I am hoping that members of the sandbox will have info on coffeehouses in the suburbs as well. As a suburban resident (don't shoot me) I don't get into the city much...

Best I have to offer is Mayorga. I was a big fan of their beans when I lived in the 'burbs. Both Costco and Corridor carried them (and still do afaik, though Corridor carries a wider selection), which made it fairly convenient.

I only drink drip black coffee. At home I use only Indian Monsoon since it is naturally acid free and I suffer from acid reflux. The only locally roasted source I have discovered is Baltimore Coffee and Tea which just happens to be very near my place of employment in Timonium. I like a medium roast for best flavor. I think Starbucks and Peets both roast way too dark for day long consumption. By roasting everything dark I think you lose the nuances of regional differences.

Try Baltimore Coffee and Tea on W. Aylesbury in Timonium. Great coffee shop.

Daily Grind in Fells Point brews Key Coffee, but from what I could see does not sell it there. All I could find instead was Daily Grind brand coffee beans (it is weird they don't brew their own brand of coffee, but I didn't ask). But fear not, Eddies in Charles Village sells several varieties of Key Coffee. I am a big fan.

Thanks for the suggestion about Baltimore Coffee and Tea. I didn't even know it existed.
I buy Mayorga coffee from Costco, and am very pleased with it. What is 'Corridor'?
I am also interested in finding a suburban coffeehouse type of place. I don't like Starbucks, but I would like to find a locally owned place in the 'burbs that is the same type of concept. My sister used to live in St. Bernard Parish (New Orleans) in a very blue-color neighborhood, but they had the best coffeehouse. They served all different types of coffees and teas, salads, sandwiches, had live entertainment, overstuffed chairs where you could read, etc. I haven't found anything comparable.

I hardly ever drink coffee, but tried Mayorga yesterday at Costco as part of a sample-fest (are there enough places that give samples to do a Top Ten Places to get Samples one of these days?), and it was delicious. We didn't buy any because the bag was huge, but I am tempted to go back. I'd feel better about local, so maybe I try one of the others listed here.

Susan,
Baltimore Coffee and Tea has tables, sandwiches, gelatto, pastries, etc. Stop by and give it a try.

I suggest everyone try locally roasted over whole sale clubs.

I'll dare to raise the ire of coffee purists by saying that we have had a Keurig single-cup brewer for several years now. We got really ties of throwing away most of a pot of coffee and this works really well for us. We got our machine from Green Mountain Coffee and get most of our "K-cups" from them, as well.

Hubby saw one of these machines at a house where he was doing a renovation and wouldn't rest until he had one.

Susan - Corridor Wine & Spirits on 198 in Laurel.

Baltimore Coffee & Tea rocks. Best coffee around. I might never drinkcoffee again if Starbucks was the only coffee out there. I live in Lutherville and when Starbucks (in the Hunt Valley area) roasts their beans you can smell the burnt beans all the way to Lutherville. When BCT brews you want to be late to work getting a cup (or a pound). Yummmmmm!

The office of my employment has coffee available via a Flavia single-cup machine (it gets a lot of business) and a couple of drip machines that brew half- and full-pots. For those machines we purchase bags of grounds that are made by Starbucks and we have 3 styles: medium, decaf and sumatra. These machines also produce hot water for tea and cocoa and soup. No one has complained - heck, it's free.

Zeke's is hands-down my favorite coffee of all time. The first time I tried a cup at the market I was floored by how good at was, and an absolute bargain at that. Beans by the pound are a trifle more pricey than what I'd like to pay, but are still worth it for the quality.

When I run out of that for home brewing purposes, Trader Joe's makes some nice stuff that comes in a respectable second. I tend to like dark roasts, and they've got something they call a Bay Blend (I think) that's very rich and flavorful.

I roast my own (it is easy), so I'm pretty snobbish, I guess. High Grounds is very good, Bluebird isn't bad, Zeke's doesn't impress me, Baltimore Coffee & Tea stores their roasted beans in containers designed to quickly stale them.

As for methods...I think the only coffee making utensil I don't own is a percolator. Drip is ok, if the drip pot gets the water hot enough (most don't). I like french press, aeropress and melita best.

Rosebud - I agree with you. My law firm had the Green Mountain and it was really good. They got rid of it and I am assuming because it was a little pricey but everyone (except those paying the bills) loved it. I am still hooked on BCT though.

Fargin Bargins down in Deale has excellent coffee. It's practically addictive. I'm not sure if they roast their own, but there's just something about it. Every time I'm down in South County I grab a cup.

For at home, I use a Breville conical burr grinder for every day use and have had great results in my drip coffee maker. There is a distinct difference in flavor compared to a regular grinder. When not feeling lazy or for guests, the french press gets dusted off.

I agree that Baltimore Coffee's storage method is less than ideal. I would like to find a place that roasts about 5 gallons at a time and then stores the beans in a freezer. And they have to have Indian Monsoon with a medium roast. Any suggestions?

KitKat - it's surely more expensive by the cup, but we figured that, having eliminated the waste, we came out ahead, since our old drip maker couldn't brew anything less than a full pot decently.

Mark, roast your own in a hot air popcorn popper, and get your Indian Monsoon greens from Tom at Sweet Maria's (I'm not putting in a link because I'm not sure commercial links are kosher here).

There is a bit of controversy about whether or not storing roasted beans in the freezer breaks the cellulose in bad ways leading to nasty tastes or preserves freshness.

Oh, gods...I need to really avoid this thread. You all do not need me going on about the Many True And Perfect Coffee Ways.

Lissa,
How you store your roasted beans or do you roast them fresh for every pot?

Just checked out Sweet Maria's. Thought I would head Sweet Maria's this weekend and talk to Tom about coffee. However, Oakland, CA is a long drive. If I decide to roast my own I will see if Baltimore Coffee and Tea will sell me green beans and if they won't I'll contact the coffee shop I went to in St. Louis. He sold perfectly roasted beans and roasters for home use along with green beans.

Mark, I store my beans in those rubber sealed cannisters. When I'm mailing or carrying beans to friends, I use ziplock valve bags. They let the CO2 outgas (a good thing) while minimizing the exposure of the volatile tasty stuff to that nasty air stuff.

While I compare home roasting coffee to baking bread (in that it can be very simple and inexpensive or incredibly expensive and complex plus the taste is so much better than you'd think), unlike bread, roasted coffee should rest (in a valve bag or a cannister) for 12-48 hours before grinding and drinking. How long depends on the bean and the degree of roast. It isn't an exact science, and if the only roasted beans I have were roasted 3 hours ago, I drink them. Although, if they are still warm, they tend to gum up your grinder (and SGI is very right about a good burr grinder - it is more important than the brewing method).

I roast about once a week, 3 batches in my popcorn popper, which isn't quite often enough for optimal taste but is good enough for me. It takes well under an hour, including all the setup and cleanup.

The website I mentioned above for green beans also has days worth of reading on everything about coffee and sponsors an e-mail list on home roasting.

So, Ms. Lissa, I'm thinking that I don't need to send you those instant coffee coupons I clipped from Sunday's paper?

Mark, the roaster at High Ground at Eastern and...East, I think, has sold me green beans. His beans are good (most are most definitely not).

Before acquiring my Flavia machine, I was a big fan of Zeke's - high quality for decent price, plus the satisfaction of shopping local.

The Flavia machine, however, has saved me from making myriad pots of coffee that went mostly wasted because I was one person consuming. The Flavia coffees are surprisingly good, too. Sidamo Gold in particular.

I will not go back to wasting so much brewed coffee until I have a fellow coffee lover in house to share a pot, at which point I would happily go back to Zeke's or try the beans my sister just brought back from Guatemala. And, believe it or not, the dunkin' donuts coffee beans grind up surprisingly smooth and mellow for an evil chain coffee. Please, Jay C, yell at me for buying some last winter! I promise I will repent. :)

Just be sure to recycle all those used grounds in your gardens, folks! If you don't have a garden, I will gladly take them off your hands!

LJ-
No chastising here. Just be sure to keep the beans in the freezer and not the fridge.

Like you, I (sometimes) have the predicament of making coffee just for myself. For my normal coffee making, I use a simple Bodum French Press, a grinder and a water heater and I can make as little as a cup at a time. Keeps waste low and the quality of the coffee just blows any home brewer away.

Mr. Robert (tSO), thank you for your kind offer. I do recycle, so I could find a place for those instant coffee coupons in my big yellow bin.

In all seriousness, I do sometimes have instant coffee around for cooking and baking. I've learned the hard way that when the recipe says instant, it often will not work with my lovingly brewed and roasted liquids (although I do make concentrate sometimes).

Dahlink, with my concrete, anti-rat yard (which discourages the rats not one bit), I'm no longer composting my grounds. If you want them, I'll save them for you. Acid-loving plants just adore grounds. Only problem would be getting them to you.

I always thought left over coffee was an urban myth similar to left over wine. I brew a pot every morning and take the what is left to work for continued enjoyment. As for wine I am convinced bottles have thicker glass these days because I very seldom have to use my vacu vin.

Okay, I'm confused. What does the thickness of wine bottle glass have to do with the top being open or vacuum sealed. Thin or thick, if its open its oxidizing.

Jay C - water heater?

Is that one of those plug-in things that enable you to heat water at your office desk, etc? How long does it take?

I use my french press when the power goes out. I agree it produces a superior product, but feel it's too labor and time intensive for the daily morning rush to get out the door and to work on time.

I use my french press when the power goes out. I agree it produces a superior product, but feel it's too labor and time intensive for the daily morning rush to get out the door and to work on time.

I don't have a fancy water heater, but with my ordinary kettle on the stove it takes me 10 minutes to boil the water for my French press, and 4 minutes for the coffee to brew. While the water is boiling I feed the cats, and get started making my lunch.

Thicker glass makes for a smaller volume in the bottle. It is a joke really. When my wife comments on me finishing off a full bottle on a week night I tell her there wasn't as much in the bottle because of thicker glass.

Mr. Mark, if you can get your wife to believe that blather, more power to you, more power to you. Of course I assume your wife probably reads your posts to the Sandbox. So, unless she is a complete idiot (and since she married you, the jury is out on that one, no offense, Mrs. Mark, but you have to admit the evidence against you is strong) I think it may not work, next time. Just a thought. But, good luck.

Re: storing coffee beans in the fridge or freezer. I just read a story from a Professor of Food Science at some university. He said that using either is bad because it introduces moisture into the beans. He said it is best to store beans in a dark, airtight container in the kitchen/pantry away from heat.
That sounded good to me and I just found a great airtight canister at Goodwill for $3.

Read here for an article about how to roast coffee at home. I may try it.

LJ-
Yes, you got the water heater correct. I use a $30 model from Bodum that you plug in, click the switch and in a few minutes, you've got boiling water. I let it boil, then open the cap and wait ten seconds for the water to cool (I like about 200F) before pouring it into the french press.

The press takes a little bit more work but I think the results are well worth the effort and a rich and tasty cup of coffee is a wonderful way to start the day.

BTW, I prefer coffees from companies such as Counter Culture, Stumptown or EccoCafe. Seriously good quality and sourcing practices that no one in Baltimore can match.