More than a year ago, in a fit of pique, I wrote a blog post about my annoyance that Trader Joe had stopped selling my favorite coffee beans, a dark-roast coffee called “Bay Blend”. I could not have imagined that the post would become one of my most-read blog posts. 1,490 people from across the country (and a handful from other countries) have viewed it, and there continue to be more views every week.

Comments, including recommended substitute beans, have been posted by 24 of those readers. I have tried many of those recommendations, and have sought out other ideas about beans I might like. Over the course of the year, I have settled on two roasts that are likely to be my choice going forward, and I want to share my decision with readers.

If you are not interested in Bay Blend coffee beans and the alternatives, you can skip this blog post. (This is, after all, intended as a blog about life at a particular retirement community, not about coffee!)

To review, what made Bay Blend special for me was primarily the level of roasting. I wrote, “When coffee beans are roasted, they gradually darken. Eventually, once they are really dark, the oils in them start to appear on the surface…. Bay Blend had that ‘oily’ character. In my experience, it is rare to find beans that have been roasted to that perfect point: oils at the surface, but not dried out.” The beans themselves have to be of high quality, of course, and the taste of the coffee varies somewhat with the country of origin.

In my search for a replacement, I tried other dark roasts from Trader Joe’s, Peet’s, and Starbucks. I also tried beans from several local roasters. None of them stuck, and I kept trying.

The beans that came the closest to Bay Blend (as I remember it—bear in mind that I haven’t had any Bay Blend beans for more than a year) were recommended in several of the comments on the blog post: San Francisco Bay Coffee French Roast. These beans are available directly from the company and from Costco (by mail and in at least some Costco stores). If you get it from Costco, you have to buy 6 pounds, which is an awful lot of coffee beans. You can buy a 2-pound bag by mail directly from the company, which is what I did.

Usually, I am reluctant to try beans that are called “French Roast” because often the oils have been completely burned off in the roasting process, resulting in beans that are dry and hard. That is not the case with these San Francisco Bay beans, which are very similar to Bay Blend in their roast and taste.

These beans have become one of my two go-to coffee choices.

The other roast I’m using regularly is Craft Coffee’s “Streetlight” blend. The degree of roast is similar to the San Francisco Bay coffee, but it tastes a bit smoother to me—which makes it a little less like TJ’s Bay Blend, but I’ve come to like it equally. It is available only by mail. I stumbled on it via a “Wirecutter” article in the New York Times. Note that Craft Coffee has other, lighter blends than Streetlight that are suggested (on their website) as Bay Blend alternatives. I tried them, and they are not dark enough. Craft Coffee also offers darker beans than Streetlight, which were over-roasted to my taste, but you might like them.

I should mention a runner-up that some of you might like to try: French Roast “Dark Italian” from Montanos Coffee. Again, the roast is similar to Bay Blend, but with a different taste (different choice of beans?). It comes close, however, and you may want to give it a try.