You might have guessed by now that we love coffee, after all we’ve built an entire website around bean to cup coffee machines. We hope that as you’ve found us on the web that the same applies to you, whether you’re the sort of person that enjoys the occasional coffee or heads straight for the kettle or maker every morning as soon as you rise.
That probably also means that you’ve tried a number of coffee brands over the years, and if you’re like most people, have a favourite that your return to time and time again. In today’s update, we’re going to write about something that’s related to the last one (on Amazon’s best coffee beans) yet something that few of our readers will have experienced – at least at home!
America has brought us many of the familiar names on the high street, not least Starbucks. If you’ve been following our coffee blog, you’ll know that we’ve covered Starbucks coffee machines before, and more specifically their Mastrena Superautomatic. Today though, it’s the consumables we’re interested in, the brands of coffee that the USA loves most.
Fortunately, we all have different tastes, and that means there’s a huge range of brands available, each offering a plethora of styles and flavours. For many, it’s a simple case of how strong the coffee is that’s likely to affect our opinion on a given coffee, even though we know full well that can be adjusted with our home coffee maker.
Folgers Coffee Beans
While most Americans will associate the Folgers brand with ground coffee, it also sells in the purer bean form too – perfect for our love of bean to cup machines. It’s been a popular US brand since the sixties, meaning that there’s a huge and dedicated following across the country. That’s actually true to the point that it’s commonly outselling the big companies like Starbucks, and holding that level of market share over decades is no mean feat – testament to the great and distinctive taste the flavour brings.
At the time of writing, it’s hard to get hold of in the UK, but the ground coffee is available on Amazon:
Dunkin Donuts
Many Brits have heard of Dunkin Donuts, the fast food outlet chain that’s as well known for its coffee as it is for its doughnuts (sorry but I feel compelled to use the UK spelling!). In the UK, we’re starting to see McDonald’s position itself as a destination for coffee as well as fast food with their tongue in cheek TV ads poking fun at the complexity of understanding coffee shop menus (we’ve all been confused occasionally by tall, grande, vente and the like). Stateside, Dunkin Donuts are already benefiting from that association, and have their own home coffee brand too for people to enjoy in their homes. It’s a medium roast option, very popular with their store customers to enjoy at home.
Maxwell House
Maxwell House will likely be a much more familiar name to our local readers here in the UK, but it’s worth mentioning that they’ve got a good following in the US too. While we don’t necessarily think of them as a premium coffee brand, they’ve developed a popular couple of lines known as the ‘Original’ and ‘International’.The big difference here, though, is that they’re instant coffee, so unlike those with a beans or a ground option, they won’t be meeting your Barista Express coffee machine any time soon.
Starbucks
It wouldn’t be a coffee themed post without the mention of the daddy of the high street coffee shop. We’ve mentioned them many times before, and will probably so so many times more, and as you’d expect, Starbucks coffee is a very popular purchase in America too for home coffee machines. There are a huge number of varieties available, with their French beans leading the way.
Whichever brand you decide to try (why not try them all?) it’s never a bad idea to try something new. If you’ve gone to the effort of researching which is the best coffee machine to buy, or the expense of buying a really good one, it’s got to be worth putting the same time, effort and investment into trying some new brands too. It’s amazing how much difference changing the brand of coffee beans can make, and if nothing else, it’s a great excuse to experiment with your machine more!