CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- So what’s your coffee flavor? Consumer Reporter Bill McGinty, an avid coffee drinker around here, wanted to know if the more expensive coffee is any different than the cheap stuff.
Are we all over paying for our Morning Joe? Wait until you see the surprising results of the coffee taste test.
If you’re like me, you can’t start your day without it. I’m cheap, I hate overpaying and it finally occurred to me that my coffee choice for my three daily cups -- which is also the national average -- might be costing me more than I need to spend.
I decided to grab four of the popular brands and brew up a taste test. I used Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s McCafe, Starbucks Veranda and Walmart’s Great Value House Blend. I brewed them all in a Keurig and used bottled water. Everyone could add what they wanted -- after all, it’s their cup of Joe.
Now to the blind tasting. All four brands look the same but the cost of each brand is different.
Before I get to the results, here’s what I spent: the Dunkin 16-count was $12.19, the McDonalds 12-count was $9.98, the Starbucks Veranda 16-count was $11.99 and the Walmart Great Value 12-count was $4.37, less than half of the others.
We tasted until we were tapped out, and our results were surprising. It was a tie between Starbucks and Walmart’s coffee. Per “k-cup”, Starbucks will cost you 74 cents, but Walmart’s coffee which scored just as high, which would cost you 36 cents.
So if you drink three cups a day, your monthly total drinking the Starbucks is $70, the same amount of Walmart’s great value deemed just as good is just $34.