To address the Philz controversy: I didn’t realise they weren’t widely available. It was heavily suggested in the Patreon poll to pick the coffees, so I presumed it had decent distinction US-wide. My apologies! I also don’t think I understood the massive grocery variation by region (coming from a small island). Feel free to pick your own winner from the top 4! Regardless - I hope this was a fun video!
Cafe Bustelo is not widely available outside of South Florida (for good reason). EDIT: I see I was wayyyyy wrong about Bustelo's reach in the US. I had no idea it was available nationwide. Living in Miami and knowing just how bitter it is, I thought it would only work in markets where "coladas" reign supreme.
I wouldn't consider Philz the same category. Philz started as an artisan coffee shop in San Francisco. It grew quickly and is becoming widely distributed. I've seen it across the US major cities. I was even surprised to find a shop open in Chicago.
Never heard of the winner either and i'm in the states (but on the East coast) but don't generally buy coffee from the grocery store. I commonly see New England Coffee though that wasn't represented here.
@@truthfortots3288 I would honestly say that the cheapest whole bean coffee you can find in your local grocery store is going to be better than the most expensive pre-ground coffee you can find. It makes a world of difference.
That's bc the employee don't "make" the coffee. They just put beans in a large coffee maker and press start. It's likely the grocery store product is also different than what's made in much larger amount for the stores and also you have more control over how the coffee is made at home than at the restaurant.
Yeah, as someone who works at Tim Hortons, our coffee to me tastes like battery acid, I have to put butter and half a packet of salt just to drink it, when I don't have time to make my own.
I tried Tim Horton's in Leicester... about a week before UK hit lockdown! I was excited by it. But when I had it, was rubbish. As you say, they just don't know how to make it.
@@mussdem I think it's both. I think the stuff in the bags is different by default from the stuff they serve you, and I suspect the blends are slightly adjusted for the differences in palates. The canadian store/resto brew is fully intended to be blended up as a double double.
@@JonNelsonCycling also note that instead of putting the gold play button behind the set to show it off to viewers, this button is in the editing suite. Like it’s a testament to the crew that makes this channel great. I might be reading too much into that, but I choose to believe that this is a classy channel
When I worked for Starbucks, we were allowed to take home a free bag of beans every week, and Veranda blend was basically the only coffee I drank for about 3 years because of that. It’s surprisingly drinkable, all things considered. James’s face on tasting the Pike Place roast definitely brought back memories though.
When I used to drink the office coffee, my choices were generally either that Peet's Major Dickason's Blend, or Starbuck's Pike's Place. This is what eventually forced me into bringing my own coffee into the office.
A few years ago, if you asked for a 'drip' (vs a 1,000 calorie coffee-themed liquid dessert) in Starbucks, they would ask you to choose from what they had brewed. Now they just pour you what they have. Maybe Pike Place ended up going down the sink.
People actually drink Starbucks crap. They arrived in Sweden, being confident and just closed all their locations because European people actually like good coffee.
Your quarter finals match up between Tim Hortons and McDonald's was by far the most interesting to me! Up here in Canada, it's like mythology at this point that Tim's always had the best 'fast food' coffee, and maybe 10 years ago McDonald's stole their coffee supplier and Tim's had to get a new one, which wasn't as good. I myself still prefer McDonald's coffee for something cheap and quick on the go (other than Starbucks Blonde roasts), but it was really cool seeing you taste each head to head!
As a fellow Canadian, I think what I've come to is that it's very store dependent. McDonalds is always been quite a decent cup, but Tim's can vary from incredible to the worst, most sour thing, just by travelling half a km.
I've never liked Tim's (or McDonald's) in their places, but interesting to learn here that the coffee itself is decent. I just feel like how they brew and store it doesn't help it out in the stores.
Many of these are available as whole beans. I’d love to see a remake with only the whole bean versions. Tip: 8 O’clock puts the roasting date on the bag. Get the freshest. If your favorite brand doesn’t have a roasting date, pick the bag with less air space. Air means old beans.
@@pilotcriticI have been buying Seattle’s Best for a few years now and have been tasting a decline of flavor! I just read that Starbucks sold it to Nestle! Well I need to find a new coffee!
For the longest time, you could grind the 8 O'clock right in the store. That was my mom's favorite - and boy did that aisle of the store smell amazing.
While I work at Starbucks, we did little coffee tastings where corporate would pair coffees and pastries or we would just taste the different blends and try and distinguish notes. I swear to God, every time Pike Place was in the tasting, we would all become super quiet and awkward about it with our manager. We were all terrified to say that it is one of the worst-tasting coffee blends ever, since its the primary blend used during the afternoon & is supposed to be their "famous" blend lol
First time I tried Starbuck's in the store, I returned to the counter wanting a different cup because it tasted so horrible, I thought it was bad, for some reason. No fancy latte, cream, frosting or anything, just a regular brew with sugar. Not to trash Starbucks, but I have given it second and third chances, at different locations and every time it tastes like an old man's smoking pipe. Like he emptied his ashes into the coffee - that's the only way I can describe the taste. Later, I heard a rumor that Starbuck's intentionally burns the beans. In who's world is that a good thing, if true? Dawn, have you ever heard of a similar complaint? Curious if it's just my taste and preference, or if I'm on the right track calling this?
@SomebodysPapa I have no idea if the beans are burnt intentionally or not. We didn't roast them in store. They were shipped to us in giant bags lol all I know is that it tastes awful. The cigarette ashes taste is spot on. If you want to get a good brew from Starbucks, you have to go early enough to get something other than Pike Place. Veranda is good imo, and the Christmas Blend during the holidays is super nice as well.
This video was surprisingly touching for me! I used to watch my mother drink Eight O’Clock coffee, but I remember it being quite bitter since I was so young. Now, as an adult, I drink Starbucks Veranda. To hear they’re so similar and I accidentally grew into my mother’s taste makes me feel very close to her. I should probably give Eight O’Clock another shot!
Eight o'clock is my choice because I was raised on it. Only the A&P grocery store sold it back in the day and when A&P closed their stores eight o'clock went on the market to all grocery stores to sell... so glad or it would have been history.
As someone of cuban descent that lives in a highly Cuban populated area, I will say that for cafe bustelo, it’s typically used in cafe cubano. I’m unsure of what brewing methods you used, but we use a moka pot to brew our coffee instead of something like an American coffee pot. It’s also consumed with sugar that’s been whipped with the first drops of concentrated coffee to create the espumita (sweet foam). Cafe bustelo (as well as Pilon and Las Llaves) are a little more finely ground than their more American counterparts to create a more concentrated brew. I’m not saying you’re wrong for judging them all the same, but I have a feeling that like cafe bustelo, some of the other coffees you might not have liked may have been manufactured with different brewing methods in mind.
Wow that meta-edit at 9:07 was one of the smoothest transitions in a youtube video!we all know how excellent your taste in coffee is, but your taste in video production deserves credit too, between this, the brad pitt commercial, and the portable espresso videos, I nominate you for an oscar!
Totally agree. I also appreciate when they get their horizontal lines perfectly straight. Though they did miss applying the color/log adjustment @10:58
I was a barista for a couple of years at Philz. They trained us to push Tesora on new customers, but I always recommended Silken Splendor instead. Looks like my personal taste checked out!
I think James should have had the Tim Hortons on the counter at the end with a smaller sized Canadian flag next to it. Then he should have apologized in kinsmanship.
I was shocked that Tim's did so well. They must do something tragically wrong to it in the stores. Like he said in the video too, I've haven't enjoyed their coffee from the store either
I like CB a lot too even though I prefer medium roast. It’s tastes so smooth and flavorful to me. I was surprised to see him cringe after tasting it both times lol. EDIT: now two months after drinking mostly specialty coffee, I can’t stand Bustello anymore lol
@@lonestarr1490 Tbf, they are totally right about that. The people who watch this channel have a pretty big bias toward excitement, novelty and how do coffee compare. While most people consuming coffee just want a standard good cup to start their day, not a nuanced interisting taste experience every morning. I say that as someone who only likes coffee for the taste experience, I can't drink much cafeine daily sadly :/
Same!! I also found it amusing when he described the Tim Hortons coffee as "friendly" several times during the tasting. Even our coffee ascribes to the stereotype! ☺️☕🇨🇦
If all the packages were freshly opened right before the tasting (and I see no reason to suspect otherwise), it really doesn't make that much of a difference. The real issue with pre-ground coffee is that it stales so much faster, like within days after breaking the seal. (Also, did he say some of them were pre-ground? I thought what he said was that the winning brand was the only one that doesn't sell pre-ground. That doesn't imply that all the other ones were pre-ground.)
From what I see on the store shelves. In the states the ground to whole bean ratio sold is about 50-50 and there is little in the way of instant sold at all. The verity of K cups is huge though. It has replaced the instant I suspect. I see he left the Costco, Sam's and the other big house brands off this list. maybe he cant get it? I don't think I have seen Phil's in the local Food Lion. BTW I always use whole bean.
Yes they use their coffee, what I found on my trips to Olean , NY for work was this. If you order a large doubledouble you get the best ever cup of coffee, IMHO. But one morning on the way to work and a stop for a Lrg dbldbl, they said they were out of creamer and would put the creamer and sugar in the bag. No issue right? Wrong, mixed up a dbl dbl with what they gave me and guess what........................just a mediocre cup of cofffee. It's the creamer and 10 years later I still can't find out or mix things to make it taste so good.
Tim Horton's changed their coffee supplier years ago. I notice that the label on the coffee in this video said "Original Tim Horton's" (or something like that), suggesting that it is indeed the old variety and not the new variety served in the shops. According to a quick google, the old supplier is now the source for McDonald's, which helps explain why McD's now tastes so much better than I remember in my youth.
@@STEVEARABIA1 marginally different and depends heavily on the location. I find a good tim hortons that cleans the machines properly and cares abiut the customers will have better coffee in store. Where as a shitty tim hortons in a mall where they have "too much" traffic to clean as often tastes like wet socks after being burnt on a firepit. Whereas the home grounds are cobtrolled to how you woukd prefer brewing it.
I’ve long said that Dunkin’s original blend is some of the best of the basic coffees you can get from a grocery store, and now I am so glad that you have affirmed that.
Many decades ago the Dunkin Donuts was the best. Somehow and why they changed it several years ago. It is not the same as it was 45 years ago. Just saying.
TLDR; You can get close to making it taste the same at home, but not quite. I have tried my best to replicate the taste of Dunkin's hot coffee original, made regular at home and I can't get it right, but close: 1) Bought a BUNN Commercial VP-17 coffee maker. Same brand and brew method as in the stores, just smaller. Water at 200 degrees, fast pour-over brew style. 2) Bought whole beans in store. 3) Filtered water. 4) I've heard it's between 3 and 3.5 ounces of coffee per 64 ounce pot, so I tried 3.25oz of coffee for 64 ounces of water. 5) Ground the coffee coarse, like they do. 6) A medium regular has 45ml of light cream (1.5 ounces or 3 tablespoons NOT half-n-half), and 3 sugars (3 teaspoons). I put that in mine, then topped it with coffee until getting to 14 fluid ounces total (dunks medium hot size). It tastes very good and is close, but the aroma and taste is not the same. Further research suggests that the dunks beans sold in grocery store and in their own coffee shops are not the same sourced beans that they make their coffee with. Also the beans they make the coffee with are very freshly roasted (no more than 3 days old).
Found it very impressive how consistent your choices were. Basically every head to head was guessable. Your ability to distinguish profiles and judge the quality is really impressive.
We have been drinking Peets for 35+ years (lived near the original in Berkeley) so we panicked momentarily when you tossed MD. Glad to see it squeeeeked by. Ordered some Dunkin to compare.
Trader Joe’s, a smaller novelty grocery store has many, many coffees, which I think are mostly theirs. I would love to see you do taste testing on those! I enjoyed this taste test. Thanks!
Peet’s Major D had always been my go to Grocery store brand. Though I usually buy whole bean. It broke my heart when he eliminated it initially, but then, by some type of divine intervention, he corrected himself, and then it showed up at the end! ❤
Major Dickason is very popular at my local grocery, and as Peet's actually prints roast date on the bag, I can purchase it within a month or so of roasting. It's a good daily driver, and often on sale.
Major D is my daily cup, love it black. I find it chocolatey and sweet. Certainly there are bitter notes, but I like the contrasts. I also don't eat carbs or sweets, so it might be I'm more sensitive. The other night I tasted some sphagetti sauce (not store bought, no added sugar) and was immediately hit by hiw sweet it was.
I think you should do a comparison light roast only, medium roast only and dark roast only. I think that would be a more fair comparison especially since you favor light roast, your natural bias will always tend make it impossible for a dark roast to come out on top! Additionally some people like me prefer dark roast and would like your opinion on the best dark roast!
I was never much of a coffee person until I started watching James Hoffmann, who I found via his collab with Tom Scott. I was _sure_ after bingeing his channel that I'd be an interesting, fruity, acidic, complex light-coffee person, like he is. Totally certain! So, on his recommendation, being a very poor person who can't even fathom spending a thousand dollars or more on an espresso setup, or even a few hundred on a good grinder for pourovers, I got a subscription to Cometeer, figuring they'd do better than I could anyway. Lo and behold, I hated every single light roast they sent me the first month. The mediums were "fine". But the dark roasts... oh my god, they're like magic! To be fair, I like lattes and cappuccinos, and without the milk and Splenda to mellow them out, most (but not all) of the darks are too bitter for me. I almost exclusively drink iced coffee here in Arizona, and I do add _more_ milk and sweetener for the darker roasts, but there's something magical that happens when bringing up a really developed roast that just isn't there with the mediums. Anyway, point being... at first, I, too, wished James would give his recommendations on the best dark roast, but then I had an epiphany. Why on Earth would I want _that?_ That would be like asking an off-road rock crawling enthusiast what the best track race car is. Being steeped in the car world in general, they might have _some_ more knowledge than a random person off the street, but it's going to be inherently biased. So I decided if I want recommendations on darker roasts, I needed to find me a coffee expert who _likes_ medium and dark roasts. That lead me to Morgan Drinks Coffee, and honestly I love them both, so I couldn't be happier!
@@living-wellon-less5669 Thanks! However, I probably won't get into roasting my own... I'm disabled, and am mostly looking for very portable, small-footprint setups that I can keep in my office where I spend most of my time, rather than going out to the kitchen. I'm looking into an Aeropress, a stand-alone milk foamer, and a decent hand-grinder at the moment (I already have a really nice pourover kettle I use to melt my Cometeer). Gonna ask for some of it for Christmas, and then I'll fill in the blanks myself, and I think I can get a decent-ish setup for hopefully around $200.
You might find it interesting that Tim Hortons and McCafe are roasted by the same company. The husband of one of my coworkers is the district manager for Tim Hortons in Western New York and used to be the same for McDonald's just north in Ontario and she brought this up in a previous conversation about coffee. I greatly enjoyed this video!
@@ZM-jb6gc This is a local choice by your specific nearest McDonalds restaurant, tho. Some MsDonalds restaurants haven't changed their coffee proportions even thru the pandemic
That is pretty interesting. Since you said in Western New York, you may know what this is. Jamacian Me Crazy and Witches Brew are the same thing; and both terrible.
As a Louisiana native, the Cafe du Monde reaction was PERFECT. Working in New Orleans for many years, I think I’ve had black chicory coffee requested once. It is basically always served as Cafe au Lait (milk coffee). If you’re lucky, there are beignets involved and the bitter, smoky chicory stands up against the fried dough and mountain of powdered sugar.
Fellow Louisiana native. I totally agree with you, although I was a bit surprised that he picked Starbucks over Community. Neither are great coffees, I always buy local whole bean when I can, but I never thought that a blind test would be that close between those two in particular.
I searched for years for a flavorful but not bitter coffee and finally stumbled upon Peet’s House Blend. I have it shipped to me in the bean monthly and have been for years. I do try others to see if something else is better but I still love my Peet’s House Brent. Please add it to your next tasting.
I live in Italy and I don't know any of these brands. What I find extremely interesting is that, in the first round, on many occasions the more expensive, sometimes way more expensive coffee was eliminated straight away when confronted with a much cheaper competitor. This shows how cost does not necessarily relate with our own personal taste, and one doesn't necessarily get more when one pays more. I find this to be very true also in other fields such as beer, gin and vodka.
A lot of that has to do with his personal preference for lighter roasts, I think. The cheaper, more readily available stuff tends to be of lighter roasts.
I work for an Italian company and they provide free coffee from Lavazza. I think it's OK, not bad, but prefer a brand called Intelligentia that is brewed in Chicago
I'm surprised how emotionally invested I got when it was Tim Hortons vs Dunkin. Even though DD lost I think that's the most patriotic I've felt in decades.
Here near the Canadian border, that's all the coffee we have: Tim's and Dunkin. I think he picked correctly, but it's definitely a personal preference! 😅
Good afternoon from Canada. Fun FYI, the Tim's coffe you tried is a new kind for them. The McCafe (Macdonald's) is what Tims was using prior to 4 years ago. Macdonalds bought the supply contract from Tim Horton coffee when they wanted to improve their terrible coffee. Made Macdonalds an acceptable choice when in a limited area for choices. Really enjoy your content BTW.
For the Americans confused by this comment, this only applies in Canada. McDonald's in order to compete with Tim Horton's up here (which has more locations than McDonalds in Canada) had to step up their coffee game because Canadians drink lots of coffee. I believe they only changed the McDonalds coffee to the old Tim's roast in Canada. Found that out by ordering coffee from McDonalds in the States several times and it was dreadful!
Absolutely loved the fact that Tim hortons and Dunkin’ went head to head as I feel like those are the two breakfast/donut places that have cult followings. Reminds me of the Sheetz vs Wawa rivalry.
I didn't even think about it, but those two totally do have cult followings! I was indoctrinated into the Cult of Dunkin and I wouldn't want it any other way XD
Never had Tim Horton's (I think it's a Canadian chain?), but I really like Dunkin' Donuts out of all coffee I can get at the grocery store. So I almost always have it on hand for a brew.
I’m surprised too. But come to think of it they are designing “least offensive coffees” on purpose, so I guess it could make sense. Their game is consistency.
They probably have a HUUUGE research&develop team behind all those coffes, going through all kinds of different test groups to find the one that upsets the least amount of people. Especially McDonalds with their McCafe nowadays kinda wants to sell the coffeeshop vibe and back it up with okayish coffee.
I really like my coffee. I get whole bean from Costco and use a percolator to get the full flavor. The best flavor I have found is My Comfort Coffee a organic coffee made in Peru Chancamayo , Chontali. A medium roast real rich and smooth
The Netherlands has a huge coffee culture, with many old Dutch brands. It would be very interesting to see a tasting of those coffee's, i.e. Douwe Egberts, Kanis en Gunnink, Max Havelaar, etc.
My family in Michigan drinks Tim Horton. You can't get the bags in all grocery stores, it's kind of tricky in Wisconsin to find it, but it's a brand found in American grocery stores. Other than Hawaiian beans, all coffee isn't from America anyway.
Philz is the reason I have become a weird coffee person. They are more known for their mixed coffee drinks, but they do a pour over for every drink in their cafes and list the flavor profiles of all their roasts.
I've never heard of this brand before I thought I had tried all the grocery store coffees we have. Where are you in the US? Like is it a west coast thing or something like that?
Philz is my favorite coffee. But nothing beats it made fresh in the Cafe. Pour over heaven. I miss it since I moved away from SF and I'm not driving 30 min to Sacramento for a cup. Well......maybe I will some weekday...I miss it that much.
I would love to see another update to this, maybe one around the holidays to celebrate the year anniversary of this video. Thank you James for the amazing content and the great time your provide to all your fans and fellow coffee lovers.
I don't drink coffee. I watch this channel because it's such a pleasure to see someone take such pleasure in all the particularities of his "hobby". (and the good hair!)
As a New Englander with Canadian relatives, Dunkins vs Tim Hortons felt like when the Canadiens play the Bruins, I wasn't sure which way I should be cheering!
Worked at Philz for 5 years and can definitely say that the coffee is different. Each blend of coffee has 2-7 roasts of beans all sourced from around the world. Each bean is roasted to the correct profile and then blended together creating each unique coffee blend. When visiting a store you are presented with a very full-bodied cup of coffee that is crafted one cup at a time via a special Philz version of pour over.
I’m not a sophisticated coffee drinker, but I drink it black and prefer light to medium roast. Whenever I’m traveling and grab a quick convenient cup of McCafe, from the drive through, I find myself surprised about half way through and muttering “not a bad cup of coffee”. I have been mocked by others for sharing this, but watching the McCafe get mildly positive feedback was hugely satisfying and weirdly therapeutic for me.
Funnily enough, Economic Ninja (YT channel) also raves about McDonald's coffee which I always thought was weird until I kept seeing people like you comment otherwise. I guess I need to give it a shot, haha.
As a worker for one of the major coffee brands here I've been hoping James would talk about it more. I love the coffee we have and we even do tastings in store so we can understand our own coffee better but we never really talk about our coffee vs other coffee so I've been wanting a more expert opinion about it for a while.
As someone who lives very close to the original Philz I am so happy to see they won. They are a sf based and family owned company with an amazing history and story. The father who started it all is the kindest person you will ever meet, from the one original location and even as they expanded and grew the business he would still come in to the different locations and get behind the counter and make your coffee or sit and talk with you. They do make some amazing coffees that are so flavorful and robust and they do all of their coffee ground to order and served in the pour over manner. Again I’m so happy for them for winning
As someone who had worked for Philz for years, their coffee is best made yourself. The pour-over method used at the actual stores is aggressive and there's a lot of inconsistency cup-to-cup. Doing it yourself results in much better results! I miss the single-origin blends. Phil is incredibly nice although it's sad to see how Jacob and upper management treat their stores and employees.
@@roanlo1213 Interesting. I'd still take a freshly brewed if inconsistent cup from Philz any day compared to whatever is in the drip machines at Starbucks or Peet's, and honestly I'd take it over a lot of the other pour-overs and such that I've had too. I do buy Philz beans for aeropress at home, but I've just always thought their in-store cups were a real treat.
@@roanlo1213 For me I think its more like getting a cup at Philz is just different from at home, different brewing method and tastes of how its done so its fun variety. Plus while there are tons of even better smaller coffee shops around the Bay Area they’re still just a very reliable choice if they’re nearby.
I personally believe that over roasting is a way to hide poor quality beans. Once they get that dark flavor, it seems to just dominate the whole taste profile.
Everything we’ve buried from Tj’s is either way too roasted and bitter or it has zero flavor. That tropical looking round container of beans made me curious- that was the 1 w/zero flavor.
The fuck? Tim's has been trash for years. I loved them growing up but a bit after RBI bought them I started having to skip some stores because it would just be filth water in my cup. That and doughnuts not being made in store anymore. Now if it's not dark roast double double I can't even stomach it. I'm actively trying to give Tim's 0 dollars any given year.
I laughed every time he described it as 'friendly', definitely playing into the trope of friendly, polite Canadians. As for the fact that James didn't enjoy his previous Tim's coffee I can say that I agree. A good Tim's cup of coffee is very good and enjoyable, but not every Tim's cup is a good cup. For some reason the coffee lacks consistency, perhaps not every Tim's filter their water or something, producing a different taste depending which Tim's you buy it.
I have a feeling the ratios James used is way different from what the stores actually brew, since the store brews taste like water with a slight hint of mud.
I've been able to find Dunkin' in bean form at Kroger and Tom Thumb (part of Albertson's). I live not too far from a local coffee roaster, but if all else fails I will drink Dunkin'.
I love Dunkin coffee, AT Dunkin Donuts, but their bagged coffee definitely doesn't taste anywhere near as good, or even similar. Folgers Black Silk for me, I don't do any grinding or fancy brewing, I'm entirely too lazy for that, but I'd actually like to get into it, just don't know if I ever will 🤣
@@johnnygeorgopoulos4072 Part of being lazy is clean-up, and tbh if you're just doing drip / pour over / immersion (french press, clever dripper) which are all pretty quick and easy, a good hand grinder takes very little time for the reward and is insanely easy to clean-up (barely any effort). Whereas a nice electric grinder is more expensive and more work to clean since they retain more at lower price points. I've converted a lot of lazy friends into grinding their own coffee once they taste it and just use a simple Clever dripper since clean up is literally "toss filter in garbage/compost."
I would love to see this head to head again but with Lavazza and La Columbe coffee included! I love Lavazza coffee the best as far as grocery coffee goes, but La Columbe is getting some traction here in the US as well. Also, I am so happy to not be the only one that thinks Pikes coffee tastes like trash and am so surprised Dunkin was a top contender!
I just wanna give props to Dunkin for always having batch brew filter on whenever I go. Starbucks batch brew filter is quickly becoming the new McDonalds milkshake machine in that they rarely have it on, and when asked they say it’s ‘being cleaned / broken’
@@StucklnAWell I think he just means the regular coffee machine isn't being used. I'm experiencing this too. They always look around like you asked if their coworker might be on break, like they haven't answered that 28 times already. They USED to go whoops and start a batch, not anymore. The point is double, to save money because most people are there for the coffee-flavored milkshakes anyway, and to drive the few remaining actual coffee drinkers to expensive alternatives. I'm usually okay with the more expensive pour-over drip coffee. Andy I hear you but I will ALWAYS pick a starbucks pourover over a DD. I just have a personal distaste for DD, always tastes like peanut oil and napkins to me.
I work at a Starbucks and we stop doing the brewed dark and blonde in the afternoon because it doesn't sell as much. You can ask for a pour over of any kind if you don't mind a wait. I do recommend going inside to get a pour over.
As an American and an East Coaster - I agree with your evaluation. My “poor man’s” coffee is Dunkin’. When we burn through the Anchorhead (local specialty) we fall back on Dunkin. The Starbucks you tasted is literally the only one that isn’t awful. If forced to get coffee at a Starbucks, I will get the Veranda Blonde as a pour over. Peet’s has really tanked. It used to be better than it is today.
I worked for peets coffee in one of their coffee bars for 4 years and they always said that peets is supposed to be known for their dark roast so I’m glad that still holds true with you and it wasn’t just some corporate big talk Edit: just saw you comment asking if the coffee is that same in the shop and I can tell you it’s 10x fresher. We were delivered coffee weekly from the California roaster (I worked in Chicago) and the roast date we received was never more then 5 days old.
i have noticed peets have put roasting dates on their grocery store coffees dunno of that was always a thing or a more recent thing, but the extra level of tracability compared to everything else is nice to have
@@nevadanate4957 There is no comparison. Starbucks dark roasts taste like someone made a mistake. Though I've heard people say that their "scorched" bean flavor is a trademark, I can't imagine why someone would want that.
@Jack Spearman 😆👌 I've never appreciated anything from Folgers either haha . They even sometimes give free coffee away at work and I always know if it's folgers.
@@Ambrosianite I once got some Folgers on reduction from an American sweet shop who were closing my local branch, and it was pretty instant regret - just tasted totally burnt, whether I used filter or Aeropress
As a former philz employee, it was nice to see their flagship blend-the “Tesora” get kicked out early, but the silken splendor was one of my personal faves and easily the most popular light roast, probably in the top 3 most popular philz coffees in general out of the 15+ blends every store has. Nice work, I’ll have to pick myself up a bag of silken splendor and remind myself what all the fuss was about. It’s going to hurt to have to pay full price though 😅
@@blarghblargh the reasoning I always heard is that tesora was the closest blend to an espresso style taste, and they are thinking about Starbucks as competition. All the employees agreed on 3 things. 1. Tesora sucked. 2. Starbucks house blend sucked. 3. Tesora and the Starbucks house blend were indeed very similar… I think the idea was to get Starbucks enthusiast in the door with a familiar flavor in Tesora with our “Frappuccino” stand in, the “mojito,” and then get them curious about trying the other blends. In Philz’s defense, that goal has the double effect of making them money if it works, but also expanding the pallets of people who otherwise wouldn’t bother taking coffee more seriously
@@zwsh89 makes total sense once you explain it. philz' goal worked entirely in my case, and he basically got me to try light roasts, drink my coffee black, and prefer pour over.
@@blarghblargh nice, that actually makes me really happy to hear! Working at philz was a corporate cog-in-the-wheel type normal job, and sucked my soul out day by day, but unlike other barista jobs, and whether or not we converted people specifically into philz coffee drinkers or not, it always made me and my coworkers genuinely proud that what we were doing was actually helping people rediscover coffee, improving their quality of life, opening their pallets, and educating them on how to be in control of their coffee experience. Whether you came to philz for your pour over didn’t matter to me, but if you came to me and learned that you can like a pour over, and I can help you decide if you’re a light roast or dark roast kind of person, that really made my day. I now buy all my coffee from random sources, but I still use the tricks and techniques I learned there to maximize my coffee enjoyment, and I love that my former customers are empowered to do the same!
As a former barista at Sbux for 8 years, I went through extensive coffee education (which I don’t think they do so much anymore, having reduced their offerings dramatically since 2016). I found it interesting that you defined Veranda as a medium, when Sbux defines it as a light or “blonde” roast. This was the first time I’ve watched a video on this channel, and I really enjoyed watching you taste and provide your insights. That McCafe made it as far as it did was the one that shocked me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
He's really talking more in the grand scheme of things. It's a light roast relative to other Starbucks roasts, not to all the specialty coffee out there.
@@69nites I came here to say much the same. I quite like dark roast coffee but have a number of friends that describe the majority of SBC as tasting ‘burnt’ to them. So in that context the Veranda is very light. That said I can and have enjoyed a lot of SB coffee but don’t drink it at home or go out of my way to drink it. I’m a subscriber to Peet’s small batch delivery service as my daily but use their Major Dickason’s blend when I run out. I slightly prefer their Big Bang..a medium for them I think but I can’t find it whole bean in my area.
Veranda is the only Starbuck's coffee I enjoy drinking. McCafe, when tried at their restaurant, is hit or miss. When prepared properly, it is totally acceptable. But most of the stores either add too much water, or keep it on the hot plate for one hour before served to you.
I find it interesting and a bit funny that his three choices for medium roast coffees were all major chain coffees. His choices for light and dark were both more unique, lesser known brands, but the medium were all things you could grab a cup of on your way to work. :D
I don't think Peet's is particularly underground, at least from my experience it's one of the most popular coffee brands out there and has a lot of shelf space in grocery stores
@@LLsunflower It's not exactly up there at the well known brand name level as Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and Dunkin' Donuts, though, is it? Your not gonna find a "Peet's" chain store all over the place. As a non-coffee drinker, I'm not exactly the authority on well known brands, but those three are well known even outside the realm of coffee connoisseurs.
@MysticJhn Maybe not on tier with those, but I'd put it just below them in terms of how prolific Peet's is in grocery stores. And while they don't have a massive number of locations, they have a pretty decent spread of shops as a franchise. What's interesting to me is that I'm not super familiar with Caribou as a brand, but I've been buying them as my go to grocery store brand very recently (for no particular reason), and there's a pretty decent amount on grocery store shelves in stores near me in Denver.
@@LilBoyHexley Caribou used to be quite heavily present at least in the midwest as early as about 15 years ago or so, it was basically what we had instead of Starbucks at least going by my memories as a kid. Starbucks took over all the old Caribou locations in my old neighborhood as the years went by.
I'm American, and was looking forward to something like this. Peet's is my favorite here in the bay area so it was nice to see them in the race at all. Please keep doing more american coffee stuff.
Just a quick comment - Starbuck's beans make massively better coffee at home than anything you can get in their stores, because they use way too much water when they brew it. The best cup of coffee I ever had was a Sulewesi single-origin bean (I am a fan of Indonesian flavor profiles) ground and made at a grocery store down the street from the Starbucks headquarters in downtown Seattle. So, fresh beans sold by Starbucks from a country I preferred, but not brewed by Starbucks themselves. Was also in the 1990's, just for reference.
Very interesting and it's always impressive how fine tuned James' palate is. One thing I would find interesting on this topic is how consistent a brand is with it's taste profile. I've always wondered how big brands keep the quality and taste consistent given the huge variability of sources of raw beans, or if they are actually consistent at all.
I was definitely impressed that he started recognizing the coffees on subsequent rounds - a good sign that he's actually identifying particular qualities and not just imagining tasting notes.
from what i know, there are research teams for those companies to produce consistent flavours, which consist of different types of beans from same suppliers at specific ratios. it may change if there is a huge change to the plantations available to the company or they simply deploy newer blends with the same tag on the product. either way, industrial production means quality control and minimize variability with mass production, if they can't manage to do that well, they have failed as a "fast food" coffee manufacturer.
I had to stop drinking caffeinated coffee because of a heart issue. I looked all over for a decaf coffee that tasted decent. I tried a lot of different brands. To my surprise, it was the Dunkin Donuts decaf that tasted the best.
Me not knowing anything about coffees went and grabbed a bag of Dunkin amongst the wall of daunting choices the other day at the grocery store. Glad I went with a solid choice.
@@kristinb5121. Decaf suggestions. Pete’s coffee decaf French roast. Starbucks decaf Italian roast in the individual instant coffee packets (crazy but true).
I live in California and went to a Philz cafe recently for the first time and it really impressed me how good their coffee was. After watching this I'm absolutely picking up some of their beans to try at home. Our current day to day staple is the starbucks pike place
Agreed I drink mostly grocery coffee but whole bean and one of the more local fresher roasted ones. Tastes good to me especially compared with ground coffee as it’s often really burned or nasty tasting.
A regular series would be great! Brands keep changing their coffee. I recently dropped my regular brand (Full Circle Organic Breakfast Blend). The grind became a powder, and the coffees much bitterer.
Cafe du Monde is used for Vietnamese style coffee. It is made with a single drip filter. You put condensed milk in a cup then the filter on top with the coffee, then fill it with coffee. Cafe Bustelo is my favorite for regular coffee.
@@jackihutch87 It's usually poured over ice by the way. I forgot to add that. Look up Vietnamese Coffee Phin Filter, those are what is used. You can find them in Chinese or Vietnamese grocery stores where they are inexpensive compared to the Internet, most of the time. I think the last time I saw them in store they were under $5. I would imagine espresso makers would be similar, like the stove kind. Warning: Addictive, tasty, and will keep you awake - when made correctly.
My wife bought one of those for making Viet. Coffee. Was surprised how small in is and the size of the holes. Was size grind do you use for making it? (I've got a Baratza, in case you do and have a preferred number) Thanks
As a Viet American who grew up drinking my dad's Cafe Du Monde that he makes every single day with a phin and some sweetened condensed milk, I found your immediately strong reaction to the chicory hilarious. This whole video was highly entertaining, and I was also very surprised by some of the results. I don't really buy grocery store coffee, but I did enjoy plenty of cups of Philz back when I lived in California. Please keep doing more of these, perhaps with brands from more parts of the world! (I now live in the Netherlands and would love your opinions on what can be found here 😁)
As a Filipino American I was looking for this comment…never in my life have I ever considered drinking it straight!! Even with the condensed milk and full cup of ice it would still kick my ass. 😅
I would have loved to see a chart plotting each coffee by position and cost per 100g. With the exception of the Cafe du Monde, it seemed that higher price generally seemed to correspond with better coffee, would be interesting to see how strong that correlation is.
On a similar note, it would have been nice if the editors had retained the price/mass info under the package images during the later rounds so we could continue making easy comparisons.
Maybe relatedly, it seems that cafe brands did better. I imagine they probably have to trade on taste more since people make decisions about a cup of coffee more often than they do a bag/tub and are less price sensitive at a cafe vs in a store.
Yeah I think that Philz coffee had an unfair advantage because it’s obviously a local whole bean roast, and was thus far fresher and better than all the blends. Not really a “grocery store coffee” there. But I think it does make the point that the best grocery store coffee experience you’re likely to have is something locally produced and whole-bean. That’s been my experience where I currently live in Colorado, for sure.
@yumitemple3507 That’s a great question! My favorites at the moment would probably be…. Ozo coffee, specifically their Isabelle espresso blend year round and whatever their seasonal blend is. I was really obsessed with their “Cozy Cabin” blend over the winter, and hope they bring it back. Huck Coffee is another great local local micro-roaster I’ve had good experiences with. Also this new local brand of coffee called “Drive” packaged in gas cans has shown up at King Soopers lately and I’ve tried their Baja and LeMans blends with positive results.
In the western US, there's a regional no-frills grocer called Winco Foods, and they sell private label coffee in bulk for $8 a pound. It's roasted in Portland OR, which is where I live, and moves fairly quick, so I've found it's one of if not the most reliable ways for me to get good whole bean coffee locally.
Philz are now placed in Grocery stores in CA - thankfully. It’s far superior coffee than most but is not priced at a premium vs. the higher end domestic or imported Italians. Philz Silky Splendor priced against regular (aka not very good) grocery brands like Folgers its $4-5 p/12oz more expensive
I recently found Philz coffee at my local target and decided to try it because of this video. Best cup I've had in years, even compared to "artisan" coffee shops.
When I was younger and first developing my taste for coffee, I think a vanilla latte from McDonalds was the first coffee I ever liked, so I agree, people might dismiss it prematurely for being McDonalds but they picked a good coffee to serve!
I would definitely like to see you try whole bean versions of grocery store coffees. Some coffees I dont normally like as ground either but the whole bean does taste a but different from some of those brands😊
I love Chock Full o Nuts. It’s cheap, smooth, and rich. It also comes in a metal can which means I have lots of free cans to use for stuff. Oh and it blends well with other coffee.
Another fan of Chock full o' nuts here but I in a place it's not available here. My favorite coffee of all time was Gevalia Costa Rica Peaberry The coffee that was the WORST THING EVER was Jamaica Blue Mountain
Never thought Philz would be considered a grocery store brand. I think James would be fascinated by the experience of ordering at one of the Philz cafes.
@@AdamFoster I go to a Philz pretty often, and they're pretty inconsistent. I find it ironic that they have all of these fresh ground pour-overs, but the "house" way is to load them with cream and sugar.
@@jenkinsjohn15 This tracks. When I worked as a line cook in a brunch coffee house, I wound up making better coffee than the baristas. And they were all inconsistent as well. And it would make sense then, that from one summer to the next, things would change drastically.
As a Canadian I'm pleased that Tim Horton's performed comparatively well... also because that's one of the few brands featured here that we even can get in supermarkets here. A Canadian version of this would also have to include a few store brands like Irresistables, No Name, and President's Choice, and for non-store brands, Nabob, Kicking Horse, Melitta, Lavazza, Illy, Ethical Bean, Van Houtte, and Timothy's. I tend to prefer Kicking Horse's darker roasts, like Grizzly Claw or Kick Ass. President's Choice West Coast Dark Roast is, surprisingly, quite good for those who like darker roasts, and is definitely the cheapest decent option.
I assume that a drip coffee-maker was used to cook all of these coffees for this particular tournament. If that is indeed the case, the Bustelo coffee is designed to be prepared in a moka pot. I come from a coffee growing family and we use a moka pot for Bustelo or Pilon espresso coffee, and a drip coffee-maker for our 8 o'clock and Horton's coffee. Utilizing the proper cooking equipment is the most effective means to a delightful cup of coffee. My two cents!
As a Peet’s Coffee fan, I was happy ( and proud of my personal choice of coffee) to see it made the Final Cut, even if by default ! Medium roast however is my go to !
