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Not to be a stereotype, but once I had a kid, my morning coffee became truly sacred. Not just because I relished the boost of energy from a little caffeine in the morning, but because taking a sip of a toasty, nutty cup of strong coffee felt like a little respite from the world of childcare, something thoroughly grown-up that helped ground me in the mornings. Rather than spending all my money buying coffee at a cafe (and let’s not even talk about how impractical it is to bring a baby or toddler to a coffeeshop and expect it to be relaxing), I decided to figure out how to make my perfect cup of coffee at home, and the best beans I found came from Peet’s Coffee. If you like dark roast coffee and have been trying to make great coffee at home, then these could be the beans for you, too.
Alfred Peet, who started Peet’s Coffee, was actually one of the first people in the U.S. to start selling dark-roasted coffee beans. He was a pioneer of making coffee that actually tasted good, rather than relying on instant coffee or the low-quality coffee that was prevalent at the time, and he even taught the original founders of Starbucks about making good coffee and roasting beans before they started their company.
All that to say that after trying dozens of different coffee brands, from the cheapest stuff on the grocery store shelves to expensive bags of beans from local coffee shops, I’ve settled on Peet’s Coffee Dark Roast Whole Bean Major Dickason’s Blend as the best bang for my buck when it comes to making great coffee at home. It’s also widely available. You can usually find it at the grocery store or Target, and I ended up signing up to get it automatically delivered every two weeks on Amazon. That way, I never have to worry about forgetting to pick it up at the store.
Peet’s Coffee, Dark Roast Whole Bean Coffee – Major Dickason’s Blend, 18 Ounce Bag
If you subscribe and save, you’ll pay just $13.67 per shipment, or you can test it out with a one-time purchase price of $14.39. It comes in an 18-ounce bag, so it will last a lot longer than your usual 12 or 16-ounce bag of coffee, and since the beans are whole, they also stay fresh and flavorful for longer than pre-ground coffee.
If you’re buying whole beans, you’ll also need a coffee grinder (is it just me or is this starting to sound like an adult version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?). My favorite affordable coffee grinder is the Krups One-Touch Coffee and Spice Grinder. It’s less than $20, and I’ve had mine for nine years now and it still works just as well as it did the day I got it.
Krups One-Touch Coffee and Spice Grinder
Last but not least, you’ll need a coffee maker. I chose an affordable 12-cup coffee maker that can be programmed the night before to brew in the morning. That way, a hot, fragrant cup of dark roast coffee is always waiting for me when I get downstairs. But these affordable dark roast coffee beans work well in a French press, too, if that’s more your style.
BLACK+DECKER 12-Cup Digital Coffee Maker
When you have kids, a lot of times it feels like you’re living in survival mode. But surviving is a whole lot easier when you have a reliable cup of coffee in the morning, especially when it doesn’t mean spending hundreds of dollars a month at the coffee shop. With this setup — affordable dark roast coffee beans, an inexpensive coffee grinder, and a programmable coffee maker — your sleepy mornings may start to feel a little more like thriving rather than just surviving.
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