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.

I am not a coffee drinker but often buy coffee for houseguests (and yes, I drink it too in those cases). I like the store brands (Monoprix, Franprix) but always go looking to things that would not be found in certain other countries -- for example <i> Café de Cuba. </i>

I'm finding it more and more difficult to find good tea, either at the supermarket or in a restaurant. In Italy, you're usually brought a cup of tepid water and a tea bag on the side, which won't even make anything as strong as Dutch tea.

My family was Irish, and even the idea of a tea bag was anathema to my parents, although they capitulated sometime in the 1980s. The tea had to be measured into a scalded pot, one spoon for each cup, and one for the pot. <b>Boiling</b> water had to be poured over it, and the pot had to be kept warm (tea cozies, anyone?) until the tea was ready. We had good water, and Irish friends of ours who lived in Philadelphia (where the water was heavily chlorinated) used to bring jugs when they came to visit us so that they could bring some of our water home with them.

We drank tea after every meal, plus a cup mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and another just before going to bed. I originally began drinking coffee to have something I could accept when eating out, because I didn't think I'd be so exigent about how it was made. However, I've become rather intolerant of bad coffee also.

I once saw an Italian lady make tea for five people with a single tea bag.

The tea had to be measured into a scalded pot, one spoon for each cup, and one for the pot. Boiling water had to be poured over it, and the pot had to be kept warm (tea cozies, anyone?) until the tea was ready.>>

of course, a tea cosy, bvl, AND loose tea, [one spoon per person] AND water freshly drawn from our well. [though it is pumped up electronically rather than having a small boy doing it by hand which I'm sure would make it taste even better!] We drink it in the morning before we get up [with the help of our trusty teas maid], half way through the morning and in the afternoon at about 4pm. We drink coffee as well, mainly after meals but not always. There is a stall in Truro market which supplies not only coffee beans but also lots of loose teas so we are spoilt for choice!

Talk about off topic! The subject is coffee!

goodness me, a fodors topic which has strayed from the point.

Quelle horreur.

If all else fails, and you simply cannot make up your mind about which coffee to buy, there are currently 47 Starbucks outlets in Paris, with more opening all the time. Tea is also available there.

Well, this turned into much more information than I had anticipated. I am Canadian, and tea was very much a part of my upbringing. As much as I enjoy a good cuppa, nothing takes the place of coffee in the morning (for me, that is). And not being a Starbucks fan was one reason I asked for a coffee recommendation. With all your good suggestions, I will be fortified each morning. Thanks.

I was just joking about Starbucks - most of us never set foot in that place!

I am glad to see the return of Pepper von Snoot.

OP, where are you from?

Coffee, an interesting thread.

Last time I bought coffe was 'café grand-mère', en grains.

What else ?

As for tea, I buy 'Kusmi tea' - several shops around, one on Champs Elysees.

I buy Hediard when in Paris. I have found it in department stores, it is really good. Treat yourself...

Most of the French who regularly buy coffee, unless they are already using capsule machines, tend to think that Carte Noire is one of the best brands.

I will probably give Carte Noire a try. Must nicer to have a couple of recommendations than go blindly into a store not knowing what to choose. A good cup of coffee in the morning is something my body requires!!

Sparkchaser - I was born and raised in Canada (BC), but now live in western Washington state.

Actually, Carte Noire is available in capsule form - look for "dosettes". Most other coffee brands are going in the same direction - unfortunately.
If you don't want capsules, make sure to choose "cafe moulu" instead of "cafe en grains" - I made this mistake early on, it's a little difficult to see the fine print on the labels.

Thanks, fuzzbucket - never heard of capsule form, so happy to know the interpretation of the descriptive language.

I was at the Carrefour hypermarket in Aubervilliers today and it has a complete double aisle of nothing but coffee. Capsules on one side, ground coffee on the other, clearly labelled.

This is nothing compared to Belgium, though. There, they have divisions for "breakfast coffee" and "evening coffee" in addition to the formats.

Aubervilliers.
My dream.
I slept twice in the victor Hugo close to pont de Stains.
Felt like holiday.