A Comparison of the Various Big Coffee Brands

Today I thought it might be interesting to look at the various "big name" coffee brands and see what differences (if any) I could discern among them.

Given the fact that coffee is said to be the second-biggest legally traded commodity on the market (after oil), it's not surprising that coffee (and tea, for that matter) in general tends to be (relatively speaking, anyway) an expensive drink to purchase. In Toronto, Canada, ground coffee seldom goes for under $4.99 a kilogram. Usually, the price (even for the mass-produced stuff) is close to double that, depending on such things as name brand recognition and supply conditions. There are those working for the big coffee corporations who would like to argue that the relative quality of the coffee being offered is also a factor in the setting of the price, but given that most of these coffees have been on the shelf for a considerable amount of time, are made from inferior beans and are almost always "stale", the argument does not seem to hold much water. The fact is, all coffee that has been previously ground and roasted will experience a noticeable reduction in taste quality within a few days, as the coffee tends to dry out extremely quickly, leaving one with an anemic taste experience.

For a truly robust, complex taste, I have been told that coffee needs to be consumed within a few days after having been roasted and ground. Given this reality, one cannot expect any coffee product, no matter what the brand label, to be anything other than mediocre in taste, particularly if the coffee has been bought already ground. Of course, the true coffee aficionados will not even touch coffee that has not been freshly ground, roasted and percolated within very strict parameters by an experienced "barista."

So if we are to believe the experts and you're not especially fussy about the kind of coffee you drink, it may not really matter whether you buy a well known coffee product or a no-name product. Chances are all of them will prove to be inferior in taste (though perhaps not noticeably so to people like me and you), and neither will have the true coffee aficionado smacking his or her lips and asking for a second helping. I must point out, however, that if you are one of those people who still don't mind drinking instant coffee, for reasons of price or convenience -- which until the late seventies or early eighties was the most common method for drinking coffee at home -- then it makes one wonder why you are interested in reading a blog about coffee.