Cheap but good coffee

[edenspeak]

Scrolling back, I'm surprised not to see a thread on coffee, so here goes:
For me, there's a clear winner: Gregg's Special Blend, usually $2.49 for 90gm. (And famously a $1 loss leader at the Warehouse, who have now dropped it for their own brand - which is absolute shit). Special Blend would be my instant coffee of choice regardless of my budget.

I'm not alone in this: Back in 2017 or so, Metro mag ran a blind tasting of instant coffees (because instant still accounts for 70% of our coffee consumption). The top two places went to boutique roasteries who did limited runs of freeze-dried instant, then at 3 came Special Blend, with the judging note "tastes like coffee". The mainstream brands started around 6th (Moccona IIRC), with Nescafe classic in 9th place.

Plunger coffee is now a luxury, but I managed to score a short dated bag of Market Kitchen ground (usually $13 for 500gm, currently 2 for $20) for a dollar. Even past its best-before, it's a damn nice brew and deserves the medals it won recently.

Edit to fix price of ground coffee.

 

[temika]

@edenspeak I believe Market Kitchen is actually Havana under different branding

 

[elsie44olivier]

@temika Can anyone confirm this?? Game changer if so

 

[saintpeter]

@elsie44olivier It says that it is produced in Wellington on the packaging.

Even if it is roasted Havana it's probably going to be cheaper beans than their normal product.

But it's good enough for me that I get their big bag of beans to grind at home for the espresso machine.

 

[thomas12020]

@temika I drink this and it's really good for the price ($20/kg). One tip I read is to always look at the best before date on all of the packets in the store and chose the one with the furthest date out. This will be the most recently roasted coffee and will taste the best. I definitely notice the difference. In the more rural Warehouse stores this can have been sitting on the shelf for six months.

 

[cherrykot]

@edenspeak I was a barista for 10+ years. I have spent years defending special blend. If i’m not having espresso, im having special blend. That stuff is good idc what they say

 

[resjudicata]

@cherrykot Lol are you having black ?

 

[cherrykot]

@resjudicata Usually with milk but I don’t mind it black

 

[resjudicata]

@cherrykot Can be a butcher for 40 years and still like the cheapest wrost meat out there. If you like that stuff black for real you are special.

 

[cherrykot]

@resjudicata I bet you’re a moccona person

 

[resjudicata]

@cherrykot No

 

[chun]

@edenspeak Market Kitchen is Te Warewhare’s own brand.

The contents if most products are the same as ‘big’ brands, they’re just reskinned.

OP says TW own brand is ‘absolute shit’ but then praises Market Kitchen which … is TW own brand..?

Heckin’ bamboozle going on …

 

[edenspeak]

@chun Market kitchen instant coffee is terrible. Market kitchen beans and ground coffee are good. Different products from different sources, typical for house brands.
Edited, because I doxxed myself given other posts.

 

[chun]

@edenspeak I could disclose where my partner also works, but I won’t.
You can guess though.

Addendum - we have tried All The Coffee from TWG.

The big bag of beans is the best, the big bag of grounds is not the right grind for my favoured method of coffee making, the instant is meh…

Beans all the way.

 

[edenspeak]

@chun If I were being fussy I would say the big bag is an issue. My late friend and coffee guru, with a fistful of medals to his name, said never to buy more coffee than you'd consume in a fortnight. So we'd get a 300gm bag roasted 48 hours earlier every couple of weeks (in exchange for doing his website). Of course supermarket coffee is never going to be that fresh anyway.

 

[gregori]

@edenspeak Special blend is the best! I’m a former barista and wife of a coffee roaster, it’s our household fave instant. Don’t let the retro heinous packaging deter you… Special Blend for the win!

 

[victorbell]

@gregori It's an absolute bargain. I've tried all the instants at the supermarket (because in a cost of living crisis you want to see what the best value for money is) and it's far nicer than so many expensive ones

 

[stigss]

@gregori Have you tried Robert Harris's Columbian blend? Any thoughts on that?

 

[gregori]

@stigss I don’t buy beans from the supie! Just instant.

 

[resjudicata]

@gregori Your partner is roasting coffee and you drinking this trash ?