[illin8]

Originally Posted by Dgunsmith

I love coffee beans from Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Coffees - Gourmet Coffee - Café Britt Gourmet Coffee

I buy on line in assortments and get the freight paid. Usually arrives in about 5 days. BEST beans I have ever tasted !

Starbuck's buys millions of dollars worth of Costa Rican coffee every year to make up their own blends....but I don't like their end product.

Interesting...to be honest never thought of blending at home, sounds like a decent option to balance the cost.

[brewagentjay]

Do you find it as economical as buying them already ground ? I enjoy the smell of fresh ground coffee but to have a grinder and do it myself i'd need to some how convince the other half it's same price or better if it's same then I can ask for the grinder as gift but if it's cheap perhaps I can get it now

[rico567]

We get all our beans from Papanicholas Coffee Co. in Batavia IL. Ordered online, beans are always fresh....UPS driver says he always knows after he loads the truck that he's got beans for us. Just ordered again yesterday, the big bags, this order works out to 7 pounds of coffee for $9.75 / lb., including shipping. Given the wonderful quality of their French Roast, I've never seen anything to beat this, and no coffee we've ever bought in the store can match online ordering for freshness.

As far as grinding goes, we've never done anything but grind whole beans for over 20 years now. We use a Baratza Maestro (before that, a Bodum Antigua) that we got through Papanicholas' points system, for $7.50 shipping....just another benefit of using their coffee, and a great grinder.