I buy my 18oz bags of whole bean at Cost Plus World Market.
they have a “club”... get points for every bag purchased. On Wednesdays they double the points. They just had a buy-one-get-one free bag promotion.
Burr grinder each morning, a 12-cup coffee press... FAR better than CHARbucks and for only pennies on their dollar.
BTW: new show for us “coffee snobs” (as I’ve been called by some friends... :) )...
Dangerous Grounds on (I think) the Travel Channel.
A total nut, the owner of La Columbe coffee shops in NY (Todd Charmichael, I think his name is) travels the world to buy beans directly from the growers. The guy is a type AAAAAAA+ dude and it’s really fun and entertaining (well, to me, at least)
And I thought my purchase of “Chock full o’Nuts” on sale for $2.50 was a bargain. :-)
I was a Latin American studies major in college and did a research project in Colombia one semester. As part of the trip we visited a number of coffee farms where coffee was grown and many plants where beans were roasted and ground etc. The coffee there was fantastic, despite them saying they exported their best beans. Also visited a coffee farm in Costa Rica about 15 years ago, Cafe Britt, and it was excellent. A coworker is actually going on a vacation to Costa Rica next week and i’ve given her $ to bring me some coffee back.