For coffee freshness, premium quality and some of our favorite artisan coffee roasters, we prefer to buy most of our coffee beans online. But when it comes to filling in our every day coffee supply with coffee beans from the local store, we like Trader Joe’s.

A unique, health oriented gourmet grocery store, there are now over 230 Trader Joe’s locations in more than 23 states in the US. For gourmet food lovers looking for a healthful range of interesting and tasty food products, shopping at Trader Joe’s is always a rewarding food adventure. And for your every day coffee supply, they have a respectable lineup of coffee beans. At very reasonable coffee prices.

Trader Joe’s most popular coffees are:

French Roast - number one seller, sweet-pungent taste, smoky aroma, medium body.

Bay Blend - ultra roast, a style of roasting that burns off the acid to bring out the sweetness with a smoky aroma.

House Blend - blend of Sumatra and Colombian beans, highly aromatic, a nice all around coffee at a full-city roast.

Colombian Supremo - rich aroma, full body, full-city roast, smoky overtones. One of the most popular coffee origins in the US.

Kona- 100% certified island grown Kona coffee (Kona, Hawaii), rich aroma, medium body and nice smooth flavor.

Moka Java - the classic blend of bright, chocolatey Ethiopian beans with sweet, smooth Java beans produces a smooth and balanced flavor. Mocha Java is one of the oldest and traditional blends of Arabian and Indonesian beans popular world wide for over 400 years.

Kauai Coffee - another popular Hawaiian grown coffee, slightly darker roast, sweet earthy aroma, delicate taste.

Organic Coffee Blend - 100% certified organic Peruvian coffee beans - a bit spicy, blended with more mild 100% certified Mexican beans, creates a complex aroma, medium body, good flavor

Italian Roast- blend of spicy Costa Rican beans, pungent New-Guinea beans and full-bodied Colombian Excelso beans, brought to a full dark Italian roast. Popular for making espresso, remember that the darkest roasts yield more a more carbonized bean that can over-shadow the underlying coffee characteristics and flavors. You are often tasting more of the roast flavor and less of the coffee bean flavor.

I always like to encourage everyone to reach a little, and expand your enjoyment of different coffees. While you’ll always gravitate toward your favorites and preferences, sample the variety of coffees out there. It’s part of the gourmet coffee adventure.

We were in a Trader Joe’s recently and found a fun little sample pack of four coffees. The package is called the “Coffee House Collection”. These little 2.5 oz packs of whole bean coffees are perfect for sampling the Trader Joes brand. 2.5 ounces of coffee beans is enough to brew about 4 to 8 cups of coffee, depending on the strength you prefer. The suggested 10 cup yield is probably on the weak side. Try them first and see if you like ‘em before you buy the full can.

The Coffee House Collection includes:

French Roast- the standard Trader Joe’s dark French roast. (see notes above)

Colombian Peaberry - a tiny bean prized for it’s remarkable concentration of flavor. Normally, the coffee berry (the fruit as is picked from a coffee plant) yields two coffee beans, but the Peaberry yields only a single coffee bean per berry. A medium roast, smooth with a nutty, well-balanced taste.

Organic Peruvian Cafe Femenino - organic, fair-trade certified coffee, produced by an all women (femenino) group in Peru. Medium roast, nutty and slightly sweet, chocolate tones.

Bay Blend- combination of Colombian Excelso and Mexican Arabica beans, deeply roasted, one of Trader Joe’s darker roasts, medium body, full flavor. (see notes above)

If there’s a Trader Joe’s location in your area, give them a try. Not a bad choice at all for your everyday supply of coffee beans.

Here’s a current list of Trader Joe’s Locations. See if there’s one near you?