The best ground coffee from CR

The best selling coffees in the US are preground and sold in the supermarket. Preground beans have been making coffee drinking easier for the last 100 years, since Maxwell House started selling ground coffee back in 1907. There is a huge variety to choose from these days, and Consumer Reports set out a taste test to try and narrow down the field. They only tasted Colombian coffee and compared price, caffeine level and taste on all brands.

Their top pick – the best tasting and a Best Buy for value – was Eight O’Cock Coffee. It cost less than half of some of the “boutique” brands ($6.28/lb), but delivered a good, smooth coffee flavor that the tasters really enjoyed, with earthy and fruity notes and no burnt or over-roasted taste.

Their two runners up were Caribou COffee’s Colombia Timana and Kickapoo Coffee’s Organic Colombia. None of the coffees rated were bad, but the panel only gave Starbucks, Bucks County, Archer Grams, Gloria Jeans, Chock Full O’Nuts, Peet’s, Maxwell House and  Folgers Gourmet “good” ratings.

On the decaf side, none of the coffees garnered a “very good” rating, but Dunkin Donuts Dunkin Decaf, Millstone’s Decaf Colombian garnered average ratings and beat out the rest.