Kirkland Decaf Coffee...Any Opinions?

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Forgive me if this has been covered somewhere along the way, but I've tried a few searches and come up dry.

 

For reasons too tedious to delve into at this point, I'm in the unfortunate position of having to drink decaf coffee and tea. As a freelancer and longtime caffeine addict this was very challenging, though now that I'm being treated for ADHD it's less so: the frontline ADHD meds are all amphetamines, and when you start your day with an amphetamine your caffeine intake is more or less a non-factor.

 

As I was hitting Costco the other day for a few things, I happened to notice that a) they do have a decaf among their Kirkland whole-bean coffee offerings; and b) the price is extremely competitive relative to the supermarket brands in my area. A bit of Googling tells me that their coffees have been roasted by Starbucks until just recently, which gives me pause (I'm not a fan), but I've also seen conflicting information saying that The Green Siren maybe isn't doing all of their roasting anymore?

Pending further research, I thought I'd seek out the wisdom of the eG crowd. Does anyone here drink the stuff? What do you think of it? At my local supermarkets 10-12 oz bags of whole-bean decaf mostly run $10-$15 CAD, while the 3 lb bag from Costco is in the low $20s. It's an unquestionably good deal, but 3lbs of decaf is a whole lot to deal with if I don't care for it. I know they'll refund it on request, but returning it is a minimum 2-hour round trip and my time is always at a premium.

[ElsieD]

John drinks the Kirkland decaf and has for years.  I have maybe 1 cup a month so can't comment for myself, but John, who has been drinking it for years, is happy with it.  I did ask if he has noticed a change in the taste of it lately and he says it seems a bit more bitter than it used to be.

[cookingofjoy]

I've also recently been looking for more decaf. I picked up the new Kirkland, and it's more bitter than I prefer. The beans are very dark and smell sort of sour. I hadn't tried the old version, so I can't compare for that. We'll end up going through it, but I would not be making a regular purchase. I have been browsing Costco's online offerings for decaf, though, in case anyone has a good experience with those!

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On 9/14/2024 at 3:28 PM, cookingofjoy said:

I've also recently been looking for more decaf. I picked up the new Kirkland, and it's more bitter than I prefer. The beans are very dark and smell sort of sour. I hadn't tried the old version, so I can't compare for that. We'll end up going through it, but I would not be making a regular purchase. I have been browsing Costco's online offerings for decaf, though, in case anyone has a good experience with those!

Here in Canada they only stock one decaf coffee in whole-bean form. There are others online, but I hadn't thought to check until reading your post. This is the one:



I bought a bag, on the reasoning that a) I could return it if I didn't like it; and b) it was far and away my low-cost option. My preferred choice is the Swiss water decaf from Halifax-based Java Blend (20-ish years ago I lived a block from the store, and smelled their coffee roasting when I woke up), but that's $13.99 in my local supermarkets for a 340g bag (12 ounces, for the non-metric folks). The Kirkland gets me 1.13 kg (40 ounces/2.5 lbs) for $22.99, and I bought a bag on sale at $19.99. At over 3x the coffee for 1.5x the price, that's pretty compelling math.

 

The coffee itself is... fine. I've had better, and I've had much worse. I don't detect the burnt undertones and chemical aftertaste that usually mar Starbucks' coffees for me, so either 'Bucks is in fact no longer roasting the Kirkland stuff (at least for the Canadian market), or they've gotten better at it, or maybe my palate just isn't as sensitive as it used to be. I dunno, but it doesn't really matter I suppose. It's good enough and the price is right, so I'll continue with it.