stuff.

I hope you are on the pedant register ......

You are quite right of course .... but in mitigation I was just following orders .....

I've successfully evaded the pedant police for many years now!

Great normal whole bean coffee?
 

For plain old daily coffee beans we used to buy eight o clock in any of their varieties. Decent coffee without the gourmet pricing. We got a Kuerig and stopped getting it. Now they're making pods too.