HOW TO SAVE MONEY BREWING COFFEE AT HOME
Frustrated with the rising cost of well - everything?
We get it! We also understand that you want quality, great tasting, jump start to your day coffee - not some watered down $1 a cup pour a bunch of cream and sugar to cover up the bitterness - cup of coffee.
Even with a small investment in equipment and purchasing quality fresh roasted coffee beans you can still save a good amount of money brewing coffee at home overtime.
This is a habit that can pay for that trip of a lifetime over 10 years, or good concert tickets a couple of times a year.
How much can you really save?
Average cost of drip coffee at a high quality coffee shop is $3
A specialty drink averages $6
If you drink just one a day you are looking at $21-$35 a week.
If you want to get more specific on how much you can save try the Buy the Drip coffee calculator
Buying the Best Coffee to Brew at Home
We happen to feel strongly about coffee selection. You can have a great brewer, and follow top techniques, but if the coffee is not high quality…
There are five grades of coffee beans:
Grades 4 & 5 are the lowest quality beans with 24-86 allowed secondary defects such as sour, underripe, fungus, mold, and insect damaged beans. Hopefully you will never see this type of coffee.
Grade 3 “Exchange Grade” has 9-23 secondary defects in a sample. Most supermarket & restaurants and gas stations use this grade of coffee.
Grade 2 or Premium Grade Coffee is high quality coffee, with up to 8 secondary defects, used in a lot of cafes and coffee shops.
Grade 1 Specialty Grade has 0-3 secondary defects - no unripe beans. This accounts for about 37% of coffee grown.
We bring this all up so you can understand and appreciate the variety of coffee available to you to brew at home.
All of these grades of coffee will have different roast levels and based on the region they come from will have nuanced flavors. The higher the quality the better the taste, and the better for your health.
The Top 2% of Coffee Grown
The cream of the crop top 2% of coffee grown is organic certified arabica specialty grade shade grown coffee.
All of these grades of coffee will have different roast levels and based on the region they come from will have nuanced flavors. The higher the quality the better the taste, and the better for your health.
A Note on Organic Coffee
Coffee is one of the most heavily sprayed agricultural crops and this goes largely unregulated in the countries where coffee is grown.
These chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not good for our health, the health of the farmers or our planet. Chemicals kill off healthy soil, contaminate waterways and poison wildlife. What's more is they are not needed.
Coffee is a shade grown crop, and is protected and fertilized by trees and their inhabitants, like birds, which help control pests by eating them, help pollinate and fertilize the soil.
Specialty grade coffees range from $15-$35 a pound and may or may not be organic. Price is not always indicative of quality. That $30 a bag bourbon barrel aged specialty coffee may be a nice treat though!
Now there is actually a calculator to help you estimate how much you would save.
$1500 in savings is pretty good. This does not take into account coffee fixings such as syrups, or milk.
If you are on board with the save money challenge you can invest some of that $1500 in some high quality coffee brewing equipment and gadgets.
Even if you are highly into specialty drinks and going for an at home espresso machine the Breville Express is just $600 - leaving you with quite some savings year over year.
Even Dave Ramsey the budget guru says “Instead of spending $5 on that daily latte, you can save money by just making your coffee at home. Listen, we’re not saying you should only drink instant coffee (unless you’re into that sort of thing). But even purchasing a bag of local beans from your neighborhood coffee shop and brewing it at home will save you a lot of money in the long run.”
How to Brew Coffee Without a Coffee Maker
If you do not have any brewing equipment and are looking for the least expensive way to start, we recommend a single cup pour over or french press. This can get you started for less than $20 and they do not require paper filters. We also strongly recommend grinding your coffee fresh, which requires a grinder. Here is a great video “Beginners Guide to Coffee Grinders” by James Hoffman. If you are getting into brewing coffee at home he has some great (and hilarious) videos.
Of course the absolute cheapest way to brew coffee at home is to put preground coffee in a cup or jar, pour water over it and then strain out the brewed coffee from the grounds using a dish cloth, panty hose etc... All you need is hot water - or you can use cold water but it will take about 12 hours to brew.
Time to Buy Beans & Get Brewing
As we mentioned before there are a lot of coffees out there, and trying different coffees can be a lot of fun. We are of course biased towards organic coffee and hope you decide to give our coffee a try, We even have samplers that allow you to try several of our coffees and see which you like best before buying a pound.
Please share your coffee challenge journey with us by tagging us @javaplanetcoffee or emailing us at customerservice@java-planet.com
