Grounds for Celebration

As an incurable and unapologetic coffee sybarite, I've been recently forced to find ways of cutting down on my coffee expenditures. As one who snubs his nose at the more "affordable" (i.e., inferior) brands of coffee, I am forced to choose among only elitist brands (i.e., Starbucks, Seattle's Best, Dunkin' Donuts, etc.) at my local supermarket. The prices of the latter rising up above $7.00 US per 12 oz. bag, coupled with its 4-5 day shelf life in my pantry, I'm leaning on a habitual crutch that can no longer support the weight of its own expensiveness.

What to do? Give into the true-trash coffee junkie lifestyle of, God forbid, Maxwell House? What of our posterity? What kind of decently-priced coffee can the next generation expect?

On my next grocery outing, desperate for a miracle that could save me from reverting to "waking up with Folger's in my cup," I took a long shot on an oddly-colored vacuum-packed 10 oz. tin can of Cafe Bustelo for the anorexic price of $2.88. Having always been a staunch believer in the adage "you get what you pay for," when I brewed some up at home, I was expecting the dirty acrid flavor you get from single-pack coffees compliments of any variety of dilapidated non-franchised motels.

Upon tasting this Cafe Bustelo, I was not only pleasantly surprised, I was taken aback by how good this coffee was! My week-long dream of finding a great-tasting, inexpensive coffee had suddenly been realized.

I'm not trying to apply any sort of life-lesson here. In most cases, if you need to save money by buying something remarkably cheaper than that to which you are accustomed, you'll probably be disappointed 97.6% of the time. As for me, one who is bound for continual disappointment due to my high expectations and unrelenting faith in value, I've awkwardly stumbled onto my one little success story.

Of course I'll dabble in some of the old luxurious coffees from time to time again in the future, but for now it's Bustelo all the way, baby.


All this talk about coffee got you excited? Read this experiment on the "cheap instant coffee effect" and be immediately brought down from your high.