Yesterday I spent approximately fifteen dollars on coffee.  An excessive amount, I know.  But it was an experiment.  I’m a coffee snob – not a Starbucks coffee snob, but a roast-your-own-beans if you can (I can’t because my roaster died and I haven’t had it repaired yet) type of coffee snob.  So I decided to test out the difference between the cheap 24 ounces for $7.99 coffee verses the $11.99/pound freshly roasted stuff at my local Whole Foods.  Here’s my dilemma: I, as a snob, need to figure out the cheapest way to consume high quality, tasty coffee.  Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

•  Cheap coffee always tastes bad to me
• Starbucks coffee usually tastes funky to me (burninated) so its out
• The cheaper good stuff at whole foods is still $10.00 a pound
• Yes, I can taste a significant difference between a fresh roast and a not-so-fresh roast
• I like medium roast coffees the best
• I refuse to do various things to thin out the coffee ground usage: if you’re going to have coffee make sure it isn’t garbage.  If you’re looking for cheap caffeine go with tea – it’ll still taste good, but not have nastiness like cheap coffee.
• I need to fix my roaster because then the beans can be had for several dollars a pound instead of 12 dollars a pound
• I do like Peet’s coffee, but it is as expensive, or more expensive than Starbucks

What things do you do to make sure you get a little luxury, but at a frugal price?  Do you let yourself have a little luxury?  When you go to the store do you wrestle with these things?  I tend not to, but I find that when I have to buy coffee (which I actually drink sparingly contrary to what this post may imply) I convince myself to spend more every time.  My expensive/cheap experiment proved again to me that I can taste a difference and prefer the good stuff.  Help!