Favourite ‘cheap’ beans

flogen

Obviously the freshly-roasted, local craft stuff is often the most recommended in terms of good quality coffee, but I find it hard to justify spending ~€10 on 250g of beans all the time.

I’m wondering if people have a preference when it comes to the cheaper, what you might call supermarket brands that are out there... the stuff that might come in closer to the €3-5 per 250g bag range?

Or would you rather have less coffee, at a better quality, than go with something cheap?

adrian522

I normally go to Nicks Espresso in Ranelagh for some decent cheaper beans, its around 5.50 I think for 250g, but not really possible at the moment.

I'd certainly be one who'd prefer less coffee but higher quality. Normally have 2 coffees per day or thereabouts.

Glebee

I was stuck last week and picked up some Frank & Honest beans in Super Valu for 4.99euro. Was plesently surprised.
I always get the 1kg bags of Lidl Italiamo Caffe Tradizonle 100% Arabica beans when there available. They were always great for the price, less than 10euro I think.

Ive had loads of subscriptions in the past but I just cant justify the cost.

https://theblackcoffeejournal.com/category/lidl/

flogen

adrian522 wrote: »

I normally go to Nicks Espresso in Ranelagh for some decent cheaper beans, its around 5.50 I think for 250g, but not really possible at the moment.

I'd certainly be one who'd prefer less coffee but higher quality. Normally have 2 coffees per day or thereabouts.

Ah. Good to know for future reference, though. Hopefully.

flogen

Glebee wrote: »

I was stuck last week and picked up some Frank & Honest beans in Super Valu for 4.99euro. Was plesently surprised.
I always get the 1kg bags of Lidl Italiamo Caffe Tradizonle 100% Arabica beans when there available. They were always great for the price, less than 10euro I think.

Ive had loads of subscriptions in the past but I just cant justify the cost.

https://theblackcoffeejournal.com/category/lidl/

That’s interesting. I’ve gotten one or two Frank & Honest coffees and thought they were poor... they are from self-service bean-to-cup machines so there may be any number of reasons for that, though. That experience made me avoid their beans.

Are those Lidl beans usually part of one of their Italian-themed specials?

And I love the idea of a subscription but I find them too expensive. They often cost more than the coffee would on its own, when the opposite should be the case

The Hound Gone Wild

Velo sell whole beans in Aldi for €4 per 250g. They're a small roastery in Cork. They don't have a roasted on date but if you take a BBD of 1 year you can work out approx when they were roasted. Decent quality. They do a pre ground bag too so be careful when you pick them up.

murphyebass

The Hound Gone Wild wrote: »

Velo sell whole beans in Aldi for €4 per 250g. They're a small roastery in Cork. They don't have a roasted on date but if you take a BBD of 1 year you can work out approx when they were roasted. Decent quality. They do a pre ground bag too so be careful when you pick them up.

As far as cheap beans go these are head and shoulder above any of the other muck in supermarkets.

It’s what I’m drinking 70% of the time these days as it’s handy to pick up when I’m doing a shop.

caviardreams

The Hound Gone Wild wrote: »

Velo sell whole beans in Aldi for €4 per 250g. They're a small roastery in Cork. They don't have a roasted on date but if you take a BBD of 1 year you can work out approx when they were roasted. Decent quality. They do a pre ground bag too so be careful when you pick them up.

I think it's actually a 200g bag iirc - so essentially €5 per 250g

murphyebass

caviardreams wrote: »

I think it's actually a 200g bag iirc - so essentially €5 per 250g

It’s gas, someone always points that out. It’s true but it’s still very cheap coffee considering the quality.

It’s not comparable to a €12 single origin bag but when compared to the other muck on the shelf in a supermarket it’s faaar better.

flogen

The Hound Gone Wild wrote: »

Velo sell whole beans in Aldi for €4 per 250g. They're a small roastery in Cork. They don't have a roasted on date but if you take a BBD of 1 year you can work out approx when they were roasted. Decent quality. They do a pre ground bag too so be careful when you pick them up.

Thanks - have seen their ground stuff but didn’t realise they were doing whole beans too

caviardreams

murphyebass wrote: »

It’s gas, someone always points that out. It’s true but it’s still very cheap coffee considering the quality.

It’s not comparable to a €12 single origin bag but when compared to the other muck on the shelf in a supermarket it’s faaar better.

It's probably usually me - I have zero issue with velo, I am just pointing it out for clarity - 200g is a *very* unusual bag size and I think the company perhaps take advantage of that i.e. people compare the costs with that of a standard size bag. €20 per kg for supermarket beans is just not that cheap to me, when you can buy top quality roasted to order for €24-28.

Squidgy Black

I've always found Ponaire to be a great middle ground between supermarket beans and the higher end beans. Their blends are €6.50 for a 250g bag or €22 for a kilo, and they're not bad at all.

Akula

+1 for velo as a go to cheap one.

Lots of good deals available direct from roasters currently. Take a look at west cork coffee.

Hodors Appletart

my wife gets that velo, the preground stuff for when she's not arsed grinding beans, I've had a cup or two of it and it's grand.

I'll probably never buy the beans.

murphyebass

Hodors Appletart wrote: »

my wife gets that velo, the preground stuff for when she's not arsed grinding beans, I've had a cup or two of it and it's grand.

I'll probably never buy the beans.

I buy the beans.

I’ve used it for espresso, cappuccino and filter. .

The missus really likes it as a cappuccino. I had one yesterday, rarely drink them, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

As an espresso for the money it’s not bad at all. Once you get it dialled in it really can produce a decent shot with nice fruity flavour.

I drink it as aeropress probably about 70% of the time. Again it’s not a single origin expensive cup but it’s a good cup of Joe when brewed this way.

Honestly I think it’s best as a double espresso though when it’s dialled in right.

mad m

SuperValu are doing own brand Italian beans. Get you out of a hole. €1.79 a 250gm bag

J_E

Ponaire's blends are decent at €22 a kilo, free delivery. I don't think you'll get much better than that.

I mean, if you're happy with what some of the supermarkets pass as coffee, more power to you, but a lot of those black oily beans mess up grinders and taste like charcoal. I just couldn't justify buying the mass produced beans, knowing there are a lot of Irish roasters struggling to keep going and could really use your support.

jeffwode

https://dreambeanscoffee.comDreambeanscoffee.com has a special offer of buy any 4, pay for 3. There's free shipping over €30 which makes the coffee very inexpensive. For example, 4 x 500g bags of Sweet Sorrento (has 2 Star Great Taste Award) costs €36 or €18 per kg. Or you can mix and match and you get the cheapest bag free. Ìt's good stuff. Even without the 4 for 3 it's good value.

https://dreambeanscoffee.com/product/sweet-sorrento/

flogen

J_E wrote: »

Ponaire's blends are decent at €22 a kilo, free delivery. I don't think you'll get much better than that.

I mean, if you're happy with what some of the supermarkets pass as coffee, more power to you, but a lot of those black oily beans mess up grinders and taste like charcoal. I just couldn't justify buying the mass produced beans, knowing there are a lot of Irish roasters struggling to keep going and could really use your support.

That’s kind of my point - I’d rather not rely on the cheap supermarket beans but I also can’t justify spending €10/250g... especially as I’m still getting the hang of my grinder and machine and dumping a fair few grounds as a result.

I’m trying to see if there are good options in between those price points - and it looks like there are

Technocentral

How cheap do people expect? A 250g of Cloudpicker SAM beans (our coffee of choice) cost 9.50, it lasts a week for me and girlfriend I usually have 2 cups in morning my girlfriend 1 - 2 thats about 21 cups of excellent coffee for 45 cents a cup, amazing value imo.

murphyebass

Technocentral wrote: »

How cheap do people expect? A 250g of Cloudpicker SAM beans (our coffee of choice) cost 9.50, it lasts a week for me and girlfriend I usually have 2 cups in morning my girlfriend 1 - 2 thats about 21 cups of excellent coffee for 45 cents a cup, amazing value imo.

.

€4 for a 200g bag of beans roasted in by an Irish roaster is cheap.

I don’t think anyone would argue that there’ll be a leap in quality between those two beans but to answer your question most people would not consider a tenner for a bag of beans as being cheap.

Your breakdown of the price is your way of justifying it to yourself which is fine but it doesn’t equate to cheap.

For what it’s worth I normally have a coffee sub, two actually for the past two years but stopped this year as they didn’t get a big enough reduction in the Black Friday sale that I’d normally buy them in.

Since then I buy a mix of actual cheap beans and some like you mention.

timconny

Lads, this thread is brilliant. Thanks a million for all the info. Much appreciated. I was getting so fed up of paying 3fe 10 euro for a 250g bag of beans. I bought a De Longhi Magnifica bean to cup about a year ago. It's very hard to dial in. The only way I can get nice espresso out of it is by using 25g of expensive coffee per shot. So €1 each with the 3fe coffee. I started buying €5 bags of Frank and Honest recently. Do you reckon I'd be best to use my cafetiere and grinder to brew the expensive beans and just use cheap beans in the bean to cup when I'm in a hurry?

Hodors Appletart

25g into a b2c machine for one cup is excessive, you need to do something about your recipe there, something is definitely wrong.

failing that, then yes, stop lashing what are by all metrics excellent beans into a machine you are not using correctly (or has something wrong with it)

timconny

Thanks for the reply. To be fair, a bit of that 25g is probably water weight. Annoyingly, there’s no way of knowing the exact measurements of anything with these automatic bean to cup machines. All I can do is weigh the used pucks. All the machine owners in the forums say to set coffee dosage at max. I suppose it’s just an inconvenience I’ll have to put up with.

dball

discountcoffee.ie do a decent blend called Temple bar and another called city blend.
Both about 11 or 12 per kg. very drinkable

timconny

Brilliant stuff! Thanks a million 👍

Hodors Appletart

dball wrote: »

discountcoffee.ie do a decent blend called Temple bar and another called city blend.
Both about 11 or 12 per kg. very drinkable

can you describe them, even in terms of other beans more widely available?

sioda

dball wrote: »

discountcoffee.ie do a decent blend called Temple bar and another called city blend.
Both about 11 or 12 per kg. very drinkable

My worry there is are they fair trade?

dball

sioda wrote: »

My worry there is are they fair trade?

Never really gave that much thought before. I might have to change my approach going forward.. thanks for pointing that out,

timconny

Hi lads. I store my coffee beans in a Gator coffee canister. Most bags already come with a one way valve. Is putting them in a canister actually spoiling my beans? Does it not, in fact, let in far more air than a bag every time you open it?