Arvid Nordquist Arvid Nordquist Coffee, 17.6 oz

I have been drinking the Mellanrost for a while now, and although I recently tried the dark roast, Mellan remains my solid top choice for ground coffee. While it doesn't "knock your socks off" if you're after a truly potent brew, it actually beats out the local gourmet shops for properly balancing the flavors. That may not sound like much, but in defense of those gourmet shops, there are a lot of well-off, coffee-drinking, New York commuters in the area, and their standards are fairly demanding. Regardless, this brand is cheaper and better than that of the average beans-by-the-pound variety downtown. It might not be better than the top-shelf shop-roasted blends, but who wants to pay as much as 60, or hell, even 35 dollars a pound for their daily coffee? Needless to say, coffee is very popular in Scandinavia, yet, even for Scandinavian coffee, this brand is quite good, especially as it is a pre-ground, packaged variety. All in all, the points about this coffee that I must stress are its mellowness, its balanced flavor, and the simple fact that it makes one feel good as one drinks it, not merely after the caffeine has "kicked in."