[DiabloD3]

I'd like to say I spend around that for 8 O'Clock 100% Colombian whole beans in 3 pound bags; which is incidentally the cheapest drinkable coffee on the market (Maxwell House and Folgers, imnsho are nigh undrinkable; for those that grind yourselves, you can get both as whole bean, you just sometimes have to hit up a restaurant supply store to find it).

The only way I'd pay more than, say, $5 a pound (nice round figure, both of us are paying slightly less) is if it was _really fucking good_. I mean, really good. The kind of good that when other people told me how good it is, I'd tell them that I buy the damned coffee, I know how good it is, you don't have to tell me how good it is.

California has dominated the olive oil and wine lists, but it doesn't mean I'm going out and buying $50-100 bottles of wine and $10-20 tiny ass bottles of olive oil. I buy what is good, not what is perfect.

[brians]

That's about where Blue Bottle and Counter Culture live: coffee that makes hardened street palettes numbed by decades of Dunkies reach for the word "terroir." They have to import from Kenya, Sumatra, a bunch of other complicated places far away. Being able to produce and sell entirely in the low-corruption West—otherwise restricted to Costa Rica—is a game changer.

[driverdan]

Experiment and try a variety of beans. You can do this by going to a good coffee shop that has multiple beans and try a different one each day. Once you build your palate you may find you never want to go back.

Worst case you decide it's not worth the extra money and can feel smug in your decision to stick with the cheap stuff.

[DiabloD3]

I did try quite a few over the years. They all tasted different, they all had their own particular personality... but sometimes I just want consistent caffeine that tastes like coffee, and not burnt ass.

Not tasting like burnt ass is, thankfully, a low bar to clear; it's less the quality of the beans and whatnot, and more your brew method when it's that bad.