What's the Best Grocery Store Coffee?
By Emily Johnson. Photos courtesy of NetCost Market and brands.
When it comes to buying coffee to brew at home, I often feel lost. In an ideal world, I buy Stumptown or other great regional roasters. But that habit can get expensive—and that coffee isn't always widely available in a pinch (i.e. when I'm exhausted and bleary-eyed and just need some caffeine, stat). We all need a good—or, at least, drinkable—widely available go-to coffee brand, if for nothing else than storing for emergency situations when the good coffee has run out.
But supermarket-available coffee can be so, so bad. As someone who has purchased bitter, sewage-evoking coffee more than once, I wanted to find the most affordable, best grocery store coffee options so I could avoid ever making that mistake again.
To do so, I tasted 11 brands commonly found at grocery stores around the country. Three friends provided tasting notes, mostly because I can be a little forgiving when it comes to bad coffee. We used a Chemex to brew all of the beans and measurements recommended by Blue Bottle Coffee: 70 grams of ground coffee and 700 milliliters of boiling water. We drank each coffee hot. When possible, I bought whole beans and ground them, but many of these coffees only come—or are much more commonly found—ground. Here are the ones I liked best:
The Good Coffees
1. Green Mountain/Newman's Own Organic French Roast
This coffee is mild and pleasant to drink. But, it also has a bit of fruit and caramel to its flavor—giving it more complexity and making it a little more interesting to drink than many of the coffees we put in the acceptable-but-unremarkable category. Despite the fact that it's a dark roast, there's absolutely no bitter flavor here. The coffee is smooth and light, it's got a very mild sweetness, and a nice oily sheen on top when you brew it in the Chemex. It's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to drink on a Monday morning. For around $8, you get a bag of coffee that's organic and fair trade—and, of course, the proceeds go to charity. It also tastes good. Thanks again, Paul Newman.
(Full disclosure: I made this from whole beans that I found on Amazon. In looking now, it looks like the ground variety of this coffee is much more commonly available)
Newman's Own Organic French Roast, 10 oz, $7.89 at Walmart
2. Allegro Organic Early Bird Blend
Allegro is a Whole Foods house brand of coffee. Like Newman's Own, it's organic and fair trade—and is grown under conditions that protect migratory bird populations. This coffee is a little bit darker in flavor than the Newman's Own. I found it pleasantly chocolatey and nutty in flavor, but one of my friends thought it was on the bitter side. It's slightly less light and smooth than the top contender, but I'd still gladly buy this for weekday coffee drinking. I had no problem gulping this down black.
Allegro Organic Early Bird Blend, 12 oz, $11.99 at Whole Foods
The Acceptable-But-Unremarkable Coffees
3. Dunkin' Donuts Original Blend
Something weird happened with this coffee. Using the exact same brewing method we used for all of the other coffees, the Dunkin' Donuts coffee tasted incredibly weak and watery. Not bad—just like something weird had happened. I suspect that maybe the pre-ground beans were too fine for the Chemex. Since I'd had Dunkin' coffee at home before with better results, I tried brewing it in a French press. This time, it was delicious. Okay, not exactly delicious, but definitely drinkable. I still don't really understand why each batch turned out so different, but, when we got a good brew, Dunkin' Donuts was a medium-bodied coffee that was completely inoffensive to drink. No notes of bitterness (although no complexity to the flavor, either). Just straight, unremarkable coffee. A friend who was an absolute Dunkin' despiser before this taste test even agreed. This coffee would take well to some cream and sugar, but it's not a necessity.
Dunkin' Donuts Original Blend Medium Roast Coffee, 12 oz, $6.98 at Walmart
4. Archer Farms Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee
Archer Farms is Target's in-house brand. A friend who's a fan of light-roast Ethopian coffees insisted we try this one. It's organic and fair trade, and I will say that it was one of the more memorable, flavorful coffees. It tasted fruity, floral, and a little acidic—but not too acidic, the way light roast can sometimes be. There were also some notes of bitterness at the end, however, that made me think it was slightly over-roasted. If you're a huge fan of light roasts, this might be the affordable supermarket coffee for you, but I found it a little too funky for my everyday coffee needs.
Archer Farms Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee, 10 oz, $7.99 at Target
5. Folgers Classic Roast Coffee & Maxwell House Original Coffee
Both of these are even-keeled, drinkable coffees without a lot of distinct flavor. They're both medium-bodied and fall kind of flat, but there's absolutely nothing bad or unpleasant about drinking either brand of coffee. Folger's is more mild than Maxwell House. Maxwell House tastes a little darker, and tends slightly more toward the burnt aftertaste territory that's a high risk of mass-produced coffee. Still, both are great emergency coffee options that you won't have to choke down and that will take well to some milk. They taste like mild, lightly watery diner coffees that are warm and comforting, if not exactly delicious.
Folgers Classic Roast Medium Ground Coffee, 30.5 oz $7.48 at Walmart
Maxwell House Original Roast Medium Ground Coffee, 30.6 oz, $7.78 at Walmart
This story originally appeared on Epicurious.
More from Epicurious:
11 Ingredients You Should NEVER Refrigerate
12 Lightning-Fast Chicken Dinners to Make Now
The Epic Hack to Peeling a Dozen Eggs in 104 Seconds
