Mitsui Advanced Media Mitsui Gold (00021215) CD-R Storage Media

Pros: The most reliable brand I've found
Cons: None

I have used several brands of CD-R, and with almost all of them, about 30% of the disks have turned into coasters/frisbees. This is horrible, and simply unacceptable if you want to reliably store data.

With Mitsui Gold, I've had only 5% or less go bad. I buy them in bulk, $80-90/100. When you consider what percentage of the other brands go bad, the price doesn't seem high. And if you consider the value of the data you lose, and I've lost a lot to bad media, it's downright cheap.

If all you want is a throwaway copy of a CD to take to the beach, almost any brand will do. If you want a reliable archive, use Mitsui Gold.