Supermarket Ground Coffee

So let’s talk U.S. & CA Supermarket Ground Coffee… typically in a can or tub. No whole bean allowed in here.

I think the big three are Maxwell House, Folger’s, & Chock Full O’ Nuts. Yuban too-- So big 4? :grin:

There was a time in 60’s when everyone was doing nothing but evil Instant coffee-- mom got over that & went back to her beloved percolator & always Maxwell House. As an adult I’ll use any of the 4 but like Yuban the best.

Bagged Coffee-- We also buy Green Mountain (their Vermont Country Blend- Yay!), TJ’s, & New England Coffee & Dunkin bagged

Finally a bagged coffee that almost deserves its own thread-- "Eight O’clock" Coffee. I seldom buy it even now since seldom on sale & always couple bucks more then others but its flavor profile is pretty much what gets when having GOOD Diner coffee in the greater NYC area anyway.

I do want to note that one can still get a DUD can/tub/bag of ground coffee. It’s easy to tell-- when you open one if there’s no wonderful coffee aroma it’s a dud.

So what do the denizens of HO like?

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My guess is at least 90% of folks in the USA have no idea what Chock Full O Nuts is.
We were a Folger family, owing partly to having a roasting facility in KC. On a good day the whole Metro would have the aroma of fresh roasted coffee, bread baking, and hickory bbq.
I haven’t bought a large can of coffee in forever.

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I grind the local coffee beans . And brew in the bialleti mocha express . Otherwise if I had a choice for first wave coffee. I would choose Yuban for the mister coffee percolator. Or for instant. Most obvious. Tasters Choice.

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Wow, wouldn’t have thought that Folgers had that much of a lead over the rest. Thanks for the link!

Supermarkets have upped their game with their “house brand” ground coffee-- at least here at Shaw’s & Hannaford’s supermarkets. Back in the day your choices were the 1lb. can or the 2 lb.+ can and it wasn’t very good. Now light, medium, dark, breakfast blend, & Colombian house brands are on the shelves. I’ve found the latter to be decent.
A brand that surprised me is MacDonald’s McCafe. It was quite good.

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Surprisingly to me, we have been enjoying Starbucks Breakfast Blend ground coffee. Available in bagged form at Market Basket stores in MA where I shop. I use it to brew travel mugs of pour-over style coffee using a small Melitta drip cone that I got for free as some type of promotion (ages before pour-over coffee was even called that).

I randomly picked out Starbucks Breakfast Blend off the shelf about a year ago. Brews a nice balanced cup that we like, on mornings we feel like coffee instead of tea. I associate Starbucks coffee with being too aggressively roasted but this works.

P.S. Props to your state of Maine for the Oakhurst brand milk that I add to our coffee. Lasts reliably long in our fridge compared to other brands I’ve tried. Shelf life is important to me because it takes weeks for us to use up a half-gallon of milk. Another Market Basket purchase.

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I never buy ground coffee. Not only is it usually the wrong grind for the Chemex, but you never know how long ago it was ground and coffee starts to lose its flavor as soon as it’s ground.

If I was going that route, I’d buy Peet’s, Starbucks Blonde Roast, or a local coffee. I have a friend who swears by Cafe Bustelo, but for some reason she makes it in a French press so it’s always muddy.

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I usually grind my own beans.
Before I purchased:
perked coffee - Eight O’clock and illy.
instant coffee - Nescafe Tasters Choice and Nescafe Tasters Choice decaffeinated.

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Sanka. Instant.

#BecauseSupermarket

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I’ve tried many of these listed–and some in bags–but if it’s Colombian, I’m happiest, regardless of brand.

Still

Don Francisco Colombian–Ralph’s

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This thread is like wine you like to drink . What ever you prefer for yourself is absolutely fabulous. I drink 10 dollar bottles and love it . Continue to drink of what you enjoy. Cheers.

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I neglected to mention before that we also like Café Bustelo espresso ground coffee that my husband brews in one of those Bialetti moka pots. You get a strong little cup that reminds me of coffee in Italy.

I’m one of those people who needs my coffee to make coffee, so grinding beans is saved for mornings when we’re not on any particular schedule. :wink:

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For pre-ground, I like both Eight o’Clock and Community interchangeably. Around here, one or the other of these is on BOGO once a month or more frequently, so I stock up cheap. (Their whole bean is fine, too, but that’s not this thread).

I don’t drink as much coffee as I used to and now my son and (when home) one daughter are the primary drinkers. My son claims Community is better than Eight o’Clock, and I keep threatening to blind test him, but haven’t gotten around to it.

New England’s regular coffees are fine also, but I especially like them if I’m wanting something flavored (try their Butter Pecan to accompany a bowl of Butter Pecan ice cream). This one also is a not-uncommon BOGO at my local grocer, although not as frequently as the other two.

I’ve never liked the bigger nationals like Folgers or Maxwell House. Maybe because I’ve never tried them in smaller packages - just the industrial sized cannisters that one would see used in corporate coffee nooks. Probably a lot more stale. Also, what’s with the huge particle size on their grinds - is this just a way to get people to use it up more quickly? Or does it somehow keep it a bit less bitter? I don’t know if their roasting and grinding processes differ from (e.g.) Community or Eight o’Clock.

I’ve tried roasting my own beans from green before (had a friend who was into it) but it was before I had a kitchen hood and I stunk up (stank up?) the house something frightful for what was at best mediocre coffee.

ETA - if I’m going to spend a bit more money than BOGO, I really like Kona (all Kona, not “Kona Blend”) and also the stuff they grow in Tarrazú, Costa Rica (which is called, unimaginatively enough, “Tarrazú”).

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For many years, I’ve been drinking Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend. In fact, before Peet’s opened in Los Angeles I would ask anyone who visited the Bay Area to bring me back a couple of pounds. I live in Los Angeles, CA. I’ve found it in Smart & Final, Sprouts and Ralph’s.

I know that it reduces my credibility in many peoples’ eyes, but I prefer dark roasted coffee to medium or light.

I use a Melitta pour over pot, very low tech.

I drink my coffee black with no sugar.

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When I am in a setting where espresso is not possible (church and my mothers house) I usually use Costco (Kirkland) Columbian which is pretty reliable and well priced. Its definitely better if kept frozen or refrigerated after opening.

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Cafe Pilon, Bustelo, La Llave, El Morro, Caribe, or almost any of the Caribbean brick coffees are my choice. Never a can.

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The last ground coffee I bought was Dunkin Donuts, 2 bags, for a pantry at a senior center. Bought it at a Dunkin shop as I had when I used it, because I thought it would be fresher. I bought beans for myself. I haven’t used pre-ground coffee at home in many years.

My family was a Folger’s family from as far back as I can remember. (I didn’t start drinking coffee til I was 26). They also drank a local product, Maryland Club, from Duncan Coffee, a local family owned firm, but Folger’s was the favorite.

Maxwell House was based here, on the east side, moving here as Cheek-Neale coffee company early in the last century. I always thought Maxwell House was sour/bitter tasting.

Lots of people here rave about Community, including foodies. I don’t get what’s special about it but to each his own. Community would certainly be among the big 4 name brands here. I echo what @bbqboy said above about Chock Full o nuts. Used to be able to get it here but not in a long time.

These days I drink cold brew, either from concentrate (Trader Joe got me started. I also use Chameleon Espresso since I don’t get to TJ’s very often) or ready-to-drink - Stok Not Too Sweet or Extra Bold, and I drink it chilled - right out of the fridge - not iced but definitely not hot, year round.

I love being able to sit down to a mug of coffee with so little fuss, in a matter of seconds as opposed to several minutes of futzing around.

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Heh, my wife grabbed a bag of Dunkin original since it was on sale… but she was rushing got whole bean. Wow did it smell good on opening the bag. So much so that I had to find our cheap blade grinder (hadn’t used it since we moved in 3 years ago-- Procrastination champ here + COVID getting in the way of everything) and you what, I’m inspired again. :yum:

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I don’t remember which coffee I bought prior to the Keurig, but growing up my parents bought Folgers for their percolator. My bedroom was directly next to the kitchen and so was woke up every morning by their coffee routine.

It started with the repetitive banging of the grounds basket against in the side of the waste bin, running water, and eventual gurgling sound of the percolator and the coffee aroma.

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