Best Trader Joe's Coffee Products For a Caffeine Boost

Grounds, beans, concentrates—oh my!

While brands fight for precious shelf space at most grocery chains, Trader Joe’s takes a different approach. They focus on perfectly curated collections of affordable yet quality products. You simply can’t go wrong with whatever you choose, and that holds true in the coffee aisle. From grounds to whole beans, they’ve got it all. The popular grocery chain even has cold brew, coffee concentrate, and pods.Since coffee crops change all the time, so does the selection at Trader Joe’s. Fan-favorite picks like the Ethiopia Small Lot Coffee Bale Mountain are available on a limited basis, and then there are the seasonal drops like the Wintry Blend Ground Coffee. Trying the exclusive drops is always a fun way to mix up your morning coffee routine, but here are the best coffee staples you can get from Trader Joe’s year round.

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Trader Joe’s has many varieties of canned and bottled coffee, but if you haven’t tried the cold brew concentrate, consider this your sign. Making cold brew on your own is a labor of love, and since TJ’s cares about your happiness, they did the work for you. The result is a convenient bottle of cold brew that’s noticeably less bitter that regular brewed hot coffee and, in some cases, more economical. A single bottle contains about eight servings, so instead of driving through your favorite coffee shop every morning, buy this and get sipping.

Strong coffee, anyone? Oui! French coffee is a type of dark roast coffee, which is exactly what it sounds like—it’s roasted for longer. This version from our beloved Trader Joe’s is made with whole beans, which will please the purists out there since grinding your own beans is the secret to the freshest cup of coffee. Ironically, the beans aren’t French at all. These particular beans hail from Peru and Brazil, where they were roasted low and slow to maximize the flavor and intensity.

Decaf coffee might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of getting your morning dose of caffeine, but it’s every coffee lover’s secret to savoring the flavor in the afternoon without disrupting your sleep. Each box of this TJ’s decaf coffee comes with 12 single-serve cups, which are compatible with most single-serve coffee makers. With no need to grind the beans yourself or measure out coffee grounds for brewing, it doesn’t get easier than this.

When you switch to espresso, you’ve officially moved up in the rankings from amateur to aficionado. That’s because espresso is the most caffeinated form of coffee you can get your hands on, so you only need to drink a little bit to get the same caffeine kick. However, making espresso isn’t for the faint of heart. It starts with achieving a fine grind of espresso beans. If you’re not there quite yet, TJ’s has done the work for you. The beans are grown under shade for protection and taste, roasted low and slow for intensity, and finely ground for a premium brewing experience from home.

If you’ve stuck to medium roast coffee grounds all of your adult life, it’s time to step outside of your comfort zone. There’s an entire coffee world out there, and thanks to Trader Joe’s, you don’t even have to travel to expand your coffee palate. These whole beans have traveled all the way from small family farms in Indonesia, where they were produced using a special “wet-hulling” method that contributes to a full-bodied yet low acidity experience.You will need a coffee grinder though, since this sumatra coffee contains whole beans, but trust us, it’s a game changer. This pick is also organic and fair-trade—values that are important to many.

Call us basic, but nine times out of 10, a classic medium roast ground coffee is on the grocery list. It’s reliable, affordable, and convenient. Sure, it’s not as fancy as some others, but it’s still got a lot going for it. In this bag, TJ’s uses 100 percent arabica beans to bring South American coffee to the masses. The canister is sealed using nitrogen to preserve freshness, but if you’d like to take it up a notch, TJ’s makes a whole bean version of this coffee you can grind yourself.

The popularity of cold brew coffee has been soaring, and it’s no secret why. Since it takes up to 24 hours to make, the flavor and smoothness are unrivaled. The acidity of coffee is what turns many away from it—or results in there being more cream and sugar than actual coffee in your cup—but you don’t get a ton of acidity with cold brew. If you don’t want to spend hours making your own, it’s time for a Trader Joe’s trip. This cold brew coffee delivers all the flavor of the beloved drink without having to steep it for 10 hours yourself.

This is one of TJ’s more pricey coffee products, but let’s be real, it’s still cheaper than two large vanilla lattes from You Know Where. Unsurprisingly, this coffee contains whole South American beans, which is conveniently where most coffee is grown. But these aren’t just any arabica coffee beans. No, they’re the largest coffee beans grown in Colombia. They’re only mildly acidic, and offer a unique hint of caramel and cocoa.

Whether you’re off caffeine for health purposes or you could do without the jitters, TJ’s has a few decaf teas and coffees to choose from. For those who don’t stray too far, you can’t go wrong with the medium roast. It’s already ground up for you, and it’s the exact same coffee used in the single-serve pods, so you’ll reap a little savings going this route. And if you try to avoid coffee that’s been decaffeinated through a chemical process, this one uses water to gently reduce the caffeine content.

Perhaps one of the most confusing types of coffee is light roast. Medium is the most popular, and dark roast is for those looking for a bolder taste. But light roast? Let us explain. The longer coffee is roasting, the less caffeine it will contain. Roasting coffee beans also removes some of the antioxidants that make coffee a healthy beverage. So, light roast coffee tends to be higher in caffeine and antioxidants. It’s also rumored to have a more full-bodied flavor, so if you love the taste of pure coffee, you’ll like this Trader Joe’s blend.