A blog post tonight set my mind thinking. Its a fairly new blog, but high hopes for it, for sure at the link here called Bean Here, Bean There.
It talks about how fairtrade might not be all that, and about coffee ethics the kind of stuff I enjoy. Then popped on the end it talked about pre ground and it said
As an industry, I think we need to start practicing what we preach; refuse to sell ground coffee to the public in all forms. We wouldn’t dare to prepare an espresso for guests at our cafe’s using pre-ground coffee so why is it suddenly acceptable to sell pre-ground for domestic use? How much respect do you have for your coffee if you are the retailer and willing to take money for it? I’ll dub it coffee prostitution; selling your integrity for a little money!
Ouch! so it inspired
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Agree about ground coffee – I don’t think I’d have started drinking nice coffee unless the roaster I used could do preground. I wonder if the cost of some grinders is an issue, though? – spending £100+ on a grinder is hard/impossible for many to consider…let alone when you ‘need’ one at work, one at home, one to take on holiday etc
Would it be helpful to have some cheaper grinders to consider? – things like Le Cafetiere’s manual grinder can do fine for french press/filter, and a blade grinder (which far from ideal) is still better than preground imo. None of these will give you consistently optimum results – but I do think they’re a lot better than preground which will be consistently stale. You could do a £30 ’starter bag’, inc a basic grinder and some beans
Could not agree more Steve!
Didn’t have a grinder at home till Christmas, still only use (and can sensibly afford) a hand grinder, but before that enjoyed some lovely stuff as pre-ground. No, it was not as good as whole beans, yes it lost a lot of character very quickly – but as my friends who got filter (pre-ground) packs for Christmas will atest – it was the best coffee I / the’ve had, ever, to that point – and Steve has at least two new customers as a result. As an industry we must never close ourselves off to people who don’t meet our ‘expectations’ as customers – what a daft way of doing business that would be! Bring on those conversations!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by hasbean: Lazy blog post (audioboo)on pre ground coffee http://bit.ly/a6S2yL but I am shattered…
As much as i would find it very hard to go back to buying pre-ground, i still believe it has its place on the market. If it wasn’t for pre-ground i would not have got into brewing coffee at home, and i think for many of us enthusiasts it is the platform from which we start our quest for coffee heaven.
My friends and family enjoy the flavours that come with the freshness of my home roasted, ground on demand brews. However i know they would be less inclined than i would to notice the differences between that and a bag of pre-ground from their Hasbean subscription pack, and they certainly wouldn’t spend the money i have done on roasters/grinders to bridge taste gap.
Granted, supermarket pre-ground i wouldn’t recommend to anyone. However i believe great speciality companies such as Hasbean who have the highest respect for their coffees and roast and grind just before shipping, should continue to sell pre-ground, as eliminating customers who may not currently own a grinder, is counterproductive to their business and the industry as a whole.
I think there is a flipside to this argument, in that although most coffee shops do grind on demand, there is no guarantee over the quality or freshness of the beans being ground. Therefore if i didn’t own a grinder i would always have more confidence in the cup quality of a pre-ground zip locked bag of Cachoeira from Hasbean, than a freshly ground shot of potentially poor quality beans from a local cafe.
I agree whole heartedly with everyone above
Pre-ground might not be ideal for flavour, but it’s perfect for easy access. All you need is a few quid spent on a cafetiere and you’ve got everything you need.
I’m also personally a fan of the blade grinder for similar reasons. I used a nice blade grinder for quite a while before I finally upgraded this Christmas to an electric burr grinder. Again, that’s not to say the blade grinder is a great grinder, but at £10-£30 it’s much more accessible to people who want to see what a step up from pre-ground can bring.