<p>Just borught a coffee maker that grinds and drips in one step. It was an eye openner, we have been on the instant before. Thought we should indulge ourselves as an empty nester.</p>
<p>Any suggestion of coffee beans? We are in the process testing it out, Trader Joe’s Ethiopian tastes good, but is it worth the $20/12 oz for the 100% Hawaii Kona?</p>
<p>Any inputs?</p>
<p>If you can get 12 ounces of 100% Kona coffee for $20, that’s an excellent price… We go to Kona regularly and always get requests to bring the real stuff back.</p>
<p>My husband puts flavoring syrup in his coffee and claims it then makes no difference at all what kind of coffee he uses. I buy him whatever beans are on sale. </p>
<p>Closer to Christmas Starbucks sells a sampler set of multiple kinds of beans… might be worth a try.</p>
<p>Starbuck’s “Breakfast Blend” is wonderful. It has a heavenly aroma, and smooth taste. We have even found it for sale at Wal-Mart.</p>
<p>For everyday use, we use the Breakfast Blend (starbucks) available at Smart n Final, as well as Costco (under a Costco/roasted by Starbucks label), but if you want to splurge on the best coffee on the planet, get your hands on some Intelligentsia coffee: [About</a> Us | Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea](<a href=“http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/about/about-us]About”>http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/about/about-us)</p>
<p>Costco San Francisco French Roast, 3# for about $12 is our favourite and guests always ask what it is. We are in the PNW, so strong coffee is a must and this is strong.</p>
<p>We’ve been grinding beans for over 30 years and, to be honest, I’ve pretty much settled on Dunkin Donuts beans as being consistently excellent and a decent value, especially when they run their frequent 2 pound specials. </p>
<p>A lot of beans are just awful, starting with any coffee that has any “flavor” added to it. Many more taste like livestock feed.</p>
<p>My husband is in a big coffee phase. In other words, coffee is this year’s hobby – the coffeemaker, the milk he uses and foams up, and, of course, the beans. If he loses his job, he can open his own coffee place. Anyhow, he buys his beans off of Amazon, after much research. I checked the freezer and it looks like the brand is Eight O Clock. He seems happy with this brand. He liked Costco’s beans that come in the red bag as well but one day Costco didn’t have them and the rest is history.</p>
<p>Any opinion on Peet’s?</p>
<p>My favorite coffee is Yirgacheffee from Ethiopia. I get them from a guy at work but I know you can also get them for a pretty good price on e-bay.</p>
<p>^^mimk6</p>
<p>I am a beginner, so please bare with me. Questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it necessary to freeze beans? Would it be fine just kept it in sealed jars?</li>
<li>Which maker is better? I have seen one cupper sale for $1,000 but I opted to buy the one I have for $100</li>
<li>When you say foams up, meaning Latte or Expresso the like?</li>
</ol>
<p>In my humble opinion, coffee is like wine. Each person will have their own palate and preference. If memory serves, the Chock full of nuts and Eight oclock have a lot of chicory and is on the spicer, bolder side. The Ethopian is also a darker coffee. The Starbucks breakfast blend is too mild for my taste and for DH who likes a darker roast. My favorite but the MOST expensive is Jamaican Blue which comes from one mountain in Jamaica. It costs the earth and I usually only have it for Christmas.</p>
<p>I find that Seattle’s Best (now at BK), Costco, GroceryOutlet (Western states) have good beans. Yuban is pretty good national brand.</p>
<p>Peet’s (slightly less roasted than Starbucks, A Starbuck brand) is a bit too roasted & dark for me. I always have some at local bread bakery and I ask them to leave for ice not only to cut it back but to cool it. </p>
<p>Peet’s (Starbucks) tea is rather weak and lacking flavor- go figure.</p>
<p>Always use dechlorinated (filtered water). BIG difference.
Local water supplies differ and what may taste good in Seattle, tastes bad in Portland.</p>
<p>We like Gold Coast beans from Starbucks. We used to keep the beans in the freezer, but don’t any more. I just fold up the top of the bag and clip it shut. Gold Coast is one of the darker roasts and Starbucks often has it as their bold coffee of the day if you’d like to try it.</p>
<p>We like it so much that we take it as a gift when we go to stay with someone. (That way we know there will be coffee we like!)</p>
<p>We like the flavor of Starbucks coffees, but we think it somehow has tons of caffeine. For everyday coffee we drink City of Fountains from Costco. We buy local when we want a treat. I’d LOVE to find Kona for $20.00 per lb!</p>
<p>I’ll ask DH when he gets home. He will be only too happy to share his opinion:) We’d heard about the freezing a long time ago, that it keeps beans fresh but he recently told me that he’d read that you can seal them a special way (I have to ask) and not freeze because they can pick up the freezer smell. But he continues to freeze them figuring his palate is just not that sensitive. He buys whole beans and we have a grinder that grinds them. Until this summer, we used a french press and most people swear by a french press. You grind the beans (or buy them ground) and put them in the press. Then you add boiling water and let it sit and then you press down and voila! It is better than most machines unless you are going for a high-end machine. Yes, I mean foaming the milk as in latte, etc. When this most recent adventure began, he bought an adorable little device that is battery operated and that looks like a tiny egg beater but not. You heat up milk (in microwave) and insert the device and it foams the milk up and then you pour the coffee in and it’s delicious. I will say that I loved that little device but, tragically, he went on to get a cappuccino maker that foams milk, but the machine is intimidating to me and I don’t know how to work it. My little tragedy was that I was happily using my foam maker and making my little french press coffee (decaf) in the morning when one morning it was gone. I searched high and low only to discover that he gave it to one of our kids thinking we no longer needed it.</p>
<p>Eight O’Clock is an outstanding whole-bean coffee for the price. I’d put it up against any of the more expensive brands.</p>
<p>@srw</p>
<p>I found some Kona at $20/12oz at Trader Joe’s, not sure if it is in your neighborhood, but here is their web site and store finder.</p>
<p>[Trader</a> Joe’s](<a href=“http://www.traderjoes.com/products.asp]Trader”>http://www.traderjoes.com/products.asp)</p>
<p>I like Starbucks Verona and Italian Roast, my husband likes Kenya best. I also like a half and half mix of French Roast and Columbian. I like Peets, but it’s hard to come by here. We had it every morning when we were in Berkeley this summer.</p>
<p>I have read both that you MUST freeze coffee and that it’s bad for it. So mostly I don’t. I use a french press for my coffee. I heat the milk in my mug in the microwave and use a regular whisk to make it foamy. I’ve had the [url=<a href=“http://www.aerolatte.com/]aerolatte[/url”>http://www.aerolatte.com/]aerolatte[/url</a>], but eventually it broke and I find the regular whisk only marginally slower.</p>
<p>BEWARE that many Kona coffees say KONA BLEND and they are made up of maybe 10-20% Kona. Just read carefully.</p>
<p>My favorite is Jamaican Blue Mountain. I went on a medical mission to eastern Jamaica, and the coffee is to die for. When you see the small plots of coffee plants lining the steep blue mountains, you finally understand why it might be so expensive to harvest them. I brought back 8 lbs of coffee bought fresh for $6 for 8oz. It was a steal. I have one half pound left in the freezer. I do like Kona as well. It is much easier to afford, but the real stuff is not cheap. I like coffee from Sumatra and Ethiopia as well. There is a Caribbean blend that you will see in TJ Maxx, and grocery stores that likely has NO Jamaican blue mountain in is, but has blue mountains on the label (tricky, be careful again) but it is good also. </p>
<p>It is fun to try different coffees. I have a grind and brew at my office and I love it At home with and empty nest and a husband that no longer enjoys coffee, I buy my pods and brew on cup at a time. I recently found a pod maker on sale for $9 and made some with my Blue Mountain, but what a mess it was. Good pods are also worth the price.</p>
<p>100% Kona has always been my favorite since discovering it on our honeymoon 27 years ago.
Everyday is dunkin donuts coffee beans, but now I am weaning myself off coffee and am drinking Teeccino, which is an organic herbal coffee(no caf) that is a regular grind for the coffee maker. It actually is quite good.</p>