Cheaper Brand Beats Starbucks

By Queuebot in Food & Drink on Feb 7, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Consumer Reports recently tested 19 ground coffees and compared them for taste. Surprisingly, the Starbucks Coffee Colombia medium, ($11.53 a pound), did not even make it into the category of top contenders.

The coffee that rated highest for taste and value was the decidedly untrendy Eight O’Clock Coffee, which sells for only $6.28 a pound. The judges at Consumer Reports described Eight O’Clock as having "a complex blend of earthy and fruity, with a bright, pleasing sourness."

In the decaf category, Folger’s took top honors.

Consumer Reports figured coffee-drinkers could save $25 to $79 a year by switching from the pricier brands to the cheaper ones that scored higher in the taste test. Even if you drink only one 6-ounce cup a day.

Link – via coldmud

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Tags: coffee, consumer reports

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Daivd
Feb 7th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I used to work for an analytics company that did work for Starbucks bagged coffee. We did projects on CostCo’s coffee for Starbucks too, it is all the same coffee just packaged and marketed differently.
wntctrlmyslf
Feb 7th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
eight o’clock is our brand! seriously, starbucks is just a name. it’s good, but so is other stuff.
Restupidiculame
Feb 7th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Seriously, why is it so cheap? At this point, being reasonably intelligent people, everyone visiting this site needs to go ahead and pay more for organic fair trade shade grown coffee. Why are there so many modifiers? Because there are so many problems with bad coffee.
VioletB
Feb 7th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Seriously, Eight-O’clock coffee is really good tasting coffee. Why pay for the Starbuck’s name?
Skipweasel
Feb 7th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
“Surprisingly”? What’s surprising about a not terribly good coffee failing to rate highly in a blind test?

I’ve noticed Starbucks coffee on Tesco’s shelves lately, though I’ve never seen anyone actually taking a bag. I asked a shelf-filler and it’s noticeably failing to fly off the shelves.
atanguay
Feb 7th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
A local coffee vendor here in town once told me that Starbucks needs to buy such a high volume of coffee that to get it all to taste the same they over-roast it…that’s why to coffee connesiuers (sp?), Starbucks tastes burnt and rather crappy.
just a guy
Feb 7th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
i always thought that starbucks tasted too ‘burnt’ too, although I’m no connoisseur. However, its a great place to go if I want to get a cappicinno-based coffee (like a mocha) quickly, and don’t want to make it myself. And I must admit, as far as the ‘fast drink’ coffee places go, I haven’t found one that I like better. For example, Tully’s doesn’t taste any better to me, and has an aftertaste I dislike.
xultar
Feb 7th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I drink Eight-O’clock coffee. It’s some good stuff. When I’m out I go to Starbucks but when I make for myself I use Eight-O’clock coffee.
Dan Smith
Feb 7th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
i am not surprised
glassmusic
Feb 7th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
From this article: “In the decaf category, Folger’s took top honors.”

From the actual article: “Dunkin Donuts was ranked a top scorer in the decaf area, and Folgers Decaf Medium Roast came in third, behind Millstone decaf.”

Way to go neatorama! It’s fun to change facts and make things up
The El Bee En
Feb 7th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
What about “Chock full o’ nuts?”
Kevin
Feb 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I agree starbuck’s bagged coffee isn’t that good, but the coffee in the stores is the best I think, and it is very consistant. Dunkin Doughnuts is 2nd on my list.
Douglas2
Feb 7th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Consumer reports is one of the biggest cheerleaders of the odious Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (AKA the “War on Toys”).
In short, if you make products for kids, you must now test every single component part of every single batch to guarantee that it does not contain anything unsafe.

Sorry Etsy sellers!

You see, Consumer Reports is concerned that when your kid eats his quad-bike he might ingest the tiny bit of lead that is included as part of the valve stem on each tire. And that would be bad.

And don’t let me get started on the competency of Consumer’s Union to do hedonic testing, or how they choose their quality criteria.
Johannes
Feb 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am
When I moved out of Louisiana and couldn’t get Community Coffee anymore, I switched to Eight O Clock. It’s always the best coffee in the supermarket. If I had my way, Eight O Clock would have thousands of kiosks everywhere. They would cream (no pun intended) Starbucks.
Gary
Feb 8th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I have been drinking Eight O’Clock Coffee for years. I started because it was half the price of the other coffees. Who knew I had such good taste?
Xopl
Feb 8th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I’m a self-admitted coffee snob. I went to my sister’s house. She gave me a cup of coffee from a typical drip machine. I was expecting it to taste like crap. It was really good. It was this 8 O’Clock brand. No lie. I think that’s pretty interesting that it wasn’t just me who thinks this.
Joe
Feb 8th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Eight O clock coffee is cheaper than Starbucks, obviously, but i’m not so sure they can beat the Bux in taste
Staxeon
Feb 8th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
My mother-in-law gave me a bag of Eight O’Clock coffee in my stocking one Christmas just as a stuffer. I’ve been drinking it ever since.

Whole bean hazelnut, fresh ground every morning, love it.
ddog
Feb 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Try Trader Joe’s…generally $7/lb and always excellent, not to mention fair trade and organic.
Clay
Feb 10th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Not everybody likes the tastes of burnt dung.
tiga_cff
Feb 10th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
From a napkin at Caribou Coffee:

“Fresh and flavorful… because stale and burnt has already been done.”

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