Consumer Reports: Don't bother with Starbucks

[marmar]

Consumer Reports, via Yahoo!:



Consumer Reports Picks the Best Cup o' Brew
Our top-rated Colombian coffee is also a CR Best Buy

By ConsumerReports.org


Folgers, Maxwell House, and Starbucks are America's best-selling ground coffees. But all three were iced by Eight O'Clock Colombian coffee in our taste tests. As for Starbucks, it didn't even place among the top regular coffees and trailed among decafs.

Our tests of 19 coffees also show that some of the best cost the least. At about $6 per pound, Eight O'Clock costs less than half the price of Gloria Jean's, Peet's, and other more expensive brands.

Like your joe without all the caffeine? Dunkin' Donuts and Millstone were the front runners among the decafs. But Folgers Gourmet Selection Lively Colombian came in close behind and costs up to $3 less per pound. But even the best decaffeinated coffees couldn't match the best regular brews in our taste tests.

What we tasted

Our coffee experts focused on 100 percent Colombian — a best-selling bean — for regular coffee. Most of our decaffeinated coffees are a blend of different beans.

What makes a great cup of Colombian? Lots of aroma and flavor, some floral notes and fruitiness, a touch of bitterness, and enough body to provide a feeling of fullness in the mouth. Woody, papery, or burnt tastes are off-notes.

Weeks of sipping and swirling confirmed that even 100 percent Colombian coffee and its Juan Valdez logo don't guarantee quality. Our trained testers unearthed other surprises: .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/204/consumer-reports-picks-the-best-cup-o-brew

[Kolesar]

1. I love the Starbucks blend from Costco & it is "fair trade certified"

good morning!

[elizfeelinggreat]

19. and their Kirkland Sumatra

I have it every morning while I read DU.

[Kolesar]

27. Thanks for the recommendation! eom

[moriah]

32. I have a strong fondness for Sumatran coffee.

Very, very good organic fair-trade Sumatran.... yum!

But I drink a French Roast work coffee most of the time. I will drink about a half a pot of coffee at work (working nights!) but don't drink much caffeine throughout the week.

[rucky]

2. Eight O' Clock is a good standby.

Also check the Mexican aisle for Cafe Bustelo ($3/can)

if you have a Meijer near you, they have an organic French Roast that's $3.50/can and it's the absolute shiz-nit!

[marmar]

3. Is it the Meijer store brand? I've passed by their coffees but never bought any.

n/t

[rucky]

4. Yep. White can. top shelf.

[Wapsie B]

8. Meijer coffee is very good.

The whole bean varieties are quite tasty.

[ejpoeta]

5. unfortunately, americans are accustomed to the taste of mediocre coffee.

Starbucks? I wouldn't bother wasting my money on it. but I buy maxwell house. my guess would be that i am used to the taste. it's like butter vs margarine.... butter tastes weird to someone raised on margarine.... remember when butter was bad? butter may be better than margarine, but I am used to the taste of the fake butter. I think coffee is the same way.

[marmar]

7. Very true. The coffee at the train station in Frankfurt, Germany ........

...... blows away most of what we get served here, save for the imported stuff (Illy, Dallmayr etc etc) that you buy at a gourmet market.

[conscious evolution]

9. I remember that coffee

As a colleague put it:"The first sip wakes you up.The second sip gets rid of the hangover.The third sip has you charging out the door to work.But watch out for the fourth sip.Thats the one that brings the guys in white jackets with the butterfly nets."

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

22. I'm hooked on the Illy...Expensive, but I love it.

Starbucks? Can't stand it.

[bunnies]

6. I cant stand columbian coffee.

We buy organic fair trade only - but never columbian. Blech.

[Burma Jones]

10. I prefer Kenyan and Ethopian Coffees

but, I don't put much stock in Consumer Reports' results in any sort of subjective testing.

[mucifer]

11. Trader Joes has lots of different fair trade coffees at a reasonable price.

[blue sky at night]

12. Just went through a pound of the Eight O'Clock........

it is good....but in my opinion it is too hard to get the amount right, it was always either too weak or too strong....half a tablespoon either way. But when it was weak, it sucked badly. Fair Trade is the best coffee we drink, our UCC Church sells it nationwide....GOOD Stuff, but it is $7.50 per bag!

[adadem]

13. Not surprised

Always thought Starbucks tasted like burnt coffee. Crazy but I love the "special blend" at Speedway gas stations for a buck a cup.

[marmar]

14. I'm always too afraid to try the coffee at Speedway.....I only buy gas and Mountain Dew there.

I was blown away when I saw them selling Speedway coffee by the bag.

[Mamacrat]

35. Burnt coffee.

adadem, The last two times I had coffee at a Starbucks (as opp. to drinking Starbucks coffee at the cafe at the bookstore) I told my husband the same thing. I thought it tasted kind of like it had been sitting there too long, but couldn't figure out why a place that probably has strict standards on when they replace it would do such a thing. I even had some hazelnut flavoring, sweetener and milk in it!

Does anyone else think it tastes burnt?

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Here in the Land of Organic fair traded, locally roasted yummy

Where coffee is both a sacrament and a fuel, I will say that when stranded in places with only the likes of Starbuck's to turn to, 8 o'Clock Coffee IS better than Starbuck's. If those are the choices. I drank it in upstate NY for a month, then I found this feminist collective importing beans from Peru, roasting them dark. I like a dark roast, and these women took dark roast all the way there and back again...a cup that snapped you to attention...

[marmar]

16. Honestly, when I visited Portland and Seattle last summer, I was quite disappointed by the java....

...... The rep didn't live up to the actual taste. Just an average cup of coffee served in a breakfast room of a hotel anywhere in Europe blows the Pacific Northwest stuff away.

[Bluenorthwest]

30. I'm not in either town

And you have to know where to go. Coffee in Europe tends to be how I like it, more often than anywhere else. I have Italian friends who travel with not just beans, but also machinery when they come to the US, but I can make them happy here at home...now when I travel in the US, I always, always carry my own coffee and at times equipment.
I've spent much time in Europe and I've had some rotten cups there as well. Not in Italy, but it is possible to get a drop of mud anywhere. All things being equal, the cleanliness of the equipment can make or break the end product. A lazy cafe empoyee can kill the best of intentions. I traveled as a kid with adult Americans who had never seen a cup of espresso and openly hated it, added hot waters, complained like babies....
When I said 'the land of etc' I meant my home, not my region. Although here in Eugene, we have a couple of places that could do a bang up business in Bologna with no changes at all. And we have many that are far better than Starbucks, in fact all of them are. It is easy to get very excellent beans, roasted on site. Makes a difference. It is easier here to keep my home well stocked than in Los Angeles or NYC, although it is now possible to get Eugene's finest in a couple of places in Manhattan...Wandering Goat Coffees, very good. I will even drink what they brew on site, they are that good. I know a couple of good spots in Portland, Seattle I don't know at all, never even been there!


Coffee is good. I think I'll go pull a shot now!

[rucky]

29. Full City

and Allen Bros

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Bluenorthwest]

31. I like both...

But Full City always hits the spot, love them. Also, Wandering Goat, new and lovely...

[NRaleighLiberal]

17. Another vote for Kenyan or Ethiopian. I roast my own - my issue with CU food and bev reports

are that they tend to lean toward middle of the road (read "boring"). The other thing is that individual tastes and geographic tastes create strong bias. New England loves Dunkin Donuts coffee - my wife and I like a darker, more PNW roast and find Dunkin Donut to taste like dishwater.

Once I started roasting my own coffee, the "flaw" in starbuck (extreme dark roasts throughout their line) convinced me to stick with my own - since each vintage of each coffee from each area have their own "sweet spots" with regard to roast intensity.

Buy a whirly pop popcorn popper and a coleman stove, go to Sweet Maria and get some beans. You can roast the best coffee you've ever had - it takes about 5 min to roast half a pound and a couple of more min. to blow off the chaff and cool it.

Great stuff and fun!

[Neecy]

23. agreed

Colombian coffee - at least the bulk stuff that Colombia exports - is blah and bland. I love the African coffees, particularly from Uganda.

Do you buy from any green coffee co-ops? They tend to be a lot cheaper than Sweet Maria and the quality is good, although the selection varies.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. No, I've just started the hobby and only SM - any links you can send?

Though I do think that paying 5-6. per pound for green beans is hard to beat! When I ponder the labor that goes into what they do, it is ridiculously cheap.

[Neecy]

28. Here you go

Green coffee co-ops use volunteer distributors who buy, bag, and ship the coffee without a markup in price - which is where Sweet Maria gets expensive. There's a group of volunteers who cup the offerings and have to approve it before sale so the quality is always really good. And the prices are closer to 3-4 dollars a pound.

This is a good one - I've gotten some outstanding beans here -

http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com/index.php

If you have any questions on buying through the club PM me and I'll walk you through it. Happy roasting!

[NRaleighLiberal]

34. Thanks so much...checking the link now.

[Still Sensible]

18. I prefer Seattle's Best, but I guess they Didn't get

tested because they don't sell a "Columbian" blend. I really like their Henri's and Post Alley blends. Their signature Seattle's Best blend is pretty good. Unfortunately for Starbucks, I think their Columbian is one of their most bitter, worst tasting blends.

[originalpckelly]

20. I never drink their coffee, it's complete shit.

I only drink all the other shit, usually a frap of some kind.

[pipi_k]

21. Ahhh...Eight O'Clock coffee...one of my fondest memories

When I was a little girl, my mom did her shopping at the local A & P, where they ground the coffee (Eight O'Clock) in the store. Even as a little kid, I found myself totally in love with the smell of freshly ground coffee beans. :)


Anyway...

I can't stand Columbian coffee or the dark roasts. Dunkin Donuts decaf tastes just fine to me....Chock Full O' Nuts....Folgers


One of the worst coffee travesties ever was instant coffee. That stuff was vile. Anyone remember the Sanka in the orange foil packets? :puke: Someone told me recently that there's a brand out there that tastes just like brewed coffee, but I dunno... I'd hate to buy it and find out it's just as disgusting as instant coffee has always been (to me, anyway).

[Locrian]

24. agree - I hate instant

>> One of the worst coffee travesties ever was instant coffee.


I remember my mom switched from real ground and percolated coffee to instant. YUCK! Tastes awful and you have that floating layer of scum to skim off.


I like the starbucks "Americano" - but isnt that expresso in water? Anyone know of a coffee with a similar taste?

[Mamacrat]

36. Coffee bags.

They have coffee "bags" (like tea bags) now that I suppose is to replace instant. Anyone find a good one?

[supernova]

25. I love Sumatra when I can afford it

but otherwise, 8 o'clock is fine.

8 o'clock makes a great hazelnut flavored coffee too. Though I haven't seen it lately.

[closeupready]

33. The Starbucks beans you buy in the stores is not as good as the brewed coffee and also

just not very good, period. This doesn't surprise me at all.

[killbotfactory]

37. The best coffee I've had is Cafe Mam

We sell it where I work for less than a dollar per large cup, but employees drink free. Beats the holy crap out of anything I've had elsewhere.

http://www.cafemam.com/

It's shade grown by mayan farmers. They know their coffee.

I can't justify buying non-fair trade coffee and saving a couple bucks per bag.