Ground coffee recommendations - gift idea!

ThePrettyDamned

I know there has been a lot of this recently...

I'm after a selection of coffees for my friends who have a new filter machine. So, what do you avid coffee nuts recommend?

Let's assume I have 15-20 quid to spend. So, you know, budget.

RaymondLin

Big coffee fan here, so big that at home I don't buy ground because once the coffee is grounded, it starts to lose some of its flavours after 15 mins.  That said...I do drink it at work because I can't really grind coffee beans on my desk!

For something different, £20 can get you a few packs of beans from

Hasbean
Rave Coffee

Both are online, both are uk sites and when purchasing, pay attention to what it says about flavours.  There are normally 2 camps, one is the more chocolatety side and one on the more citrus side.  I prefer my coffee in the more chocolate side.

Like Champagne or Whisky, you can get "blends" or vintage, where it is 1 single source of beans or a blend of a few beans together.  Single origin are 1 type of beans and blends are different ones.  Typically single source are more expensive, although it doesn't necessarily translate to nicer coffee as that is a personal preference.  Some blends are perfectly nice even though they might be in the £4 a packet region...p.s. 250g is the typical size you should get.

My preferred region that I like my beans to come from is South America. 

When buying, remember to select ground, and it might even ask you what ground it is for, select Fitler, and not espresso (that is much finer for the machine).

RaymondLin

As a gift, a single origin might be better and more unique as some estate don't produce coffee every year, there is this particular one that Hasbean sells which sells out really fast and quite hard to get hold of, it's from Bolivia.

ThePrettyDamned

Nice one. Hasbean do a ground filter coffee starter pack, so I got that. Cheers!

samzadgan

RaymondLin said:

As a gift, a single origin might be better and more unique as some estate don't produce coffee every year, there is this particular one that Hasbean sells which sells out really fast and quite hard to get hold of, it's from Bolivia.

i dont know about single origins...i prefer blends. But you are right...ground coffee is not as good as beans, i ground my own too.

PrettyDamned, when you say a new filter machine, what is the machine? different coffee will work better with some systems.

 

@RaymondLin, good to see other coffee nuts on the forum, are you based in London?

 

RaymondLin

No, I am based in the West Midlands, I do travel to London from time to time for work and have friends there.

ThePrettyDamned

It's just a filter machine. You know, put water in, filter, ground coffee and watch it drip into a jug.

I've ordered it all now, should be fine thought that counts and all that.

samzadgan

next time you are in london, if you wanted some recommendations on coffee places let me know.

btw, on coffee beans, I think i posted somewhere else, but Climpsons is really good as is Workshop coffee...Allpress is ok too.

depends on the flavour and what kind of coffee your friend likes to drink. With more milk i would recommend Climpson and even Red Brick by Square Mile...they are more acid and cut through the milk a little in a nice way. If he likes to have little or no milk, then i would go with Workshop Coffee or Allpress. Climpson can go both ways...i prefer it with a little milk.

I usually have Piccolos...so i stick with the less acid beans.

RaymondLin

Thanks @samzadgan will do!

bigdawg

Hasbean and Rave are amazing id also add coffeeral to that and youve got all bases covered.

RaymondLin

My delivery from last week.

 

ThePrettyDamned

@raymondlin thanks for the top recommendation of hasbean, delivered this morning!

It was the filter starter pack, which is £24.50 including postage. 4 bags of single origin coffee and one bag of blend. Great value if they're as good as they claim and certainly a nice gift!

RaymondLin

No problem