Coffee Experts Blind Taste Test Every Supermarket Coffee

[Narrator] We've gathered three coffee experts

to blind-taste test every supermarket coffee brand

we could get our hands on

to see which ones meet their standards.

[bright string music]

Folgers Classic Roast.

Little roasty. Pretty bold.

It feels a little bitter, slightly harsh.

It actually reminds me of, like,

coffee I drank in my childhood.

A good cup of coffee has really good balance.

Some natural sweetness.

Bitter, sweet, and sour notes.

I like having a little bit of acidity in the coffee.

One of the things that I like to find

is that it's a little bit of a quicker finish.

Where the aftertaste doesn't linger for too long.

I'm always just looking for the coffee

to be as fresh as possible.

You'll have more nuanced flavors.

It's just a little bit more alive as such.

And body is something that we're looking for

in regards to the overall mouthfeel.

Similar to wine in the viscosity that you're getting.

Not too heavy, not too light.

[bright string music]

I'm not in love with it, but I don't hate it.

Can't really taste much of distinct flavor notes

coming out of this.

It's kind of really flat.

If you're lacking body and lacking flavor,

that's usually a good indication

that's not as fresh of a coffee.

This tastes mass-produced.

Mass-produced coffees, they're generally blends.

So the main two species of coffee

that we consume are arabica and robusta.

About 70% is arabica, 30% robusta.

Robusta tends to be grown on lower elevations.

It's easier to grow.

It's not as demanding as far as the climate,

the land, the elevation.

It is more disease-resistant.

It's going to be less expensive

because it is easier to grow.

Some people refer to robusta as having a charred

or a tire-like flavor, which doesn't sound pleasant.

Arabica, on the other hand, higher elevations.

Higher altitude essentially means lower temperatures,

and so, essentially, the coffee cherries itself,

it's like slower development for them to ripen,

which essentially means more sweetness, more flavors,

a little bit more, like, organic acids.

Robusta is twice the caffeine content.

Mass-produced coffees can have a little bit of robusta

just to sort of bring the cost down.

This is not roasted yesterday or last week,

if I'm being nice.

Probably something in a can.

Is this like Folgers or...

Folgers?

Ah! I nailed it.

I said before that I tasted my childhood,

and this is the coffee that I originally grew up with.

This is one of the lower-priced coffees.

[Raina] Says a 100% pure coffee

Because arabica is a higher-quality coffee,

they would like to say that it's 100% arabica coffee.

So, this tells me that there's definitely a blend in there.

♪ The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. ♪

[Narrator] Lavazza Classico.

This one smells a little bit more mellow,

which is really nice.

Ooh, this is quite different than the other one.

It gives me a lot of like paper, cardboardy taste to it.

Closer to what I would think of for a medium roast coffee.

Pretty sour aftertaste.

I would say everything can contribute to that,

and coffee bean is the seed of a coffee cherry.

When coffees are picked from trees,

they then go through a process.

You remove all the skin,

mucilage all of that from the coffee cherry.

You can use water to remove it,

in which case it's wash process.

That tends to be a bit cleaner.

You get more clarity from the coffee itself.

The other option is going to be a natural coffee.

The coffee is fermented with the mucilage,

the pulp, and the skin still intact.

The seed has actually been in contact with the fruit,

with the skin, with the mucilage for a longer time.

It has a tendency to taste a little bit fruitier

because it actually does retain the flavor.

It's a much more expensive process.

It doesn't happen very frequently.

Acidity can change over time as your coffee cools.

I almost enjoy it more that it's cooled.

Right now I'm getting a little bit of acidity from it,

like a little bit of fruitiness.

Lavazza or Illy?

Lavazza? No.

It's Lavazza.

So this is a classic medium roast Italian-style

arabica-robusta blend.

Difference that I felt in the taste

is coming from the robusta part of it.

This little bit of paperiness.

While the aftertaste was lighter than the Folgers,

I still prefer the Folgers

for just a little bit more overall balance.

It's not one that I would go out of my way to have.

It was fine.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Starbucks Pike Place Roast.

This is having a little bit more

of a roastier smell to it.

I am not going to like this coffee.

Feels like a slightly darker roast, possibly.

The bitter aspect is shining a little bit higher on here.

It does taste good.

I'd say like toasted nuts. Little bit of rubber.

I don't think it's balanced at all.

The body on this is heavier than either the first

and the second one.

It's really lingering but in a really bad way.

Like burnt notes from it.

I'm surprised that this isn't a dark roast.

When we start roasting, it essentially looks green,

so you get more of the sugars and the acids inside the bean.

Start to sort of form those caramelly nutty flavors

that a lot of us really enjoy in coffee.

And then it starts cracking.

That's what determines your different roast levels.

Light roast coffee, you're taking it soon after first crack.

You're going to get a lot more complexity

of that flavor overall.

It's going to highlight what's intrinsically part

of that coffee fruit.

[Anu] A medium roast is further down.

And then dark roast is

as it approaches second crack or even after.

These oily, oily coffee beans.

That's a really dark roast.

The oilier it is, the darker it's been roasted.

When it's roasting,

that's just what's being pulled out of the coffee.

It's like cooking a steak well done.

People do that to hide the defects.

You should be bringing out all of the flavors and the notes

and the nuances of the coffee

as opposed to trying to cover them up.

Starbucks? No. Starbucks.

Starbucks.

Pike Place. I believe that was their original store.

[Anu] Notes of cocoa and rich pralines.

I didn't get any of that.

It says it's 100% arabica coffee.

Just because it's arabica coffee,

it doesn't necessarily mean

that it's going to be super high quality.

You can have bad arabica.

Starbucks has helped pave the way

for a lot of third-wave coffee shops.

The idea of getting lattes very easy and accessible

to a lot of folks around the world.

So the first wave of coffee

is really sort of the commercialization of coffees

where coffee starts to become mainstream.

Folgers, Maxwell House,

you're getting, like, instant coffee.

The second wave, which is what Starbucks sort of led,

was coffee houses, coffee culture.

As part of coffee culture and café culture,

uniformity is important.

One way to achieve uniformity

is to sort of roast a bit darker.

I can go to any Starbucks around the world

and know what I'm about to get.

And then the third wave is sort of looking at coffee

more like wine.

So, really highlighting flavors.

You want traceability,

you want to actually taste the terroir, the origin.

Has really just helped in regards to the café communities

that we have now.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Starbucks Pike Place Roast Whole Bean.

When we slurp the coffee,

it kind of takes the coffee across your entire palate

and especially towards the back.

So it goes into your retronasal passage.

A lot of coffee's flavor is in its aroma

so you want to smell as much as you're tasting

with your tongue.

I get almost a little bit of, like, fruitiness from it.

It's more drinkable than the last one.

Less bitterness.

It's giving me kind of those, like, chocolate nutty tones

that I'm really looking for.

Really balanced, which I'm actually really enjoying.

I wouldn't call it balanced.

This also feels slightly fresher.

When a coffee is fresher, the flavor profile,

the notes will be a lot more present.

Whole-bean coffee will taste much fresher

than ground coffee.

The minute you grind the coffee,

you've suddenly exposed your coffee to a lot of oxygen.

It feels kind of light, this coffee.

Aftertaste is really short on it.

It's actually already ended, so which is really pleasant.

There's definitely a really nice viscosity to it.

There's nice, like, level of how it's hitting my palate.

Oh, okay.

Is this whole bean?

Wow, okay.

I mean, it's night and day, compared to the last.

I mean, it's the same coffee but it's just whole bean.

Like, this finish is so much nicer.

That is amazing.

Think of it similar to if you cut an apple

and leave it on your table for a very long time.

Is it as enjoyable? No.

With whole-bean coffee, the nice thing is that,

once you taste it, with whichever method you brew,

you can adjust the grind size the next time you brew it.

So if you want to get it slightly more...

You want to get more flavor out of it, extract it more,

you can go a bit finer with it.

And on the flip side,

you can kind of go coarser with it as well.

When you're brewing in a French press,

you have to use very, very coarse ground coffee.a

And that's because the coffee will sit

at the bottom of a French press for about six minutes.

Espresso is very finely ground.

It's combined with pressure

and hot water for about 30 seconds.

So, the longer water is in contact with the coffee,

the more coarse it should be.

And this is dark, this is not medium. You can see the oil.

The longer you roast it,

the more of the oils come out of the actual coffee.

[can thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Chock Full O'Nuts Original.

It definitely smells over-roasted.

A lot more bitterness from this.

It's flat. I don't love it.

A lot of smokiness as well, like rubber or leather.

It has a weird vegetable flavor to it.

I'm getting a lot of acidity on the sides of my tongue.

It's not a wonderful aftertaste.

So this one looks like it's roasted a bit too dark.

Whereas when it's lighter roasted,

you might get sometimes, if it's too light,

it might be a bit peanutty or a bit more like hay or grass.

This tastes a lot more like Folgers, the first one we had.

It's drinkable.

It's probably not drinkable

when it cools down a little bit further.

Is it one of those nuts Chock O'Nuts or...

Chock O'Nuts, right?

Chock O'Nuts!

Oh. Oh, this makes sense.

I mean, it says, Use by the end of 2027.

You want to look for coffee that's roasted

in the last two to three weeks.

This is like over a two-year best by date,

which is a really long time to have coffee on shelf,

especially ground coffee.

It's just going to be so stale and unpleasant.

If they're willing to show you when it was roasted,

I think then they typically will care

a little bit more about the coffee.

I don't think it's working.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Dunkin' Original Blend.

On the nose it's pretty pleasant.

Right off the bat not feeling any bitterness.

There is a nice balance of flavor.

Little bit of nuttiness, more like hazelnut.

There's a little bit of fruitiness to it as well.

It tastes like it's the most fresh

and the most balanced of all of the ones we've had today.

It's very silky, almost, the body.

Nothing really maintaining on my palate for too long,

which is kind of nice.

Really surprising when it's, like, side by side

from the previous one.

I would drink a cup of this black.

Oh, look at that. Dunkin'.

I love that.

If I'm in a pinch, 100% I will get Dunkin'

over Starbucks any day of the week.

I still like the ground Starbucks more,

'cause it had a little bit more complexity

of flavor in that one.

America runs on, well, it's not necessarily Dunkin',

but on coffee.

America runs on coffee, that's for sure.

The United States consumes about 3 to 4 billion pounds

of coffee annually.

We always have to import coffee.

The US could not survive on the amount of coffee

that's produced within the United States.

Hawaii, which is the main producer of coffee

in the United States, I think they're producing

between 10 and 20 million pounds, I think, per year,

which would mean that they're basically fueling the US

for maybe a day, day and a half, something like that.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Dunkin' Colombian.

This coffee is pretty roasty right off the nose.

You can also kind of see that there's like a little bit

of a film on top of it, which usually is an indication

that the beans might be a little darker,

might have a little bit of oiliness to it when brewing.

So, right now I'm getting back inside of my tongue

and a little bit on just the full back of my tongue,

which would be an indication

that I'm getting both acidity and bitterness.

So, those are standing out a lot more.

At first taste, I'm actually enjoying a cup of coffee.

Pretty light in regards to body.

Is it like a Colombian coffee?

A specific region from where coffee is grown

will 100% impact the type of flavor

that you're getting out of that coffee.

African coffees, East African coffees

tend to be more fruit-forward.

Colombian coffees you get sort of like a mild acidity,

some chocolatiness.

I think it's probably the first one I've, like, enjoyed.

Oh my God. Oh, interesting.

So this is a Colombian medium roast from Dunkin'.

I'm usually a really big fan of Colombian coffees.

I guess I'm having a bit of a love affair

with Dunkin' Donuts, which is surprising.

Colombian coffees can have a variety

of different flavor profiles behind it

because of their general microclimates

and regions that they have.

It's very vast.

Definitely a lot of nutty, mild acidity,

classic Colombian profile.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Peet's Coffee Big Bang.

Getting a little bit more of bitterness on this one.

You can taste a lot more of roasted profile from this.

It's a little bit acidic for me.

This coffee feels like it has less body,

It's very light.

There's a little bit of mustiness in this one.

I just get a lot more of the harsher notes,

and really that's it.

Peet's? It's Peet's!

Big Bang.

It's a natural Ethiopian coffee, which means the coffee

is dried inside the actual coffee cherry,

which will give it a bit of a fruitier flavor.

Ethiopia is the origin of coffees.

It has a lot of genetic diversity

in terms of all the varietals.

The folklore goes that there was a goat herder

who saw his goats eating the fruits

and the leaves of a particular plant

and dancing about with a lot of energy,

and that got him curious about what that might be.

[can thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Maxwell House Original Roast.

It reminds me of the beginning part of our spectrum

of, like, the Lavazza, Folgers world.

It's like a little bit of rubber.

This one weirdly has like a little bit

of a metallic taste right off the bat.

It doesn't feel super balanced.

It tastes a little bit old and stale.

Lingering aftertaste.

My guess is that this is a mass market.

Is it Maxwell House?

This is Maxwell.

Maxwell's. This makes sense.

It says, Ingredients: Coffee.

It is a very good chance

that it is both arabica and robusta.

Who knows how long this has been on shelf.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Stumptown Hair Bender.

This is pretty pleasant regarding the aroma.

Right off the bat you get a little bit of acidity,

fruit flavors coming through.

Tastes mass-produced and kind of stale. I don't like it.

Definitely more smooth than some of the other coffees.

The body feels slightly silky.

Doesn't linger too long.

It's pretty quick in regards to its finish.

I would say this could be more

in the third wave-style coffee.

So, this would be maybe in regards

to like Stumptown or Counterculture.

Is it Stumptown? Stumptown?

Stumptown. Nailed it.

I was a fan.

Then it became a little bit more mass-produced.

I believe the Hair Bender is what they use for espresso.

Some beans are better for espresso

because they're almost designed to work with high pressure,

going really fast to give you that complexity,

the balance that you want in an espresso.

I would venture to say there's some African beans in here

so some of the fruitiness might be coming from there.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Stumptown Hair Bender Whole Bean.

I like how it smells.

Smells very familiar, like what I just drank. [laughs]

This reminds me of the previous one we had, the Stumptown.

A little bit brighter than the last one.

Just that hint of roast at the very end

that I feel like the other one didn't have.

Could be that you maybe have some whole-bean coffee.

I think it's the Stumptown Whole Bean.

Aha! So this is the Whole Bean Stumptown.

The flavor notes are citrus and dark chocolate.

The little bit more bitterness

that we're getting from this one, that I got from this one,

could be because of the grind size being more fine.

So, a little bit finer means more extraction,

so a little bit more bitterness.

I'm surprised it's, like, that stark of a difference.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Whole Foods Organic Early Bird Blend.

It would be hard for me to drink a whole cup of this.

I'm not really able to get as much

of a pronounced flavor from this cup.

It feels stale to me,

because I don't really get much from it

other than the roastiness.

It's lingering a little bit. It's not a pleasant finish.

The body on it, it's a little on the thinner side.

Oh, Whole Foods!

We seek out beans grown by farmers caring

for the land in ideal coffee crop conditions.

The ideal coffee conditions are in a climate

between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.

In general, coffee's grown in tropical countries.

You want like soil that might be rich in organic nutrients.

A lot of times organic soils are known

for producing really good-quality coffee.

If you're looking at how close you are to the Equator,

that means that you're able

to get certain temperatures year round.

It's okay.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

Trader Joe's Joe Medium Roast.

I don't mind it.

I would say like a medium-bodied, pretty smooth.

There's a pretty nice balance.

The body on this is a little heavier

than the last one that I tried,

but it's lingering a little bit

in regards to, like, acidity on the sides of my tongue.

I probably wouldn't pick it up myself.

This is Trader Joe's?

Trader Joe's? You did it again!

It is ground, so that may be why it's a little flatter.

Reminds me of the previous one a lot,

the Whole Foods Medium Roast.

I like that it has a little bit more information

on their bag as well.

So this is 100% arabica.

[bag rustling and wheezing]

[Jeremy] I don't know if you can hear that.

This is what we refer to as a degassing valve.

So it's a one-way valve that allows CO2 to release

but not allow oxygen to come in.

So during the roasting process,

carbon dioxide is produced within the beam.

And then slowly after roasting,

that carbon dioxide keeps getting released over time.

That's also why for fresh-roasted coffee,

when you put hot water, you'll see some bubbles.

That's essentially the carbon dioxide escaping.

[can thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Great Value

100% Arabica Colombian Ground Coffee.

This one looks lighter.

It could be the roast profile itself.

It also can be the water to coffee ratio.

Drip coffee, I typically like between

like a one-part coffee to 16-parts water.

It smells really nice,

almost like marshmallow sweetness off of it.

This has to be a lighter roasted coffee.

Lighter roast in general,

you see the acidity come through more.

There's some sweetness to it.

I'm getting a little bit more complexity and clarity

and flavor from this.

I feel like I get a little bit of citrus from it

and then a little bit of dried fruits, like raisin.

Bit silky.

It's not leaving a bad aftertaste,

which that's a good thing.

I'd call it balanced.

The body is a little bit on the heavier side,

so I would indicate, for me,

that this is a relatively fresh coffee.

I'm a fan.

Oh, it's Walmart? Look at you, Great Value.

[Anu] 100% Arabica Colombian Ground Coffee.

Bright and fruity. What a time!

This is actually really delightful.

I feel like I'm getting a lot more complexity of flavor,

and it's just very surprising 'cause it's in a tin,

it's ground, and it still for some reason

maintained a level of freshness.

I'm pretty surprised by it.

I don't it's as good as the Dunkin' Donuts.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Good & Gather House Blend.

Can smell a little bit more of the smokiness

coming through.

It's sour.

Feels a bit stale.

[Raina chuckling]

There's a lot more bitterness going on in this.

I was going to say tire.

Good & Gather House Blend.

It's Target? Is that what it is?

A house blend is something that you want

that's crowd-pleasing.

It says, Sweet caramel with milk chocolate,

but for me a lot of the roasted notes

was masking any of that.

Rainforest Alliance-certified arabica beans

from Latin America, which is essentially making sure

that you've grown the beans where you've taken into account

environmental sustainability, how people are taken care of,

like, how your workers are taken care of.

There's a lot of debate

around all of the different certifications.

Oftentimes coffee is grown at such an elevation

where pests don't really exist,

and so they're not using anything.

And for a farmer that's got a very small lot of coffee,

it's a very expensive certification

for them to actually get,

and so most of them just don't.

Not a fan.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Good & Gather Donut Shop Blend.

Oh my God, it's so bitter.

This is a very drying coffee.

A really light body

and the finish on it is definitely sticking with me,

and I think it'll be with me for a little bit.

This tastes like what you would expect maybe in a diner,

and they're just giving you free refills on it.

It's quite similar to the last one.

It really gives me a lot of rubber

and, like, really harshness.

It's like sour and bitter.

It's leaving an aftertaste and I'm not even...

Like, I'm spitting it out.

Is it the same one but just like a...

Same brand but a different bean?

'Cause it definitely tastes very similar.

Good & Gather Donut Shop Blend.

Target.

Sometimes when folks are naming their blends

it might be more of an indication

of what would be a good pairing.

I would imagine Donut Shop Blend might mean

that you want a little bit more

of that more developed roast, so slightly more darker notes.

The cocoa and that roasted nuts,

kind of to go with probably possibly

all the sugar that you're having in a donut.

Cocoa and roasted nut notes with a smooth finish.

I would not call the finish smooth. It did not sit well.

It says, 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.

Could you return this?

[can thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] McCafé Medium Roast.

The initial smell is not off-putting,

so that's a good sign.

This one has a little bit of a fruit hint.

This is brighter, for sure. Toasty notes in that.

It's like more floral, almost lighter on your tongue.

The aftertaste in this one doesn't linger

as much as the previous ones.

Almost like stone fruity tones to it, which I really enjoy.

It's a fairly pleasant finish.

This is definitely a different processing method

than what we've been trying.

Heavier body on the palate, which is also an indication

of, like, the processing method.

This is a big boy.

Yeah, it's surprising.

It is known for having really good fast food coffee. Yeah.

I would drink this cup of coffee.

I liked the Dunkin' Donuts more.

This one, for me, is more bitter.

There's no indication of the processing method on here.

It does say that it's 100% arabica coffee.

I would be intrigued to know if there's something else

that they are doing with this coffee

to make it taste like a little bit more fruit-forward.

Between this one and the Great Value Colombian coffee,

I think I like the Great Value Colombian coffee more,

just 'cause it had a little bit more pronounced flavor

to it.

But this is still pretty good.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] LaColombe Nizza.

Right from the smell for this one,

you get a little bit of, like, darker roast notes.

The aroma has a little bit of, like,

almost like a caramel undertone, which is really nice.

Don't get much sweetness.

It's kind of bland to me a little bit.

A lot of bitter harsh notes on it.

There's more body to this one, for sure,

than the last one.

The heaviest body among all the coffees so far.

Almost like whole milk level of, like, body.

It could be that their ratio asks for more

or this has robusta or something in it.

There's a bit of an aftertaste, which I don't love.

Sort of just linger for a really long time.

Ooh, I'm going to get in trouble.

LaColombe.

These guys have built a really great brand.

And they're owned by Chobani.

I would say they would classify themselves as third-wave.

And this one seems to have coffees

from Latin America and East Africa.

I'm surprised by the body for this.

It is ground,

so maybe there's a different whole-bean version

that I'll enjoy more.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Eight O'Clock Original.

There's a little bit of toastiness

that I'm getting from the aroma.

Possibly a little sweetness to underneath.

This is pretty balanced, which is really nice.

It's a little bit flat. There's not much body to it.

It could totally be a sign of staleness.

I don't really like this one.

It's a very quick finish.

Is it like Eight O'Clock or something? It is Eight O'Clock!

Okay, it says arabica. Not all arabica is created equal.

For like more mass-produced coffees.

It kind of the different starts

right from what coffee cherries you're picking.

So, you might not be picking just the ripest cherries.

Could be even machine-picked. Not really sorting it.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] New England Coffee Breakfast Blend.

This one smells really nice.

The aroma on this is pretty pleasant.

Again, like nuttiness.

I get some walnuts, a little bit of smoky flavor as well.

But the flavor is really watered down.

It's not an exciting coffee.

Harsh notes towards the end.

The body is a little thin.

It tastes flat.

The finish doesn't linger as much as the previous one.

It's pretty mild overall.

It is freshly ground 100% arabica coffee.

Small company, big coffee, New England Coffee.

They were established in 1916.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Intelligentsia House Blend.

This one's a little funky.

There's like an undertone of fruit.

It's a little bit sour.

Not getting that much of, you know, smokiness

or like some of those bitter roost flavors.

It's unexpected.

I get a little bit of acidity as well from this.

A little bit of, like, lemoniness.

Definitely more balanced than the last few.

The body on this is a bit thicker than the one previous,

which is kind of nice.

To get a well balanced blend, the process that we follow

to blend beans is normally you want, like, one base layer

that's kind of giving you the foundation for your blend.

And then you're looking for other elements

that might add acidity, might add sweetness.

It also does actually look lighter,

especially at this angle.

Probably the lightest, I think, that we've seen so far.

It would probably have to do with the roast.

I like this.

I get like graham cracker, some caramel in this.

Oh, is it Intelligentsia? Intelligentsia?

Oh, Intelligentsia.

It is a light roast, so that I got.

You can kind of see it in the color.

Notes of red apple and caramel. Delightful.

They definitely pioneered specialty coffee.

They were purchased a while ago by the same company

that bought Stumptown and Peet's.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Caribou Coffee Caribou Blend.

I feel like we've come back to the beginning a little bit.

Oh, wow. Big contrast from the previous one.

There is a heaviness to it for sure.

The roasted quality on here

is a little, like, overpowering.

It's really bitter. Lingering aftertaste.

I can power through a cup of this,

but I would have to add cream and sugar.

Caribou?

Aw, I remember Caribou. I used to live in Atlanta.

They may be one of the largest chains. Big in the Midwest.

This probably would be really delicious as a cold brew.

A cold brew, like, can really withstand,

like something that's a little bit heavier roasted.

They're using huge roasters, for sure.

And so it'll be a little bit more challenging

to bring out all of the essence of the coffee

because it's just being mass-roasted.

[bag thudding and coffee pouring]

[Narrator] Green Mountain Nantucket Blend.

Oh, interesting. It's got a nice finish.

The aftertaste on this definitely lingers a little bit.

There are dark chocolate, walnuts.

If a coffee is nuttier or more chocolatey,

it's less likely that it's going to be a natural coffee.

The body in this is quite heavy.

There's a nice weight to it. Fairly balanced.

It changes as it, like, coats your palate a little bit.

I definitely was getting hit with some sweet,

but it does finish a little dry.

So I feel like I just went on a little bit

of a rollercoaster with this one.

Not glad, but not mad.

All right!

Oh, this is Green Mountain's Nantucket Blend.

I think Keurig and Green Mountain

are kind of like one and the same.

So, like, they developed like the K-cups.

I've never heard of a Nantucket blend until now.

[Narrator] Now let's see which coffees

our coffee experts liked the most and the least.

I shocked myself that my favorite cup of coffee today

was a Colombian from Dunkin' Donuts.

It's a well-balanced and flavorful cup of coffee.

It was chocolatey.

It didn't have a really lingering aftertaste,

which is really important for me.

My favorite coffee today was the Intelligentsia coffee.

I felt like I could taste a little bit of fruit notes in it.

There was like caramel. There was some complexity.

The bitter notes were lesser on it,

so I felt like I could drink it

without adding anything to it.

My favorite coffee today

was the Stumptown Hair Bender Whole Bean Coffee.

That had a lot of complexity in flavor.

It had a nice balance in flavor as well.

The body stood up,

and I just love that it had a really quick finish to it.

My least favorite was the pre-ground Pike Place.

I'm just not accustomed to drinking something

that's, like, that deeply roasted.

If it lingers and it lingers really sour and bitter,

for me, it's just not a good cup of coffee.

My least favorite coffee was the Chock O'Nuts.

Really not much sweetness at all,

and that bitter notes really lingered for a long time.

My least favorite was the Maxwell House.

Overall, it's probably a very affordable option,

but there was a lot of bareness behind it.

I had a little bit of a metallic flavor.

And I just think that there might be some better options

out there at that price point.

While coffee can be graded in a very objective way,

at the end of the day, it comes down to what you like.

That is very personal.

My mom would buy Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

She would throw it in the fridge

and then microwave it the next morning.

And if that works for her,

I can't tell my mom that she's wrong.

If you like that sweetness,

that little complexity,

lighter roast might be right up your alley.

And that way, you also don't have to add much milk

or sugar to kind of cut down some of that bitterness.