Costco sells coffee in sizes designed for either a large family or one person with a serious problem. There is no middle size. I respect that.
The trouble with a coffee aisle that big is the same as any aisle that big: you stand there holding two bags the size of a toddler and wonder which one you will regret. So instead of ranking beans, I sorted these by how you drink coffee. A warning: some of these are new to me, so this is a read of the label and the price math, not a taste test. If you drink one of these daily, tell me what I got wrong. Prices are what I saw when I posted each one or the most recent number I could find, and they vary by warehouse.
Start with a Kirkland bag and do the per-cup math. A 2.5-pound bag at about $18.69 is roughly 7 and a half dollars a pound. If you use a standard scoop of about 10 grams per cup, that is around 110 cups and roughly 17 cents a cup. The Kirkland Colombian below is a little cheaper per pound still. Everything else in the aisle has to beat those numbers to earn my attention, and most of it does not.
A 2.5-pound bag of 100% Arabica beans, Rainforest Alliance Certified. Warehouses were listing it between $18.69 and $18.99 in May and June. Item #1528787.
It is a dark roast, so expect smoky and a little bitter. That is the point. If you want coffee that still tastes like coffee after a splash of milk and a heroic amount of creamer, a dark roast is your friend. At about $7.50 a pound this is the daily driver of the aisle, and the one I use to judge everything else.
Verdict: Buy. The default.
A 2.5-pound bag of pre-ground medium roast. It was $18.99 when I posted it in May. Item #756053. That is about $7.60 a pound.
This one is for the household without a grinder, or without the patience for one. Medium roast is smooth and easy to drink, with less of the bitterness you get from darker beans. The catch: if you like a bold cup, this will taste mild to you. It works in a drip machine, a pour-over, or a French press.
Verdict: Buy if you want the easy cup. Skip if you want the strong one.
A 3-pound Kirkland classic, a dark roast made from Colombian beans, listed at $20.99 in warehouses in July and September. Item #17767. That is about $7 a pound, a little under the French Roast. Heads up: this is the ground version, a fine grind sold in a can, so it is ready for the drip machine.
The listing describes a sweet, low-acid cup with almond, a hint of banana, and some floral notes. If you want a dark roast without the smoke of a French Roast, this is where I would start. It has been a Costco staple for a long time, and staples earn that title by not messing up.
Verdict: Buy. The one I would hand to a new Costco coffee drinker.
A 2-pound bag of USDA Organic light roast from Ethiopia’s Jimma region. Warehouses were listing it around $19 on average, with a handful showing it on sale for as low as $12.97. Item #1217294.
The label promises a crisp, clean cup with citrus and floral notes, which is a long way from a dark roast. Light roast is the answer for people who say they do not like coffee because it tastes like burnt toast. Costco does not carry many light roasts, so this is where to start if you want to branch out.
Verdict: Buy if you want something lighter than the rest of this list.
A 2-pound bag of USDA Organic whole beans, sourced from a farmer co-op in Aceh, Indonesia. Warehouses were showing $17.99 to $18.99, about $9 a pound. Item #1163683. It is roasted medium-dark with the classic Sumatra profile of chocolate, red wine, and spice, per the listing. Costco.com also sells a 2-pack online.
Sumatra is the coffee version of a strong opinion. Earthy, heavy, a little wild. If you like it, you will buy it forever. If you do not, you are stuck with two pounds of it. Buy the single bag in the warehouse before you commit to the online 2-pack.
Verdict: Buy if you already know you like Sumatra.
A 2-pound bag of whole-bean dark roast. Item #670441. A deal thread had it on sale in some warehouses at $14.99 in February, and the same thread put the regular price around $22. That is a $7 swing on one bag of coffee, so watch the sale tag.
Peet’s calls this its best-selling blend. It is the premium dark roast of the aisle. At $14.99 it is a steal, and at $22 it is a fair price for a step up from the Kirkland bags.
Verdict: Buy on sale. Fair at full price.
The same blend, water-process decaffeinated, as whole beans. Item #1042132. Warehouses were showing $21.49 to $23.89.
Whole-bean decaf is slippery at Costco. When a reader asked me a while back where it went, my honest answer was Trader Joe’s. This one is the exception when it is in stock, so grab it when you see it.
Verdict: Buy if you drink decaf and can find it.
Three 32-ounce cartons of USDA Organic, unsweetened cold brew. It was $20.69 when I posted it. Item #2005847. That is 96 ounces for about 22 cents an ounce. The label calls it a dark roast with notes of dark chocolate, made from 100% Arabica beans, and says you can drink it straight from the carton, cold or hot.
If iced coffee is your daily habit, this saves you a lot of mornings of making it. It is also heavy, so it is the one item here that is hard on the cart and harder on the trunk. Unsweetened means you control the sugar, which is either good news or a problem depending on who you are.
Verdict: Buy if you drink iced coffee every day.
A box of 72 K-Cup pods, a limited-edition medium roast of 100% Arabica with notes of sweet maple and herbs, per the box. It was $44.99 when I posted it. Item #3882772. That works out to about 62 cents a pod.
Compare that with the Kirkland French Roast at roughly 17 cents a cup and the gap is hard to ignore. Pods are convenient, and holiday packaging is cute, but you are paying about four times as much per cup for the convenience and the box. Unless a Keurig is the center of your morning, the bean bag wins.
Verdict: Skip it. Pay the pod tax only if the Keurig is non-negotiable.
If you buy whole beans, you may have noticed the in-store grinders vanished at a lot of warehouses. When I asked employees, I was told Costco pulled many of them because members kept grinding things that were not plain coffee, like chocolate-covered beans and nuts, and the machines kept breaking. They disappeared from my local warehouses for a few months, then new ones showed up in August. So there is hope. If yours is missing, ask an employee when it is coming back.
The Kirkland French Roast, Medium Roast, or the Colombian for every day, the Peet’s whenever it is on sale, and the Wandering Bear if iced coffee is a lifestyle. I would walk past the pods.
Now tell me what I got wrong. What is your daily Costco coffee? And if you drink the Sumatra, is it worth the extra dollar or two a pound? I would like to know what I should be drinking.
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Why has Costco’s whole bean decaf disappeared for a few years? I grind my own coffee and blend regular and decaf beans in my grinder. I have to go to Trader Joe’s for decaf beans.
Also, another “long gone” favorite was Costco/Kirkland American Blue Cheese, which I found to be very good, especially if it stayed stored in the refrigerator for several months while the mold grew and enhanced the flavor/texture. Is it ever returning?
While we can’t quite jump on that blue cheese bandwagon with you, (not fans of moldy cheese), we definitely feel your pain on the decaf coffee. TJ’s is a pretty decent replacement, though.
What 10 items not to buy at Costco & why. That link led to this coffee rating article.
What gives?
We goofed! We linked to the wrong page from our email by accident. 😢 We added a NOTE at the top of this page with the correct link.
I LOVE the Kirkland House blend, whole bean, but I haven’t seen it in ages at warehouses- any thoughts?
Hey John – it looks like the regular Kirkland House Blend whole bean (not the decaf version) is still listed on Costco.com, so it hasn’t been discontinued outright. Stock does vary a lot by warehouse though, so it might just be sporadic at your local store. Worth asking an employee if they know when their next shipment is coming in.
It’s been quite a while, but I didn’t realize it was available online- thanks for the tip!
No problem, John! Hopefully your local warehouse gets a fresh shipment in soon too. We actually just saw it an hour ago in our local (SF Bay Area) warehouse!
Some people I know like to get coffee beans and grind in the store, but the grinders have disappeared. What’s up with that.
We’ve talked to a number of Costco employees about this. Costco has been pulling the in-store grinders at a lot of locations because members were misusing them (grinding stuff like chocolate-covered beans or nuts) and they kept breaking down. They disappeared in our local warehouses too for a few months, but then they brought in new ones recently – so there’s hope!