Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with coffee and mocha

Cheap Beans, Rich Flavor.

mccarty.tim — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:29:13 -0800

What's a good whole bean coffee I can buy in bulk online on a college student budget? I'm a college student with limited money. However, I do like good coffee and keep a coffee grinder and an aeropress in my dorm. What brands should I go for? I'm a big fan of pacific coffees and blends of them. I would say the two best varieties that I've sampled would be Dean's Beans Moka Summatra and the Summatra blend from Starbucks. Starbucks is widely available, but it is, of course, really expensive, about $11 a bag here, for a bag that isn't even a whole lb. Dean's Beans is more reasonably priced, but the shipping makes small amounts not worth paying for if I'm not also ordering something else, which I only do around other coffee-lover's birthdays.

Is there any supermarket brand or internet brand that ship affordably? I'd like to be able to pay about $4-6 a lb after shipping, in quantities that vary from 2-5 lbs. I know ordering that much at once risks the coffee going stale, but I can deal with slightly stale coffee on my budget. Fair trade, organic, and shade grown would be nice touches, but I know it's a bit much to ask on my budget.

Also, my school is near Trenton, NJ. I'm a bit scared to go into the city, but it's worth it if there's a cheap wholesaler of beans in there.

Coffee Drinks beyond the Basics

mccarty.tim — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:53:55 -0800

What are good espresso-based drinks beyond the typical lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas? I love the coffee my aeropress makes (Yes, I know it isn't really espresso, but I don't care), but I'm getting a bit bored with just my typical drinks, which are pretty much just cappuccinos and lattes in the morning, straight espresso in the afternoon. Are there any good drinks that I can make with my Aeropress, a battery powered frother, milk, and whatever I can get from my campus convenience store? I'm not much of a mocha person and usually the natural sweetness of steamed milk is about as much sweetening I need. However, if you have sweet confectionary drinks you really like, go ahead and tell me. I'm curious, and it doesn't have to be traditional Italian either. These can be drinks made in an American mug or a demitasse.

What would be nice is for the drink to not require too much cleanup and be easy enough to make in under 10 minutes. But I'm partly doing this for my entertainment, so if you have any big, crazy elaborate drink that takes all morning, I'm all ears.

Other "beginner" coffee drinks?

blahtsk — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:15:00 -0800

Starbucks mocha... mmm... what next? I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I loves me some mocha goodness. I've tried peppermint and orange mochas as well. Peppermint mocha is good. The orange one tastes like a mocha with an orange creme popsicle melted in it. Not so good.

Anyway, are there any other "beginner" (or even "intermediate") coffee / espresso drinks, preferably with chocolate or something else that eases the coffee flavor?

She's addicted!

skrike — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:54:07 -0800

Starbucks has a line of bottled frappuccino drinks sold in grocery stores, they also make light frappucinos inside Starbucks locations, but do they bottle and sell light frappuccinos? My wife swears she has seen them before but we've looked everywhere and called everywhere and searched all over the internet with no luck. She has even gone as far as to call the 800 number and ask Starbucks if they still make them. They claim that the light bottled frappuccinos are still being made and sold and are bottled by pepsi, but an internet search is finding me either recipes or just the regular bottles.

Does anyone know where I can find them for sale? It would specifically be the Mocha Light Frappuccino. Thanks!