Cheaper coffee – how to enjoy gourmet specialty coffee at reasonable prices.

If you’re on a tight budget and need to find a cheaper coffee, but still want to make a decent brew, there are a few things you can do.

The trick, of course, is to find inexpensive coffee beans without compromising too much on quality.

Some tips to help you keep your coffee costs down...

1. Look for coffee blends. They will always be cheaper than single origin beans.

2. Blends of 100% Arabica beans will always be more expensive than those which include Robusta beans. In your search for cheaper coffee, watch for blends that are not marked or promoted as 100% Arabica.

3. Browse the online coffee stores. Watch for specials these web sites might be offering. Also look for deals on free shipping. Otherwise you could lose the savings you make on the coffee by paying too much in shipping fees.

4. If you have the money for it, you can often save in the long run by buying wholesale. Some web sites will give you wholesale prices on quantities as low at 1lb and up. The more you buy, the bigger the price break.

5. You can save money by using an inexpensive coffee maker. You don’t even need to invest in an automatic drip brewer. You can make just as good coffee with a simple manual drip filter cone. It’s a plastic or glass cone you place over a carafe or mug. You place a filter in the cone, add the ground coffee and then pour hot water from the kettle over the grinds.

Additionally, if you pour the hot water evenly and stir the grinds and water a little, you’ll be getting the most possible coffee from the beans you use. Some drip brewers are quite wasteful, as they don’t cover all the grinds evenly with hot water.

6. Avoid expensive single serve coffee makers. You can always make cheaper coffee by buying tins or bags of loose coffee.

These are just a few of the ways you can enjoy cheaper coffee. Keep watching for special offers...and if you’re shopping online, look out for free shipping.

And keep in mind that even a good blend of gourmet coffee is already very inexpensive when you make it yourself. In fact, good coffee costs less than bottled water right now.

For deals on coffee and coffee makers, check out our separate blog, Coffee Best Buys.

Back to choosing the best gourmet specialty coffee...