While attempting to find out what the top 10 coffee brands are, I discovered a problem. I can't seem to find any data more recent than the end of 2008, and I can't tell if this data is reflecting global sales or if it's US-centric. There are those that will argue that the majority of real coffee drinkers are in the US, but after having been around the world, literally, I can't agree. Perhaps it's true in overall volume, but not in percentage.

The Top 10 Coffee Brands

Here are the top 10 coffee brands as reported by the press:

1. Folgers: $419.0 million in sales. Folgers is by far the largest selling coffee brand with a market share of 21.60 percent. Maybe Folgers coffee really is the best part of waking up.
2. Maxwell House: $283.7 million in sales. The second largest coffee brand, with a market share of 14.62 percent, Maxwell House was first created in 1892 at a Nashville, Tennessee hotel, the Maxwell House Hotel.
3. Starbucks: $189.2 million in sales. Although Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, it's the third largest overall coffee brand in the U.S. with a 9.75 percent market share.
4. Folgers Coffeehouse: $127.9 million in sales. An offshoot of the main Folgers brand, the Folgers Coffeehouse series is a gourmet branded coffee. The Folgers Coffeehouse line, a Proctor & Gamble brand, has a market share of 6.59 percent.
5. Maxwell House Master Blend: $77.5 million in sales. This gourmet spin-off of the Maxwell brand is part of the Kraft Foods family, and has a market share of 3.99 percent.
6. Chock full o'Nuts: $44.1 million in sales. The brand started as a New York store in 1932 and evolved into the sixth largest coffee brand with a 2.27 percent market share.
7. Millstone: $43.5 million in sales. Millstone, with 2.24 percent of the market, was a private coffee brand until Proctor & Gamble purchased it in 1996.
8. Seattle's Best: $42.8 million in sales. In addition to roasting and distributing coffee, the private company also has stores serving coffee throughout the U.S. and Canada. Seattle's Best has a market share of 2.21 percent. Seattle's Best has been a subsidiary of Starbucks since 2003.
9. Eight O'Clock: $38.5 million in sales. The brand, with a 1.98 percent market share, was owned by The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company until 2003 when A&P sold it to an investment firm, creating the Eight O'Clock Coffee Company.
10. Yuban: $37.4 million in sales. This brand, part of Kraft Foods, promotes itself as being environmentally friendly by helping protect the environment and wildlife in coffee growing regions. Yuban has a market share of 1.93 percent.

Missing from the List

The above list comes as no surprise to me. The top selling brands of coffee are also the brands of the companies that advertise their coffee the most. A day doesn't go by without a TV or radio commercial being broadcast about Folgers and Maxwell House. To be honest, I've haven't even tried half of the brands on the list and frankly, I don't intend to try them.

I'm sure there are other good coffee brands (but not necessarily the best coffee brands) that just didn't make it into the top ten, but I can't find any information publicized for them in the press. Those that sell primarily iced coffee (in a can or bottle) or primarily instant coffee wouldn't make it into any list, I'm sure.

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The logo and style of the can may have changed since I was young, but the Folgers coffee can is something I can distinctly remember, along with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting its way from our glass percolator. Good times and good coffee in the original grind is something I am unlikely to ever forget. (My grandmother used to use an empty Folgers can as a spittoon she kept outside her front door. Yuck!)

Regular Grind versus Automatic Drip Coffee

I don't know if it's just me, but some I think something was lost in the transition between regular grind and automatic drip coffee and Folgers coffee is no exception. The aroma isn't the same and doesn't invade my senses as I wake up in the morning.

Does Folgers sell regular grind, the kind made for percolators, anymore? I don't know because it isn't sold locally (in Olongapo City, Philippines). I can find the automatic drip kind and the Folgers coffee crystals (instant), but not the regular grind.

I'll soon be buying an automatic drip coffee maker, but I may end up buying a percolator as well, if I can find one. Even if I have to grind my own coffee beans, I think the flavor and the aroma will be worth it. Of course, it's low on my "to do" list because I have a lot of home things to take care of first and I need to take care of them within the next six months.

Do you remember Mrs. Olsen? She was the lady in the commercial that said Folgers was the best coffee because it was mountain grown, the freshest kind. I don't know about all that, but that was replaced by something along the lines of "the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup". A coffee cup, I presume.

To wrap up my soliloquy, I present you with:

The Best Part of Waking Up

A sweet little boy surprised his grandmother one morning and brought her a cup of coffee. He made it himself and was so proud. He anxiously waited to hear the verdict on the quality of the coffee. The grandmother had never in her life had such a bad cup of coffee, and as she forced down the last sip she noticed three of those little green army guys in the bottom of the cup.

She asked, "Honey, why would three little green army guys be in the bottom of my cup?"

Her grandson replied, "You know grandma, it's like on TV, The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup."

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I spotted a news article and read various sources to discover that Starbucks will be rolling out with a new instant coffee called "Via Ready Brew" in the US and Canada during September. The price? While there is no firm price set, they plan to charge USD $2.95 for a "book" of three or $9.95 for a box of 12. Come again? There is no way on Earth I would spend that much for instant coffee, regardless of what brand it is.

A Mistaken Assumption?

Apparently, Via Ready Brew had a successful introduction in Seattle (the home of Starbucks) and some places in the state of Illinois. Each packet is equivalent to one cup of Starbucks coffee, making each cup of "instant coffee" more expensive than people pay for the current top brands.

I personally think they're assuming too much. After the novelty wears off, I'm guessing they'll have excess product on the shelves and will start putting it on sale just to clear their inventories. Even if they sell it in the regular Starbucks coffee shops, I predict sales will be lukewarm at best.

Why do I think this way? Most people who can afford to drink coffee at Starbucks are looking for hot coffee prepared in a unique way. They're not looking for instant coffee which won't be any better than the best instant coffee already on the market. Now, I don't know what the "best" instant coffee brands on the market are, but I'm willing to guess they're the most expensive brands found at grocery stores. I speak of brands like Folgers and Nescafé.

Folgers Coffee Crystals

I don't pay attention too much to names on the labels, but I can't help remembering the commercial advertisements on TV. Things like "it's mountain grown, the freshest kind" and "we've secretly replaced their gourmet coffee with Folgers coffee crystals" readily come to mind.

I don't know what the current price is, but I guarantee you it's a jar for less than $9.95 and a lot more than 12 cups.

Nescafé Taster's Choice

My parents always drank Taster's Choice instant coffee, long before I knew it was a label from Nescafé. They marketed it as freeze-dried coffee to seal in the flavor. Ho-hum, it doesn't taste any better than Folgers, but it's around the same price.

When I buy instant coffee, I buy Nescafé Classic, which is a coffee powder. It's around 30 cups for about $4.25 a jar. One of my relatives gave me a jar of Nescafé Red Cup, which is coffee granules instead of powder, but I really couldn't tell the difference in taste.

A Huge Instant Coffee Market

Who can blame Starbucks for trying to get a chunk of the $17 billion in annual revenue generated by instant coffee sales? I don't, but I think they're going about it the wrong way. Going up against the longtime favorites, two of which I mentioned, is going to be a difficult task at the prices they're planning to charge.

I'm no expert, but I believe most instant coffee buyers are grocery shoppers, not coffee shop regulars. Only time will tell, but I believe we'll see the results of their efforts within six months. Prices will either come down or sales will stop. That's my prediction and I'm sticking to it.

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I recently made a big mistake when buying cheap coffee at the Royal Subic store at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. I normally buy Nescafé Classic, but the regular jars of it were out-of-stock. The store is in a remodeling phase and food products are being moved around. It's difficult to find what you're looking for, even if you know where it's supposed to be.

The Best Instant Coffee Brands

I don't know why certain brands of instant coffee are made differently from each other. Whether it's coffee powder, freeze-dried coffee, or coffee with coffee crystals makes no difference to me. The best brands I've ever personally consumed are those made by Folgers and Nescafé, regardless of the particular variety.

My parents have been drinking "Taster's Choice" for years (and I obviously leech off of them whenever possible) but it was only recently that I discovered that it was a brand owned by Nescafé and only when they put that word on the label. It didn't used to be there (kind of like when they changed the "Quik" chocolate drink to "NesQuik"). I've been drinking Nescafé and Folgers (instant coffee only) for quite some time myself.

In the Philippines, Nescafé is also the cheapest, good brand of coffee and it's made in the Philippines even though Nescafé is a Swiss product. When I shop for coffee, I normally shop for Nescafé. If it's not available and I can find Folgers coffee on the shelf, I'll opt to buy the Folgers coffee even though it's usually twice as expensive.

The Worst Instant Coffee Brands

When it comes to coffee, you can't substitute a good brand with a generic-sounding brand. You just can't. It will taste like crap compared to what you're used to. Even certain brand name coffees taste like crap compared to what I'm used to.

Maxwell House instant coffee, for example, just doesn't taste good to me. I don't know if it's due to their manufacturing process or if they just use inferior coffee beans. Whatever the case, I don't like it.

On my last shopping trip, I couldn't find the Nescafé varieties or the Folgers coffee anywhere. I ended up buying an offbeat brand called "Sunny Select". It was a big mistake. That coffee tastes like I boiled my socks and tried to make coffee out of the results, it's that bad. Sunny Select makes a lot of food products and lot of it's good, but they have failed when it comes to coffee. I didn't buy this brand because it was cheap coffee. I bought it because it was all that I could find that wasn't Maxwell House.

Automatic Drip Coffee is a Different Story

I don't own an automatic drip coffee maker, but I plan to get one in the next few months as my budget allows. In my past experiences with automatic drip coffee brands, several brands always topped my list. In the case of drip coffee, Maxwell House is actually very good even though their instant coffee sucks.

Folgers is another good drip coffee. You really can't go wrong with Folgers. There are some other brands that I won't touch with a ten-foot pole and the reason is because they aren't 100 percent coffee. Some brands include things like chicory and I want my coffee pure. I like the taste of coffee, not that other nonsense they use to dilute the flavor. When they do something like that, it tells me their coffee beans are inferior to start with.

I've learned a lesson — never settle for second best. If I have to settle for second best from now on, I believe I'd rather do without having any coffee at all.

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