Eight O’Clock Columbian the best coffee?
The Eldest passes along a link to this article:
Folgers, Maxwell House, and Starbucks are America’s best-selling ground coffees. But all three were iced by Eight O’Clock Colombian coffee in our taste tests. As for Starbucks, it didn’t even place among the top regular coffees and trailed among decafs.
Our tests of 19 coffees also show that some of the best cost the least. At about $6 per pound, Eight O’Clock costs less than half the price of Gloria Jean’s, Peet’s, and other more expensive brands…
That’s kind of like deciding who makes the best-tasting cheeseburger by taste-test. Makes sense until you realize everyone’s picking some fast-food monstrosity. Coffee has it’s connoisseurs, people with more sophisticated palates, who would probably choose the brew from my local roaster’s cafe than anything you can buy in a grocery store.
Perhaps I’m an elitist snob. Perhaps not.
That said, I bought eight o’clock columbian for years–swore by it–until the gourmet coffee revolution hit and suddenly you could get an espresso on every corner.
scottfeldstein
5 February 2009 at 1:02 pm
Yep, what you said!
Who were these testers? I worry as well about people who complain that coffee is “burnt and bitter.” Remember that horrible “no bitter beer” commercial from the 90s? As a fan of IPAs, I want bitter, bitter beer!
I tried Eight O’Clock a few years ago to try to save some cash. I figured it would have been just as tasty to crumble up the dollar bills, brew them, and call that coffee.
I don’t think you’re an elitist snob–you just can’t go back once you’ve had the revelation of a really distinctive taste like good coffee.
We should all be elitist snobs–then nobody would be an elitist snob!
Seamus
5 February 2009 at 5:15 pm
I have enjoyed 8 O’Clock 100% Columbian for the past several years, so I am in complete agreement with this taste test.
Tim
Tim
6 February 2009 at 2:00 pm
Tim, I still haven’t found any, so two questions:
1. What supermarket chains carry it?
2. Can you buy it in whole-bean form? (I like to grind the beans immediately before brewing.)
LeisureGuy
6 February 2009 at 2:07 pm
Pick N Save, one of the largest grocery chains in my area, has carried it for 20 years.
scottfeldstein
6 February 2009 at 3:32 pm
Eight O clock coffee is cheaper than Starbucks, obviously, but i’m not so sure they can beat the Bux in taste
coffee drinker
8 February 2009 at 8:14 pm