Is it better to buy my coffee online?

by matt
(carmichael, CA)

QUESTION:

Usually I buy my coffee locally when I do my shopping. But I'm thinking maybe I'd do better buying from an online coffee store. What are the advantages? Or disadvantages?

ANSWER:

Great question. Buying coffee online certainly offers a lot of advantages.

The greatest advantage is that you will have a lot more choice when you shop online. Supermarkets have limited shelf space and, within that, they limit the amount of space allocated to gourmet coffee beans and ground coffee.

Go online and the range of choices increases a hundred times or more.

You can buy from established online stores like Peets, Starbucks, Green Mountain Coffee and many others. In addition, if you dig a little deeper, you will find smaller, specialty coffee retailers online and, of course, coffee roasters.

Another benefit to buying from online coffee stores is that in spite of the shipping times, the coffee is often lot fresher.

Coffee beans on supermarket shelves may have been roasted and packaged weeks or even months before. Online you can find coffee roasters who won't even roast your beans until you place an order.

If you have found a favourite coffee at a local store, that's great.

But if you want to experiment with a wider variety of coffees from a range of different retailer and roasters, try shopping online.

We have a page about choosing the best online coffee store here.