Coffee.

[Gerontophile]

I need recommendations for decent brands of filter coffee. It must be generally available in the usual US supermarkets, and preferably fairly cheap.

Recently got a new Mr Coffee, and whilst it might be a shame to waste good coffee in such a tacky machine, the two I bought are both horrendous. Both were dirt cheap and not likely to be known by anyone here, so I won't bother anyone with the brand names (they didn't have one!)

Not too bothered by Fairtrade considerations for now. I will boycott brands and places when I can afford to.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

Oh, and nothing with cinnamon in. And, helpful if you could give me the number of the strength too. I tend to go for 3 and over, but if it actually tastes of coffee, then any strength is fine. Decaf is fine too.

[San Bernardhinault]

Coffee.

American grocery aisle coffee is, for reasons I don't really know, utter shit.

But every American town now has a million coffee shops who roast their own. I'm sure there are good places in Vegas.

If not, a handful of places carry stuff like Sumptown Coffee from Portland who always seem to do a decent job.

I, though, have become increasingly lazy about my coffee and have sold out to Child Killing Environment Slaughtering Megascum at Nestle and am using Nespresso. Which is not quite as good as (non supermarket) real coffee, but very very easy.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

Isn't that an individual tub for a specific machine?

I do like those. But, needs must, when the devil vomits in your kettle.

[San Bernardhinault]

Coffee.

Yeah, those are machine specific and the machines cost too much.

Seriously, just go to a coffee roaster in town and get them to grind some beans for you. It'll be almost infinitely better than the Folgers/Dunking muck that you get in the grocery aisles.

[WOM]

Coffee.

In the US, we usually buy some type of dark roast from the horribly named Chock Full o' Nuts line, and it's always been good supermarket-coffee-wise.

[ursus arctos]

Coffee.

In the Manhattan of my childhood, Chock Full 'O Nuts coffee shops were what Tim Horton's is to Canada.

They looked like this

,

and provided a significant amount of my mother's sustenance when she was skint, as one could get a cream cheese sandwich on nut bread and unlimited coffee for 15 cents.

Jackie Robinson's first job after baseball was as a VP and franchisee of Chock Full 'O Nuts.

And they had a very catchy jingle

The name echoes their origins as a nut shop, and virtually all of their pastries had some form of nuts.

[WOM]

Coffee.

I had absolutely no idea that that was their backstory. Or that they had coffee shops. Anyway, their tins of coffee ain't bad.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

And available locally. And cheap. $8 per [strike]ton[/strike] tin.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

Thanks Bruno, but not available in Nevada, unfortunately.

[WOM]

Coffee.

No. No no no no no. None of those Keurig or Nespresso or any of that shit. Those fucking plastic/foil cups go straight into the landfill, they cost a fucking fortune per-cup, and then you're stuck only buying proprietary refills for the next ten years. It's all nonsense. It's the bottled water of the coffee industry; totally unnecessary branding, packaging and marketing.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

WOM wrote: No. No no no no no. None of those Keurig or Nespresso or any of that shit. Those fucking plastic/foil cups go straight into the landfill, they cost a fucking fortune per-cup, and then you're stuck only buying proprietary refills for the next ten years. It's all nonsense. It's the bottled water of the coffee industry; totally unnecessary branding, packaging and marketing.

So, Be Told, San B.

[Hot Pepsi]

Coffee.

ursus arctos wrote: In the Manhattan of my childhood, Chock Full 'O Nuts coffee shops were what Tim Horton's is to Canada.

They looked like this

,

and provided a significant amount of my mother's sustenance when she was skint, as one could get a cream cheese sandwich on nut bread and unlimited coffee for 15 cents.

Jackie Robinson's first job after baseball was as a VP and franchisee of Chock Full 'O Nuts.

And they had a very catchy jingle

The name echoes their origins as a nut shop, and virtually all of their pastries had some form of nuts.

Stuff like this tears my soul asunder. On the one hand, the old days were very racist and sexist, but on the other hand, so many other things about America were so much better. Diverse people sitting around talking to each other rather than everyone looking at their computer. If I could travel through time, I'd definitely want to spend time in NYC 1945-1980.

Incidentally, when Jack(ie) Robinson decided to retire rather than take the trade to the Giants, he wrote a very gracious letter to the Giants on Chock Full O'Nuts letterhead. I know this because the letter is in Cooperstown.

As for coffee....

As explained above, almost every town in America now has at least one place that roasts it on site - or at least has some good stuff from somewhere - and will grind it for you if you don't have one. And there's always Starbucks which is what it is, but is widely available ground or in whole beans at their ubiquitous shops or in the grocery. Peets and Seattle's Best are also common brands available that way. Some groceries still grind and roast beans too.

Dunkin Donuts is widely available too but I can't recommend it, unless its really important to you to show your solidarity with New England's working class.

[WOM]

Coffee.

I worked in an office for a few months where they had, side by side, a Keurig machine and the Braun Tassimo one. At the end of each day, there was a small mountain of those plastic cups/disks. Every so often there's some new company offering to recycle them, but the business model just isn't there. You have to separate the grounds from the paper filter from the plastic body and the foil lid, and then...what...maybe find someone who'll pay you for the plastic while you handle the rest of the shit. Meanwhile, regular coffee grounds get grabbed up from every Starbucks for people to use on their gardens. Horrible things. A solution in search of a problem.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Coffee.

Gerontophile wrote:

No. No no no no no. None of those Keurig or Nespresso or any of that shit. Those fucking plastic/foil cups go straight into the landfill, they cost a fucking fortune per-cup, and then you're stuck only buying proprietary refills for the next ten years. It's all nonsense. It's the bottled water of the coffee industry; totally unnecessary branding, packaging and marketing.

So, Be Told, San B.

If the ads are anything to go by, they work wonders with the ladies. Not sure about older men though.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

George Clooney is practically the same age as me, and as for Mr DeVito, well, there is only room for one ugly shortarse in my life: me.

[Hot Pepsi]

Coffee.

I usually just put the grounds in the garbage disposal so they just end up in the sewer system, I guess. Not sure if that's eco friendly or not. But I'll start using them in the garden I'm planning. I dumped a bunch in my one and only house plant and it did wonders.

[San Bernardhinault]

Coffee.

Gerontophile wrote:

No. No no no no no. None of those Keurig or Nespresso or any of that shit. Those fucking plastic/foil cups go straight into the landfill, they cost a fucking fortune per-cup, and then you're stuck only buying proprietary refills for the next ten years. It's all nonsense. It's the bottled water of the coffee industry; totally unnecessary branding, packaging and marketing.

So, Be Told, San B.

Oh, I'm fully aware that my laziness is contributing to the death of the planet and society. But it's so easy, and making a proper espresso at home is something of a pain in the arse.

At least the Nespresso makes a drinkable coffee. Keurigs make a simulacrum of bad American filter coffee. That really is an abomination.

[anton pulisov]

Coffee.

Dunno shit about coffee, except that it tastes like shit. The local supermarket in Texas sells Barry's Tea. Unfortunately I am stuck in central Sweden for the next two months. Beginning to miss being asked how I am doing today. Nobody in Sweden talks to anybody.

What about that Du Monde coffee from New Orleans in the orange tin? They sell that in most places, don't they?

[Hot Pepsi]

Coffee.

I've never seen that in stores. Maybe it's regional.

[Gerontophile]

Coffee.

It's got chicory in it. Will taste like Camp. (A liquid "coffee")

[WOM]

Coffee.

[li][/li]

Gerontophile wrote: Will taste like Camp.

Must....resist...easy.....jokes......

[Hot Pepsi]

Coffee.

What the hell is chicory?

[ursus arctos]

Coffee.

Du Monde is virtually unknown in the Northeast outside of specialty stores.

Chicory

[Hot Pepsi]

Coffee.

I could have looked it up, but preferred to display irritation.