When you shop at Costco, you’re sure to find whatever you’re searching for at a low cost, and more often than not, in bulk. This is good news for those of you who keep a large supply of coffee on hand at all times, whether you’re in charge of supplying caffeine to a large office setting or are just a self-diagnosed coffeeholic.
At A Glance: The Best Coffees At Costco
Of course, you don’t want to buy a couple-pound bag of a brew that falls flat. Before hopping in your car and heading to your local Costco, check out our guide to the best coffees the store has to offer. Follow our lead, and you can be sure you’ll get all the flavor and caffeine you’re looking for.
Quick Summary: The Best Coffees At Costco
 | KIRKLAND SIGNATURE HOUSE BLEND |
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 | MOTHER EARTH ORGANIC ROAST |
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 | PEET’S COFFEE MAJOR DICKASON’S BLEND |
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 | STARBUCKS FRENCH ROAST |
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 | JOSE’S GOURMET COFFEE VANILLA NUT COFFEE |
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 | KIRKLAND SIGNATURE COFFEE BREAKFAST BLEND |
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 | DUNKIN’ DONUTS ORIGINAL BLEND GROUND COFFEE |
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 | SAN FRANCISCO BAY COFFEE FRENCH ROAST |
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 | KIRKLAND SIGNATURE COLOMBIAN SUPREMO ROAST |
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 | STARBUCKS PIKE PLACE MEDIUM ROAST |
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 | PARISI ARTISAN COFFEE BOLIVIAN ORGANIC BLEND |
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Before Buying at Costco
When you decide to shop at Costco for coffee, there are a few things you should know about the global retailer.
Membership Club
To shop at a Costco warehouse, you will need to purchase a membership. These membership passes are valid for one year, but if you’re unsure about making that kind of commitment, check your local newspapers and online for a free day pass to try before you buy.
Large Quantities
It’s not uncommon to find a package of coffee that would last a single person 30 days or more at Costco.
Much of the store’s inventory is designed to be purchased in bulk, which is great for items like canned goods or jars of food, but might be kind of risky if you’re passionate about drinking a cup of the freshest coffee each morning. If you’re going to buy coffee at Costco, be sure you can finish it all by the expiration date. Share it with the whole family, your office, or plan on storing it in the refrigerator or freezer.
Samples
Sampling is a big and beloved part of the Costco culture. As you trek up and down the warehouse aisles, you’ll find sample tables parked throughout the store, especially on weekends.
Head to the coffee section to see if you can try a cup of the newest brews. And if you can’t find any samples, don’t hesitate to visit the storefront café to find out what kinds of flavors and roasts Costco has to offer.
Our Favorite Costco Coffees
Kirkland Signature House Blend
A major benefit of shopping at Costco is having access to their house brand, Kirkland Signature, and a wide selection of Costco-exclusive coffee.
Kirkland Signature’s House Blend Coffee appeals to anyone who enjoys a smooth, well-rounded brew. These 100 percent Arabica beans are custom roasted by Starbucks Coffee Company and are fair trade certified, so enjoy every sip of this medium roast knowing it tastes good and is good for everyone involved in manufacturing it.
Mother Earth Organic Roast
For a balanced brew with a bright finish, give Mother Earth Coffee’s Organic medium roast a try. This coffee boasts a smooth mouthfeel, nutty taste with notes of dark chocolate and hazelnut, and an impressive 91-point score from Coffee Review. And if that’s not enough to sell you on Mother Earth, this blend of Central and South American coffee is small-batch roasted to bring out the best qualities in every bean.
Just as you’d assume based on its moniker, Mother Earth Coffee strives to give coffee drinkers responsible ways to enjoy our most favorite drink by practicing direct trade with coffee farmers and using only natural processes in preparing their 100 percent Arabica beans for your use so you can enjoy cup after cup of guilt-free goodness.
Peet’s Coffee Major Dickason’s Blend
Peet’s Coffee has a long reputation for providing high-quality coffee. The brand has been around since 1966, and the company’s commitment to the craft includes partnering with the right farmers and roasting the beans by hand as they’re ordered to guarantee maximum freshness.
Find Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend at Costco as a whole bean or K-cup pod and enjoy a piping hot mug of the full-bodied, complex dark roast. All it takes is one cup, and it won’t be hard to understand why the 100 percent Arabica bean blend is one of the brand’s bestsellers.
Starbucks French Roast
Buying a bag of Starbucks French Roast is just like taking a trip to the well-known coffee chain — only considerably cheaper and with a much shorter waiting time.
As Starbucks’s darkest coffee, the French roast is packed full of smoky intensity and flavors bold enough to awaken anyone. This multi-regional, 100 percent Arabica blend has been a popular choice among Starbucks-lovers since its introduction in 1971. With that kind of longevity in the highly competitive coffee industry, you know this drink is good till the last drop.
Jose’s Gourmet Coffee Vanilla Nut Coffee
Jose’s Gourmet Coffee is passionate about crafting the perfect cup of coffee, and you can find this family-owned company’s products exclusively on the shelves of Costco stores.
The gourmet coffee company’s Vanilla Nut blend is just what you need to wake up in the morning, offering an intense aroma and a sweet, nutty taste. This well-balanced medium roast made with 100 percent Arabica beans has a creamy finish so good you might not even need sugar and creamer.
Kirkland Signature Coffee Breakfast Blend
Another Costco coffee favorite is Kirkland Signature’s light and bright breakfast blend. You can find it in a 120-count box of K-cups — the perfect size for restocking the employee breakroom’s coffee supply. Or if you tend to find yourself drinking a few cups of coffee a day, you’ll breeze through this box on your own.
This light and balanced brew makes for a sweet way to start your day, and it’s kosher, organic, and fair trade certified. Plus, all of the pods are recyclable, so it’s a good choice for your mornings and the planet.
Dunkin’ Donuts Original Blend Ground Coffee
When you want to run on Dunkin’ without the temptation of grabbing a couple of donuts, stop in at your local Costco and pick up a package of Dunkin’ Donuts’s Original Blend.
This medium roast coffee is made with premium Arabica beans and is specially blended and roasted to give you all the taste and quality you’d expect from the beloved franchise from the comfort of your own home. This full-bodied coffee is simple but still has enough flavor to be enjoyed on its own. If you want to spice up your coffee routine, try it brewed over ice with your favorite milk or creamer.
San Francisco Bay Coffee French Roast
What better place is there to find San Francisco Bay Coffee outside of the Bay Area than Costco?
The family-owned company uses beans from sustainable farms in Central and South America to concoct their French Roast — a dark and delicious full-bodied with notes of cinnamon and dark chocolate. You’re in luck, Keurig fanatics, as the well-known retailer offers this blend as an OneCup pod, offering 100 individual coffee capsules in every box.
The pods are commercially compostable, too, so when you’ve finished your brew, take your pods to the nearest commercial composting facility.
Kirkland Signature Colombian Supremo Roast
If you’ve ever sipped a cup of java in a Costco cafeteria, then you know Kirkland Signature is capable of producing a great cup. Bring a bag of beans home with you and wake up to the same flavors you enjoy in-store.
For something dark, try Kirkland’s 100 percent Colombian Supremo coffee. This fully caffeinated and kosher-certified drink tastes great on its own, but it works well in other milk-based drinks you might find yourself whipping up in the kitchen.
Starbucks Pike Place Medium Roast
If you ask a Starbucks regular what their favorite brew is, Pike Place will probably be at the top of the list.
The Pike Place roast is named after the famed area of Seattle where Starbucks Coffee Company got its start decades ago. This fan-favorite was introduced in 2008, designed to be a brew you can sip all day long.
This medium roast is made from beans sourced from Latin America, and the smooth and balanced blend delivers a strong but subtle punch of chocolate and toasted nut that’s sure to put a smile on your face.
Parisi Artisan Coffee Bolivian Organic Blend
Experience the goodness of artisan coffee with a bag or two of Parisi’s Organic Bolivian blend. Roasted in Kansas City but inspired by the Italian heritage of founders Joseph Michael and Salvatore Paris, this single-origin medium roast has a full flavor profile, complete with sweet notes of dark and milk chocolate, honeysuckle, and almonds.
This brew is easy on the acidity, too, so if you tend to be prone to heartburn or acid reflux, this gentle brew may be easier to stomach than another brand’s organic blend.
Pre-Ground, Whole Bean, or K-cup?
Maybe now you have a bit more clarity about what brand to buy at a major retailer like Costco, but now you need to know what kind of coffee is best: pre-ground, whole bean, or K-cup pod.
A lot of the coffees you’ll find at a store are going to be pre-ground. This saves you the trouble of grinding the coffee yourself, but it also means you do have to think a bit more about the expiration date and preserving the overall flavor.
To help with preservation, try storing your coffee grounds in the freezer or refrigerator, and most importantly, remember to keep it in an air-tight container. If you allow air or moisture into your coffee, you compromise the quality and flavor of your coffee, and at that point, you might as well throw it all out.
We suggest buying whole bean coffee whenever you can, as it will provide you with the freshest flavor possible. Just be sure to check the product for a roast date so you’ll know exactly how long ago your beans were custom roasted. For the highest quality taste, look for beans that were roasted between 8 and 21 days prior.
Of course, you’ll also need a coffee grinder or a place where you can bring your beans to be ground on-site, so keep that in mind if you’re strongly considering the whole bean route.
And as for K-cups…if you’ve been a Roasty reader for a while, you already know where we stand on pod coffee makers: we think they’re helpful in a pinch, but nothing beats freshly ground beans brewed with another method, like a slow pour-over or a classic French press. But we know many swear by the convenience of these brewers, so here are some things you should keep in mind while purchasing a coffee for your pod machine.
When you have a Keurig or Keurig-like machine, you have a couple of options for brewing your morning cup of joe. The first and perhaps most obvious choice is to buy K-cups, as they already have the right amount of coffee already measured out. Simply pop one of the pods into your machine, hit the brew button, and your coffee maker does the rest.
You can also choose to buy pre-ground or whole bean coffee to grind yourself. If you choose either of these routes, however, you’ll need some kind of reusable K-cup pod; measure your favorite coffee into the pod and reuse it as often as you wish.
This can add more variety to your Keurig since not all coffees are available in pods, but if you’re looking to save time in the morning, this may not be the best choice for you and your brew.
Wrapping Up
We hope you keep this Costco coffee guide in mind the next time you visit one of the warehouse’s brick-and-mortar stores or websites. And who knows? A good grocery store coffee just may be the best bag of beans you’ve ever tried.
Happy caffeinating!
