The idea for this project came about on sort of a whim, as a joke. At the beginning of December 2024 I was hankering for a can of coffee from the asian market in my home town, Li Ming’s. On the way back to school from thanksgiving break I had a UCC coffee that I adored, and I had just recently started making coffee at home and drinking it daily. But Li Ming’s has something like 10 different kinds of coffee in a can, which one would I want? The cheapest? The best tasting? So I had this idea where I’d buy everything at Li Ming’s and rank them based on flavor and value. That idea has become this, the omnibus.
First I went to Publix, Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Earth Fare and a gas station to see their selection. I also stopped by Dollar Tree and got a surprise entry, the Vic Allen coffee that I’ll get to near the end of the first week. I went to Li Mings when I got back into town after my last final, and then went to Wegman’s, H-Mart and Fresh International Market with my girlfriend, whom I first pitched the idea to. Within the span of two weeks it had gone from vague concept to reality, and now 23 cans and one bottle of coffee lay before me, waiting to be drank one after the other. This is also the first website project anything outside of school that i've put any amount of CSS design into, its simple but I'm proud of it! The order in which I drink these coffees is randomized, one per day in the morning. They will all be served chilled.
Here’s some summary statistics: 24 total coffees, total cost with tax was $76.69 without store discounts. average coffee price was $2.97, the lowest was $1.25 and the highest was $4.99. average cost per ounce was 33.04 cents, with the lowest being ¢11.4 for the dollar tree special and ¢66 for the Nguyen Vietnamese with condensed milk. This project sort of spiraled out of control, but I had to be thorough in my search. Also, we're comparing cost and value based on two control coffees, the cheapest gas station coffee i can find, which came in at 13.25 cents an ounce and tasted like dirt, and the best coffee i could find, award winning microroaster goodness from local shop Cocoa Cinnamon, costing 25 cents an ounce and tasted heavenly. Hopefully this information will prove useful to someone else, it’ll sure be useful to me.
Also, I told my therapist about this idea and she said it would be a good way to spend my winter break so I’m writing this all off as self care.