Help with a Christmas gift -- coffee?

[Chocolatl]

We exchange wish lists for the holidays, and today we got an e-mail from my father-in-law saying he'd like coffee for Christmas.

I think coffee is vile, bitter, nasty stuff, and I know nothing about it.

SO. I am appealing to the collective wisdom of the Cellar for help.

KitsuDad writes:

I've tried the following and wasn't thrilled.
Peets house blend - ok but not great
Gevalia traditional roast - tastes burnt
Dunkin donuts original blend - not a good taste

I'd really like to try something else. I'm not comfortable with Starbucks. It's just tooooo expensive. So my wish is to have a number of coffees that I can try that are just normal original type blends, that are whole bean, so I can grind them at home (as that seems the best way to make coffee that tastes good?), and, that are not expensive (because if I like it, I don't want to "drain the bank" when I order more). I'm looking for something that isn't bitter, but smooth and flavorful.

I'm baffled by the qualification that Starbucks coffee is too expensive -- it's like, $10/lb? So he has single handedly wiped out any cool artisan coffees I probably would've found.

Halp?