cypherpunks Senior Member Joined: 15 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Expertise: Just starting
Posted Sun Apr 15, 2012, 8:14pm Subject: Cheaper than Intelligentsia house blend?
This is a small office coffee group, so it has to satisfy multiple people; I'm looking for something fairly mainstream and inoffensive.
After years of Maxwell House pre-ground, I introduced whole beans, then a burr grinder, and have been working on better beans. The consensus appears to be that Dunkin Donuts original blend is "not bad" and Intelligentsia house blend has received rave reviews.
Unfortunately, it's $48.64/kg = $22/lb shipped to the southeastern U.S., and that's causing some dissent. DD at $10/lb ($7.49/12 oz), is less than half the price. And we can't use larger quantities in 2 weeks or so. But it's not cheap, and paying for shipping 24 times a year doesn't help.
Unfortunately, we're in a small town without any decent local options. Counter Culture is a lot closer, but they're much more espresso-oriented, and I'm having a hard time picking out some of their drip coffees. Iron Brew? Anything else I should be looking into?
Ultimately, it comes down to order some and try it, but I wondered if people have any economical roasters they'd like to recommend to improve the odds of success.
Thanks for the link! I wouldn't have thought of home-barista.com as a reference for drip coffee. Unfortunately, the southeast looks like a wasteland. The vast majority are west coast, then central U.S. and northeast. Southeast, the only ones mentioned are Counter Culture and Muddy Dog. Next closest are two in Pennsylvania (Caffè Fresco and Len's Espresso Blends) and Texas (Cuvée and Dodd).
Cerridwyn Senior Member Joined: 6 Jun 2010 Posts: 395 Location: Inland Empire California Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Mon Apr 16, 2012, 5:14am Subject: Re: Cheaper than Intelligentsia house blend?
I'm going to say something sacrilegious. You might try looking for a decent second tier roaster to see if you can find a happy medium. Aroma Ridge is in the South East. They roast when they send, are much less expensive and well, you will tell the difference. They will be fresher than store bought DD, so that might make a difference.
Like most tier two shops they have a ton of choices. Read the description and try a couple, if it doesn't work, it's not 22$/12 ounces for most of their stuff. I used to use it a lot for work for the very reason you state.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,679 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Mon Apr 16, 2012, 6:18am Subject: Re: Cheaper than Intelligentsia house blend?
You might want to look into a freezer, a very good option is to buy in bulk, 5#, and then divide into apx 1lb bags then freeze. You get the volume discount and you save on shipping.
In a worst case, you could have the coffee sent to you, then you could divide and freeze at home and bring in a bag o beans when you run low in the office.
Just a thought.
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Er, yes, but they don't have any good coffee. That is to say, their only year-round drip blend is their "Blackbird Blend", which we tried and was voted over-roasted. (It wasn't "straight in the trash" bad, but "definitely don't buy again".)
Plus, we go through 1 lb a week or a little more; buying that much at once would mean drinking 4 week old roast. :-(
Cerridwyn Said:
I'm going to say something sacrilegious. You might try looking for a decent second tier roaster to see if you can find a happy medium.
Er... what sacrilegious about that? Isn't that basically what I was asking for? Similar flavor, slightly lower quality, much lower price?
Aroma Ridge is in the South East. They roast when they send, are much less expensive and well, you will tell the difference. They will be fresher than store bought DD, so that might make a difference.
Thanks for the tip. Their shipping is $7.50 minimum (that seems fixed for UPS ground; I asked their web site for 2000 lb and it returns the same number!), which adds to the cost.
Like most tier two shops they have a ton of choices. Read the description and try a couple
This is a problem. Too many choices! I'm asking for some recommendations for roasts/blends, not just roasters. Also, there's skill in keeping a blend consistent over the year, as available beans fluctuate, and I don't know who's good at it.
cypherpunks Senior Member Joined: 15 Apr 2012 Posts: 5 Expertise: Just starting
Posted Mon Apr 16, 2012, 6:58am Subject: Re: Cheaper than Intelligentsia house blend?
calblacksmith Said:
You might want to look into a freezer, a very good option is to buy in bulk, 5#, and then divide into apx 1lb bags then freeze. You get the volume discount and you save on shipping.
We have a freezer. But does this work? I've seen it mentioned a lot, but usually right next to discussions of the merits of vacuum-packed pre-ground, so I haven't believed it.
Posted Mon Apr 16, 2012, 9:44am Subject: Re: Cheaper than Intelligentsia house blend?
We have a freezer. But does this work? I've seen it mentioned a lot, but usually right next to discussions of the merits of vacuum-packed pre-ground, so I haven't believed it.
I really think you should try this for yourself. I am (and I think a lot of us here are) in a similar boat, trying to optimize taste given a certain price point. I find that the deleterious effects of freezing are quite minor -- hardly noticeable to me -- compared to the sacrifice in quality between what you can get for, say, $60 for 5 pounds vs. what you can get for $12 for a pound at a time. I think the same might be true for four-week-old high-quality coffee even if you don't freeze.
Redbird is hit-or-miss for me, but their SO offerings are not all overroasted. They are nice folks to work with, too, so you could probably fire off an email to 'em and they'd make suggestions given your preferences.
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