Do you grind your own coffee beans, but wonder if it’s worth the time and effort? Or maybe you buy ready-ground coffee and wonder if you could save a few bucks by grinding your own.
Are you trying to find out the difference in cost between grinding your own coffee beans and buying them pre-ground? Well, you have come to the right place.
Is it cheaper to grind your own coffee beans? In this article, you’ll find out whether it’s a good idea to grind your coffee beans or buy pre-ground to save time and effort.
Whole Coffee Beans vs. Pre-Ground – Price Factor
When it comes to buying pre-ground coffee or whole coffee beans, there’s not much difference in price. Most brands sell their pre-ground and whole basic beans at the same price.
On average, you can buy a 12-ounce bag of coffee for 6 to 18 US dollars. Starbucks currently sells both pre-ground and whole beans in 12-ounce bags at 8 dollars each, while La Colombe sells them at 13 US dollars.
Is Pre-Ground Coffee Cheaper?
When you look at the prices of pre-ground coffee and whole beans, you will notice that companies often sell pre-ground coffee at lower prices. This is because they are producing a huge amount of low-quality coffee. Many factors allow producers to sell pre-ground coffee at lower prices.
Mostly, the pre-ground coffee selling at low prices is low-quality coffee. There’s a lot of demand for pre-ground coffee, which means that more of it is produced, resulting in low prices.
Another factor is that the volume of pre-ground coffee is less than that of whole beans, which reduces the shipping and storage costs.
There’s a bigger price range in ground coffee than in whole beans. If you look for premium pre-ground coffee, then you will find that the prices are much higher than for whole beans.
Should You Grind Your Own Coffee Beans?
Coffee enthusiasts know that the only way to get the best flavor of coffee is by grinding beans freshly. Let’s take a look at how this works.
1. Roasting
When coffee is roasted, gases form inside the bean, which boosts the flavor. When the gases escape, you start losing the flavor with time. It’s best not to store coffee after roasting for more than four weeks to get the best taste.
2. Grinding
The next thing after roasting is grinding the beans. To get the best flavor, you should use the coffee within an hour after grinding.
Does this mean that pre-ground coffee doesn’t have its full flavor? Yes, pre-ground coffee will never have the full flavor of freshly ground coffee. However, manufacturers try to preserve the flavors through different methods, including adding some additives.
It’s clear that grinding your own beans results in better-tasting coffee, but what about the cost?
Is it Cheaper to Grind Your Own Coffee Beans?
Let’s calculate how much money you can save by grinding your own coffee beans versus using coffee pods.
1. Whole Coffee Beans
Let’s consider you are starting from scratch. The cost of an inexpensive grinder is 19 dollars, and it grinds five thousand cups in total. The cost of each grinding is 1 cent. The cost of an inexpensive coffee pot is about 10 dollars. The filters cost 1 cent each if you buy them in a large quantity.
Most people think 0.25 ounces of coffee is enough to make a cup. Now, if you buy a 40-ounce bag for 18 dollars. The cost per cup is just 1 cent. If we include the above-calculated expenses as well, it will be 14 cents per cup.
2. Coffee Pods
Now, what if you are using coffee pods and a coffee maker? How much would it cost you? The most inexpensive coffee maker would cost you 50 dollars. The cost of 96 Senseo pods at Amazon is about 25 (at the time of writing), so they cost about 25 cents per pod.
If we include the cost of a coffee maker at 1 cent per cup, it would be a total of 26 cents. This is almost double the cost of grinding your coffee beans.
Conclusion
Our above estimate concludes that grinding your own coffee beans is much cheaper than using coffee pods. If you are a regular coffee drinker, you can save a good sum of money over the long term by grinding your coffee. Additionally, you can have the best flavor by using the coffee right after grinding.
However, if you don’t drink coffee regularly, you can go with either option. It depends on your convenience. If you want to save time, you can go with coffee pods. If you want to have the fresh flavor every time, you can choose to grind your coffee beans.