Favourite Brand of Coffee
 

I will be staying in Paris for 2 weeks in an apartment and one thing I must purchase is coffee! Those of you who have shopped in the local stores, what brand would you recommend? I prefer a stronger coffee.

Merci

I'll admit I'm not that picky, so when I go to Monoprix to buy coffee for a stay of a few days, I just buy the store brand, pretty much. There aren't that many brands. And I haven't done a taste test among all of them so couldn't say the superiority of one versus another. I usually just buy Monoprix's Gourmet brand, to be honest. Or sometimes in Bon Marche, I think I buy their house brand. I don't shop in expensive specialty shops. My most important criteria is the type of bean and country and roast. I like Sumatran and Costa Rican coffee, for example. I don't like Kona coffee, nor coffee from Ethiopia, etc. So I mainly choose by that. I don't buy some common brands like Maison du Cafe, Carte Noire, l'Or. These are common corporate coffees owned by companies like Kraft, Sara Lee, etc. They are usually pretty cheap and plentiful. Of course there is Illy, which is Italian and you can get in the US, also.

That's basically what I do in the US, also, buy store brand coffee that is ground on the spot. The strength of the coffee depends on how you brew it, as well as the roast and type of bean, I'd say.

I like dark roasted coffees that are not from Columbia. I hate Dunkin' Donuts coffee which tastes sour to me. I like sweetener but no milk ever. I hate flavored coffees.

What kind of coffee do I buy in Paris? Carte Noir, dark roast.. Do I like it as much as the coffee I drink at home? No, but it's only a cup of coffee.

At home I drink cheap Cafe Bustelo expresso roast, but what I like doesn't help you at all, does it? It just the kind of question that an Internet stranger cannot answer, especially since you don't say what kind of coffee you like.

Illy coffee would be my first choice.

A lot depends on the method of making the coffee.

Unless it is noticeably cheaper, or way more expensive, than others just pick one. You will struggle to find bad coffee.
Even Lidl has good coffee.

I must admit that I bring my own coffee when I travel now...easy to do double zip lock baggie works great. I am a Tim Hortons from Canada fan...never leave home without my Timmy...I even buy it by the case when I am near a Tim Hortons...

I like strong coffee too, and in France I buy Caffe San Marco brand. Its not perfect but it's the best I've found I the supermarket. Illy is expensive and honestly the quality what it used to be. I won't even buy it in Italy anymore.

They have Caffe San Marco at Monoprix and Carrefour.

Thanks, everyone! I thought of bringing my own coffee (and I still might)but I think I have enough good recommendations to buy some in Paris. I'd forgot about Illy (had it in Italy)but some of the store brand options would work as well.

You probably won't suffer from withdrawal if you don't bring your own coffee.

Will you bring everything else you like to eat and drink, as well? Probably not...although some people do arrive with suitcases full of food they thought they couldn't live without for a week or two.

The whole reason for travel is to try new things! Live a little!
Carte Noire is a very good dark roast coffee, and so are the espresso versions of Illy and Lavazza. All are relatively inexpensive and often on sale. If you find you aren't crazy about the first one you try, you can combine it with another brand for a better effect. Frankly, if you drink your coffee with milk, it really won't matter which of these brands you choose.

I am the sad person who brings her own tea bags with her when she travels. The ones you get abroad are never the same [well, the were in Sri Lanka, but that's an exception] and say what you like, there are times when you just need a decent cup of tea.

they weigh nothing in the case and add greatly to the sum of my happiness.

baglady - as it weighs so little, why not take some of your own but try others when you are there? Simples.

Annhig, I always take tea bags with me too. Coffee never but tea bags absolutely. But I drink a lot more tea than coffee.
A couple of shots of espresso in the morning is normally my limit, followed by copious amounts of tea the rest of the day.
I drink Dutch tea now, so no milk. Curiously my sons, who never drank tea when we lived in England, all prefer builders tea, and go to great lengths to get British tea bags.

hets - what is "Dutch" tea?

IME the difference in the taste of tea round the world, even if I take my own tea, is the taste of the water. It tastes different from our "soft" water up here in Lancashire, to the hard water of the south of England. Our kettle never furs up either.

Dutch tea is much weaker than English, even their so called English breakfast blend, and always without milk.

I enjoy the occasional comforting cup of English tea still, but mostly it is feeble weak black Dutch tea for me now.

I stock up on tea bags and other essentials when I'm over. Always gets odd looks at the till :).

Rubicund, that is so true. We have soft water too, and it does taste differently when you travel, but nonetheless better the devil you know. I even take my own teabags when I am babysitting the grandkids as I don't like the blend my DIL drinks, especially as she often only has some nasty flavoured abomination available.

Anyway as far as French coffee goes you need to see what method of making coffee they have in the apartment, as you need a different grind for a French Press or Moka (Italian Espresso) pot, to a filter machine to an espresso machine, as well as a different roast. They offer all the different grinds/roasts in French supermarkets.

Hediard. Place Madeleine.

Very expensive. This isn't a shop for punters who have to take a Means Test.

And don't go in there all tarted up in your 1976 Dior Patchwork Maxi coat and a hat that looks like the Crucifixion.

Demure is the way to go. Posh, not Unwashed!

Thin

Hediard at Place Madeleine has been closed for some weeks. It might reopen but the company is not giving a date.

Pepper..what a bunch of nothing post? was it intended to be funny? I guess I missed the humor.

Oh, well, Hediard is closed for supposed reno.

You'll have to walk across the street to Fauchon.

The Food Halls at Galeries Lafayette may sell Hediard Coffee in the red/ black tin.

Kadewe in Berlin sells it.

Good luck. You are on your own now, Miss Thing.

Thin

Another vote for Carte Noire. Available everywhere.

I don't like the blend my DIL drinks, especially as she often only has some nasty flavoured abomination available.>>

I'm with you there, Hets. Every time I go to the supermarket, there is more and more of this flavoured rubbish and less and less proper tea. Who on earth drinks it defeats me.