what brand of coffee do you drink?

I'm ashamed to admit that, for 18 months starting in 1989, my wife and I drank nothing but Chase & Sanborn instant coffee. Not for the flavor, which at best was Marginally Drinkable, but for the sturdy wide-mouth glass jars that it came in. Thirty years later the jars are still in regular use for freezing just about anything, with a loss of maybe five jars out out of three dozen.

I've been drinking coffee since age 15,in which I'm 61 now. I buy and drink Folger's only. that includes coffee grounds and instant alike. my electric coffee maker went out on me. so I'm using my 12 cup stovetop purculator now. or at least until I decide what to do. might hint around that I need a new one. seeing how my b-day is just around the corner.

On a 1-10 scale of coffee snobbery, I'm probably a 5. My preferred bean is Peets French Roast, ground in a burr grinder, and brewed strong in a basic Bodum French press. I wait until Safeway has one of its periodic specials (buy three or more bags and they're $5.99 each instead of $10.99), and stock up. I drink it black, and if I can see daylight through it, it's too weak.

The grounds get dumped straight into the yard, and any leftover coffee gets put in a canning jar in the fridge to be drunk iced, with half-and-half and just a pinch of Splenda. If it's going to flown halfway round the world to get to me, I'm not wasting it. Over a decade ago, my "tradeoff" in order to keep drinking coffee and eating chocolate was to stop buying fresh produce flown in from other countries--if it's perishable, it can come to me up/down the I-5 corridor between SoCal and Southern BC, or from Idaho and eastern Washington, but a vegetable or piece of fruit shouldn't have more air miles than I do.

Back in the pre-Covid days, when I had a weekly volunteer commitment, the staff had a biweekly breakfast meeting, with Starbucks coffee, and they always had coffee left over that nobody wanted. I'd decant it all into one box (sometimes more), take it home, and have a few days' worth of iced coffee for free, that was just going to end up dumped. I did some fun plastcs-fusing experiments with the inner bags. But that's the only way I consume Starbucks--or as I sometimes call it, Charbucks. It's brewed almost strong enough, but the beans themselves are horribly over-roasted.

I met some cool folks doing their own roasting here in Washington State and wanted to support this veteran and Tlingit owned business.

Beaver Tales Coffee
http://www.beavertalescoffee.com/

Then I learned that the Skippers Roast is the smoothest dark roast I think I have ever had.

Yum.

I'm not a coffee snob, but I try to stick with what I like. There have only been 2 brands I absolutely refuse to ever try again, and I'm pretty sure one of them no longer exists.

I opened a can of Folgers once and found it full of splinters and burnt sawdust. When I told them about it, they pretty much claimed I was making things up. I can understand that things sometimes happen in the processing plant, but a company that refuses to even try to fix it is a company I refuse to do business with ever again!

The other was an obscure brand that claimed to be "organic" and "fair trade", but was on the clearance rack at the grocery store. I've found some good brands on that rack, but this wasn't one of them. Their coffee smelled like cat piss. I had to throw it out and open the windows, it stank so bad! About 2 months later the entire brand disappeared, so I assume I wasn't the only unhappy customer.

These days I've been buying Deathwish, Black Rifle, or the occasional Imperfect Foods brand. If I'm traveling I'll bring a jar of Medaglia d'Oro Instant Espresso. It has a better flavor than most instant coffees.

I run a coffee company in which we only use organically grown beans. My coffee partner and I did a podcast in which we go into detail over the whole debate of Organic vs Conventional beans (Non-organic).  Trust me, there's a big difference. Hope this helps https://www.gtcoffeeco.com/post/coffee-unfiltered-episode-5-organic-vs-non-organic-beans
Podcast is called Coffee Unfiltered, the Episode is 5

My favorite is Solar Roast Coffee out of Pueblo Colorado. Can steep it for ages and it doesn't get too bitter.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:I met some cool folks doing their own roasting here in Washington State and wanted to support this veteran and Tlingit owned business.

Beaver Tales Coffee
http://www.beavertalescoffee.com/

Then I learned that the Skippers Roast is the smoothest dark roast I think I have ever had.

Yum.

This awesome coffee company is now opening a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in La Conner, WA! With a huge community focus and possibly their own tea blends in addition to coffee.

Such goodness. Find them on Facebook (if you do that) for the coffee shop updates.