Coffee Question...

[Kristine]

This reach I'd like to bring back some coffee grounds for my fellow coworkers. In no way what so ever am I a coffee connoisseur as I maybe drink 20 cups a year. So my question is this...where do you recommend I purchase the grounds? Would the Blue Mountain sold in burlap bags at Sunnyside in Time's Square be suitable or should I check elsewhere? Thanks much!

[saeyedoc]

By grounds I assume you mean ground coffee, not used coffee grounds? Real JBM is very expensive now, supposedly anything less than $40/lb is not real. I bought some that was in burlap bags at One Mile at Drifter's bar for about $31, tasted good, but probably not the real deal.

[Kristine]

Yes, meant ground coffee.

[phineasfreakears]

I usually bring back a few pounds of beans, and grind them fresh every morning. Always tastes fresher than the pre-ground stuff. I almost always get it from Times Square. Not because I like to shop there, or the price is better, but because they sell more and the product is fresher. I have bought some from the small shops on the beach that I found were quite old and really sucked. Also look close at the labels. Not all are genuine blue mountain coffee. Some are "high mountain," or similar.

[TAH]

Agreed, phineas. Buy whole bean, not ground, and check the date (expiry date should be at LEAST a year out), and look for the Blue Mountain seal if you want authentic. No seal, no Blue Mountain. All of those things are equally important. I like Coffee Roasters of Jamaica these days, but none of it tastes the same as it did 10-15 years ago. Not sure why, I've heard varying reasons (most come back to hurricane Ivan).

[wrtiii]

I'm not a coffee drinker, but my friend who intended to bring packages back as gifts was shocked to find how much prices had gone up in the last couple of years, and also surprised to see that the prices at the airport shops outbound were not that different; in previous years, he thought that the airport prices were significantly higher than the Negril prices.

[halfwaytree]

I would check out Value Master Grocery store in Negril.

[frankk]

I advise against getting coffee in the airport. I purchased two bags of coffee at airport Blue Mountain store two years ago but it was so stale I had to throw them away.

[wrtiii]

All the JBM bags we saw had a date stamp on them, and we paid attention. We did buy at Value Master, but 1) the price was as high as everywhere else, and 2) the price at the register was significantly higher than the price labels on the shelf, so it was very difficult to comparison shop.

[SLP]

You are better off buying directly from a vendor. I get mine from one and it is fresh. You can PM me if you want details