Considering the rising cost of coffee and my current state of unemployment, I’ve been investigating cheaper coffee avenues lately. I’m a die hard Intelligentsia fan and still order it from time to time. However, since I’m at home all the time now, I’m drinking a lot more coffee and can burn through a couple pounds a week-that adds up quick.

Before I got hooked on Intelligentsia, I was a huge fan of Peet’s. Living near a store (North ave. in Lincoln park) made it easy to buy beans and it was close to the Whole Foods I shopped at. Even though that parking lot will go down in history as the most ridiculously aggressive lot I’ve ever been in, I braved it to spend some time at Peet’s and do some shopping for dinner. Now, in order to get Peet’s I have to make a trip to Dominick’s, something I’m not fond of doing. I’ve hated shopping at Dominick’s, Jewel and the like for years now cause they’re overpriced on quite a few things for no specific reason, namely produce and coffee. Those stores also make grocery shopping an unpleasant experience in general with poor store layouts and rather unpleasant employees-something that’s strangely not unique to the city.

There’s a sneaky little thing that coffee companies have done recently to attempt to hide the rising price of coffee. Where one pound used to be the standard size pack for beans, it’s now 12oz. This sucks for me especially because I’m looking at about $12.50 for a 12oz. pack of Major Dickason’s that may or may not be a couple months old. Direct from the site is around $1.00 more but Peet’s is really mean when it comes to shipping (cheapest is $8.00), so 1lb of coffee from Peet’s via mail order is a whopping $21.95. Basically, I can’t get Peet’s cheap and I’m back up in Intelligentsia pricing-which is the coffee I’d rather drink in the first place. Oh well.