Can you give me a couple recommendations to a coffee that I could, say pick up at a supermarket, just to give something different a shot?
I sure can. This depends, of course, on where you are. If you're in Canada and are buying groceries at any of the major national chains then you will have access to the following:
- Kicking Horse
- President's Choice Organics
- My Company's Coffee which I'm not gonna name 'cause that's against forum rules
These coffees are all roasted whole bean coffees, but both PC and My Company's coffee are also available in a pre-ground option.
I'd highly recommend buying whole bean coffee, and grinding it at home just before brewing. If that isn't an option, that's okay, but don't buy huge volumes of it. In fact, no matter what kind of coffee you buy, only buy as much as you're going to use in a week. Coffee flavour is in its shelf-life and the closer it is to roast the tastier it will be.
The BIGGEST deal in getting the best flavour in your coffee is in how much coffee you use in relationship to the amount of water you use when brewing. A good rule of thumb is to use two measured (heaping if you're brave) tablespoons of ground coffee for every "cup" of water in the pot you're brewing. You'll notice I used "" around the word cup. This is because every coffee brewer manufacturer has a different definition for "cup". Some use a standard 250ml measure, others use 200ml, others go to 275ml... basically they're jerks (okay not really) and you'll want to start with a measured volume of coffee per "cup" to start brewing. If you use 2tbsp per cup and it tastes too strong, then cut back to 1.5 and try again. Do this until you find your sweetspot.
The other two things you can do instantly to start brewing better coffee is to store your coffee in an air-tight/light-tight canister at room temperature, and use filtered water to brew your coffee. If you can do these two things, with fresher coffee, at 2tbsp/cup you'll get better coffee at home, even if you're using Tim's.
And I'm not just saying this cause Pat is my friend, but the best coffee I've ever had in my life was from Second Cup.
You're sweet like candy.
-- Pat