Don't Give Up Your Grinder: Pre-Ground Supermarket Coffees

Balanced and sweet-toned: roasted almond, hints of flowers and cocoa. Delicate, slightly winey acidity; silky to lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The aromatics remain pleasing but lose intensity and turn slightly woody in the cup. The wood prevails almost entirely in a clean but empty finish.

Impressive aroma: Sweetly pungent and grapefruity with cedar, nut and dark chocolate complications. The aromatics remain pleasing and complex in the cup, though they lose intensity. Lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Aromatics fade further in a sweet-toned but empty finish.

Sweet-toned, delicate, though rather simple. Cocoa and nut in aroma and cup, with faint hints of lemon and flowers. Round, muted acidity; smooth but rather lean mouthfeel. Some flavor carries into the short finish but fades toward astringency in the long.

Aromatically simple but rich, with a roundly roasty character and suggestions of dark chocolate, nut and cedar. Silky mouthfeel. The finish is sweet-toned, though slightly woody and astringent. The can does not claim 100% Arabica but we found no obvious suggestion of Robusta in the cup.

Impressive aroma: dark chocolate, a hint of pungent, grapefruity citrus. Both fade in the cup and disappear entirely in a heavily astringent, roast-flattened finish. Lean, watery mouthfeel.

Pleasant enough ultra-dark-roast character in the aroma: roundly charred cedar, anise, a hint of citrus. All carry into the cup, though they lose considerable intensity on the way. Lean mouthfeel. The charred cedar turns to charred board in a terminally empty, astringent finish.

Woody nut rounded by a cherryish, rather composty dark-chocolate sweetness. Muted, slightly bitterish acidity; lean but smooth mouthfeel. Some nut and chocolate carry into a heavyish, astringent finish.

Disappointing for a 100% Colombian Arabica, even a Colombia presented in a roast-and-ground, canned format. Woody aroma with some pruny sweetness. Flat acidity, leanish mouthfeel. In the cup the wood persists and the fruit turns composty and unpleasantly fermented. Flat, astringent finish.

Sweet-toned and pungent in the nose, with composty, prune-like fruit and bitterish wood notes. Retains the fruit and wood hints in the cup, but turns more aggressively bitterish and sour. Thin, leanish mouthfeel. Heavily astringent in the finish.

Astoundingly under-roasted and woody. Sweet-toned wood, peanut, perhaps a hint of flowers in the aroma. In the cup nothing but salty, bitterly sour wood and peanut skins (the skins, not the nuts). Somewhere amid all of that a tiny hint of flowers shimmers on. Plumps up just a bit in the finish, though the salty-sour sensations continue to dominate.

Woody and vaguely sweet with a background salty mildew that could perhaps be charitably interpreted as spice. Flat with no brightness whatsoever; lean mouthfeel. The finish is sweet but empty and astringent. As the cup cools the musty, mildewy sharpness intensifies. Owing to the intensity of the mildewy taint we deducted three points from our already low rating.