Best Supermarket Beans

north south east west

If you can't make it to pick up Badger and Dodo, 3FE, Cloudpicker ect or just want to save some money. What would you consider to be a good supermarket coffee bean?

enricoh

Got a bag in my local polish shop n said I'd give it a try. That was 6 months ago n I haven't bought anywhere else since.
Cheap as chips too

caviardreams

M&S do columbian beans which are quite decent for what they are imo - usually around €4.50 but are often on offer at 25% off or buy one get one half price (same thing).

When LIDL have their Italiamo special on, they do a 1kg bag of beans for €9 which is certainly drinkable if not comparable to freshly roasted.

north south east west

enricoh wrote: »

Got a bag in my local polish shop n said I'd give it a try. That was 6 months ago n I haven't bought anywhere else since.
Cheap as chips too

What was the name of it?

murphyebass

caviardreams wrote: »

M&S do columbian beans which are quite decent for what they are imo - usually around €4.50 but are often on offer at 25% off or buy one get one half price (same thing).

Yup I've mentioned these on here a few times. Honestly the best value quality beans out there. I buy them all the time.

They have a light, well probably closer to medium roast profile as well, nothing too dark which I probably the biggest reason I like them.

They make a cracking aeropress. Espresso isn't bad and grand for milky drink if that's what you're into. Lol.

I buy the odd bag of other beans like square mile or whatever as a treat to myself but honestly I can't justify them more than that and it makes them more of a treat to be honest.

Bottom line buy these beans. You won't be dissapointed.

alec76

Colombian M&S defo best option available, quality may vary from batch to batch though, still I rate them higher than some of the beans from Ponaire , Badger&Dodo etc.
Last Colombian bag I had , new packaging, 7032 batch i.e. 1st of February roasting date ,wasn't very nice to be honest , but very drinkable.

north south east west

Think i will give the Marks ones a go. Has anyone ever bought Starbucks beans? Had an americano from a branch recently for the first time in years and it wasn't actually too bad.

Krusty_Clown

I've been enjoying Robert Roberts Cafe Italiano Espresso beans for a few months now. €12.29 for 750g (€16.38/kg) in Tesco and Dunnes. Much better than Lavazza and other big-brand beans. Not a patch on CoffeeMojo or B&D (which I keep for my Aeropress), but perfect for espresso-based milk drinks. Medium roast and see pretty fresh, despite the best before dates. Will look out for the M&S beans though.

flangemeistro

caviardreams wrote: »

When LIDL have their Italiamo special on, they do a 1kg bag of beans for €9 which is certainly drinkable if not comparable to freshly roasted.

Just something to be aware of with these beans, in my last batch a few weeks ago while using these I heard an awful noise out of my Panasonic Bean to cup machine only to find a bean shaped stone in the grinder.

It made absolute shïte out of the burrs and I'm still waiting on an acceptable resolution from lidl and the suppliers.

It was probably an isolated incident but just something to watch out for.

caviardreams

Thanks for that - will cast an eye over the beans whilst pouring them out of the bag from now on!

north south east west

Had no beans so just bought Tesco Finest Columbian beans when I was doing the shopping. Found them particularly poor. Has anyone tried McCabes beans? A local deli stocks them so might pick some up.

Krusty_Clown

north south east west wrote: »

Had no beans so just bought Tesco Finest Columbian beans when I was doing the shopping. Found them particularly poor. Has anyone tried McCabes beans? A local deli stocks them so might pick some up.

Should be pretty good. Just look out for the roasting date (sometimes hidden underneath the packaging), as they often feature a best before date long past what would be considered freshly roasted (more relevant if you're paying freshly roasted bean prices).

alec76

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Should be pretty good. Just look out for the roasting date (sometimes hidden underneath the packaging), .

You won't get roasting date of a supermarket beans, only the store code for manufacturing date . You have to know how to read it ( store staff might help)
M&S Colombian uses 4 digit code:
First digit for the year
Last 3 for the day of the year i.e
7032 stands for the 1st of February, 2017

As for the Tesco's Colombian, I wouldn't say it is completely waste of time, but not far from it It is very challenging to the grinder too, my previous grinder Sage Smart Pro couldn't grind it fine enough for the Silvia , not a bother for the Vario though

Krusty_Clown

alec76 wrote: »

You won't get roasting date of a supermarket beans, only the store code for manufacturing date . You have to know how to read it ( store staff might help)

McCabes (which the previous poster inquired about) does have a roast date and isn't generally a supermarket bean (though may be available in some upmarket supermarkets).

adrian522

Picked up some M&S Colombian beans. THere were 2 different ones, one was around 4.50 buy one get one free, another was around €7.50, but reduced from 11.85 or something.

Wasn't easy to tell which was which but eventually settled on the cheaper one as I assume that is the one being recommended above.

They also had Sidamo beans, at €8 or so, which was also offered as part of their meal deal but I didn't get any of that.

Anyway, not at all impressed by the Colombian beans. Very poor. Drinkable in milk based drinks but not very tasty. Espresso is pretty poor to be honest. i wouldn't be getting it again, even though I could have just gotten a bad batch.

hecmail

Art of Coffee have beans for €7.50 (for 250g). You can get beans or get them ground. They have a few stores around and the coffee is nice1

north south east west

hecmail wrote: »

Art of Coffee have beans for €7.50 (for 250g). You can get beans or get them ground. They have a few stores around and the coffee is nice1

I like their coffee, will pick some up next time im near there.

murphyebass

adrian522 wrote: »

Picked up some M&S Colombian beans. THere were 2 different ones, one was around 4.50 buy one get one free, another was around €7.50, but reduced from 11.85 or something.

Wasn't easy to tell which was which but eventually settled on the cheaper one as I assume that is the one being recommended above.

They also had Sidamo beans, at €8 or so, which was also offered as part of their meal deal but I didn't get any of that.

Anyway, not at all impressed by the Colombian beans. Very poor. Drinkable in milk based drinks but not very tasty. Espresso is pretty poor to be honest. i wouldn't be getting it again, even though I could have just gotten a bad batch.

To be perfectly honest I think they've changed their roast profile. They seem to have gone darker.

The first few bags I got were great, nice and light roast wise, plenty of flavour for milky drinks and espresso but of late they haven't been up to much kind of like you described unfortunately.