I Joined 10 Coffee Subscriptions to Find 4 Worth the Buzz

Living in San Francisco, I am spoiled by the city’s numerous, excellent small-batch coffee roasters. Despite this, I’m always on the hunt for new roasters and beans to try. I’ve done two cross-country road trips—one from San Francisco to Florida and the other from San Francisco to Maine—and my husband and I tracked down the best local roasteries wherever we were on the road. 

The internet made finding great coffee easy when we were traveling. But, at home, online coffee subscriptions are the way to go for many. With a couple of clicks of a button (and a credit card), you can customize and set up coffee that’s delivered to your doorstep. To find the best coffee subscriptions, I joined 10 of them to see which offered the widest selection, an easy-to-use website that allowed for customization, and the best-tasting coffee.

The Winners, at a Glance

The Best Coffee Subscription

Trade Coffee

View on Drinktrade.com

Trade Coffee has a wide selection of beans from specialty roasters across the nation. Its sign-up process has you answer questions about your favorite roast and if you add sugar or milk to your coffee. Once the beans are selected for you, you can swap them out or easily change your delivery frequency.

Another Great Coffee Subscription

Mistobox Coffee Subscription

$115 at Zola View on Mistobox.com

Similar to Trade, the signup process for Mistobox requires you to answer a variety of questions. Once you’ve created an account, you can easily select different beans by browsing the site’s coffee selection, which shows you how other customers rank the coffee, as well as which beans fit your tastes based on your quiz results.

The Best Individual Roaster Subscription

Blue Bottle Coffee

View on Bluebottlecoffee.com

Blue Bottle is one of the leaders of America’s third-wave specialty coffee scene. It offers a number of excellent subscriptions, including single-origin, espresso, and blends, and even one for those who prefer lighter roast beans.

Another Great Individual Roaster Subscription Option

Intelligentsia Coffee

View on Intelligentsia.com

Intelligentsia offers a range of coffees, all of which are excellent. Its four subscription services include espresso and seasonal blends.

The Tests

• Sign-Up Test: I browsed each website to see what sort of subscriptions and coffees were available. I then signed up and tried to change the coffee and delivery date, evaluating how easy these processes were, respectively.
• Taste Test: Once the coffee was delivered, I brewed a pour-over with the beans to evaluate their taste.
• Customer Service Test: After a few days of trying the coffee, I reached out to customer service to see if there was a taste guarantee and what would happen if I didn’t like the coffee that was delivered.
• Pausing/Canceling Test: After three weeks, I canceled or paused my subscription to see how difficult it was to do so.

What We Learned

All of the Websites Were Easy to Navigate

Most of the websites made it simple to sign up for a coffee subscription. However, some sites had more tasting information about the beans and blends while others focused on telling stories about the coffees or roasters.

Atlas Coffee Club takes you on a tour of the world of coffee. Once you’ve joined, coffee arrives from a specific country (which changes throughout your subscription). Individual coffee companies like Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia were straightforward digital storefronts, though they also offer brewing guides and tutorials. Other sites like Trade and Mistobox start with a quiz. You answer a series of questions, including on roast preference and brewing style.

Sign-Up Questions Were Key

With most plans that offer beans from a variety of roasters—like Trade, Mistobox, Bean Box, and Beanz—the sign-up questions were important. Coffee from different roasters and sources varies widely, as do drinking preferences. Basic questions like how you take your coffee (black, with milk and sugar, cold brew) and how you prefer your coffee delivered (whole bean or ground) were fairly standard. But some companies asked more detailed questions. Trade offers five roasting levels: light, medium light, medium, medium dark, and dark. (Most other companies only have a choice of light, medium, and dark.) Mistobox asks if you prefer single-origin beans or blends—something other sites didn’t. 

Counter Culture and Intelligentsia were the only individual coffee companies that had this sort of quiz on their site, though Blue Bottle did let you select different options, like roast level, to tailor your subscription. On the whole, the more detailed questions there were, the better the chance of getting a good coffee match.

Customer Service Made All the Difference

Even after the most detailed quiz, sometimes you don’t get a bag of beans you like. The perfect cup of coffee is different for every person. And since there’s no agreed-upon industry standard of roast level, what one roaster might call medium roast may be darker or lighter roasted than expected. That’s where the ability to rate the beans on the site becomes key. As you rate the beans you’ve gotten, the better sites—like Trade and Mistobox—take this into account and adapt your next selection accordingly. Think of it like Netflix or Spotify, but for coffee beans. The more feedback you give, the better the offerings. 

But some companies went a step further. When I went to rate a coffee on the Trade website, I was given four options: I loved it, I liked it, I was neutral, and I did not like it. I selected “I’m neutral.” They were fine but slightly darker roasted than I typically enjoy, and I didn’t want them to send it to me again. I got an email a day later from customer service asking me specifics on what I didn’t like so that the company could further tweak my selection. Customer service also offered to send a new bag of coffee to replace the one I didn’t care for. Going this extra step made me want to continue with the subscription more than anything else.

Customization and Change Should Be Seamless and Easy

Finally, change and interacting with customer service should be easy and frustration-free. Almost all the sites made it fairly easy to log in and change your order, modify the subscription frequency, or pause/cancel your subscription, but some companies had better options. Trade coffee offers the ability to have your coffee arrive in frequencies of seven, 10, 14, 21, and 28 days. Mistobox had even more options: customize and pick any frequency, from one to 60 days. Other companies like Bean Box only allow you to change the shipping frequency between two weeks and every month. Having more choices means you can get your coffee exactly when you need it.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Coffee Subscription

Look for a coffee subscription that either offers beans you enjoy or has a detailed quiz that helps you select coffee. Make sure the plan you pick is customizable, allowing you to easily delay or pause your membership and offering a range of delivery frequencies. 

Finally, pick a subscription that matches your personality. Some folks enjoy different coffee all the time, while others want to find the one bean they enjoy and have it delivered on a consistent basis. Pick a coffee subscription that fits your needs, or allows for both of these scenarios.

Our Favorite Coffee Subscriptions

The Best Coffee Subscription

Trade Coffee

View on Drinktrade.com

What we liked: Trade offers more than 450 coffees from over 55 roasters. Its quiz asks you if you prefer regular or decaf, five roast levels, flavor notes, whole or ground beans, and how much coffee you drink. You can either pre-pay for bags of coffee (which gives you free shipping) or order one bag at a time (with a $1.95 shipping fee).

Once you place your order, you can change the coffee, shipping time, and frequency. Swapping beans takes some deep-diving into Trade’s catalog, but that’s to be expected with such a large selection. Thankfully, the website has filters for origin, roast level, process, tasting notes, and more. Once your beans are ordered, the local roaster gets to work, roasting the beans and shipping them directly to you.

Trade’s customer service was excellent and proactive. When I rated a bean that I got as “neutral,” customer service reached out and asked me why. They tweaked my account preferences with my feedback and sent me a replacement bag from a different roaster they thought I’d like more. The follow-up bag I got was excellent. 

What we didn’t like: The quick browse page for all the coffees only gives vague descriptions of what each bean tastes like. Broad terms like “Sweet & Smooth” or “Comforting & Rich” don’t mean much. Once you click on the individual coffee, it goes to a page that lists the full flavor notes as well as more about the beans. However, it would be nice to have the dominant flavor notes on the browsing page and not have to click through to the individual product pages. 

Key Specs

• Subscription includes: An 11-ounce bag of beans (though larger options are available)
• Frequency options: 7, 10, 14, 21, 28 days
  

Another Great Coffee Subscription Service

Mistobox Coffee Subscription

$115 at Zola View on Mistobox.com

What we liked: Similar to Trade Coffee, Mistobox offers over 600 beans. Sign-up was easy with a quiz that asked detailed questions about how you drink your coffee and your favorite roast level, whether you like ground or whole beans and if you lean toward a single-origin or blend, and your preferred delivery frequency. Once you’ve joined, you can easily swap out coffee for a different one from their catalog. 

Mistobox’s quick browse page is more robust than its competition. Each coffee has the top three flavor notes listed on the browsing page, as well as its overall customer rating. It also has tags on some of the coffee, including “top rated,” “new arrival,” and “your coffee match” for easier browsing. 

I found changing plans and swapping beans to be easy. Mistobox offers the best delivery frequency flexibility allowing you to select anything from 1 to 60 days.

What we didn’t like: Mistobox charges $5 shipping per bag, regardless of the plan you pick. When you factor this in, it’s more expensive than its competition. It also only offers three plans: an individual coffee plan, a pre-pay six-bag coffee plan, and a pre-pay 12-bag coffee plan. 

Key Specs

• Subscription includes: A 12-ounce bag
• Frequency options: Anywhere from 1 to 60 days
  

The Best Individual Roaster Subscription Option

Blue Bottle Coffee

View on Bluebottlecoffee.com

What we liked: Blue Bottle’s coffee is rich, nuanced, and balanced. It offers everything from light, bright, and fruity beans to darker full-bodied beans. Blue Bottle Coffee has five subscription plans, the largest of any individual roaster I tested. You have the option of single-origin, espresso, blend, bright (its lightest roasted beans), and cold brew assortments. 

Though the site doesn’t start with a quiz or questionnaire like other subscription services, when you visit the subscription page, you can filter subscription options by different styles of coffee, roast levels, and more. Beyond the assortment subscriptions, you can subscribe to any of Blue Bottle’s individual blends. 

What we didn’t like: Blue Bottle doesn’t offer a dark or medium roast subscription plan. There are no substitutions or swaps. However, customer service did say they would work with a subscriber if they didn’t like the beans they were sent.

Key Specs

• Subscription includes: 12-ounce bag 
• Frequency options: 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks

Another Great Individual Roaster Subscription Option

Intelligentsia Coffee

View on Intelligentsia.com

What we liked: Founded in 1995, Intelligentsia offers complex and flavorful coffees and continues to source beans directly from growers. Its website has a “Get Our Recommendations” button that functions similarly to Trade or Mistobox. You answer questions about your preferred roast level, flavors, and drinking frequency. From there, Intelligentsia suggests beans that you may like. 

There are also four assortment subscriptions offered, including Intelligentsia Choice (a single-origin assortment), Black Cat Project (espresso), Intelligentsia Classics (favorite, hallmark blends), and Intelligentsia Seasonal Select (seasonal blends). It is the only company to offer ground beans in a range of 11 custom grinds, including percolator, espresso, and everything in between.

What we didn’t like: Its assortment subscriptions are not customizable, and there’s no easy way to substitute or swap a bag of beans. That said, customer service did say they would replace a bag if you didn’t like it.

Key Specs

• Subscription includes: 12-ounce bag
• Frequency options: 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks

The Competition

• Bean Box: Bean Box had a very limited questionnaire and its website felt dated.
• Beanz: There was a nice selection of beans, but you’re required to order two 12-ounce bags at once, which felt like a bigger gamble.
• Counter Culture Coffee: Its website has a detailed questionnaire to help you pick a coffee that suits your palate, but there are only two assortment subscriptions and no way to further customize it online. (You have to email customer support to let them know your personal preferences.) It also doesn’t offer replacement bags if you don’t like your coffee.
• Stumptown Coffee Roasters: Stumptown’s only has three subscription options.
• Atlas Coffee Club: This subscription offers smaller, six-ounce “half bag” options, which is nice if you’re the sole coffee drinker in your house, as well as larger 12-ounce bags. It’s also the only subscription service I tested that had Keurig and Nespresso pods. Unfortunately, the coffee didn’t taste as premium as some of the others.
• Cometeer: Cometeer sells flash-frozen concentrated coffee cubes from different specialty roasters. As much as I wanted to love it, the coffee didn’t have the same nuance and flavors as something freshly ground and brewed. It was also expensive. 

FAQs

Are coffee subscriptions cheaper?

Coffee subscription prices vary by company, but they are typically cheaper than buying similar beans at a local roaster or upscale grocery store. That said, the price difference can be minimal.

However, subscription services give you a few other advantages, including the convenience of having freshly roasted coffee delivered to your doorstep, the wider selection and variety of beans from different roasters, and exclusive blends and beans unavailable at retail stores.

What does drop shipping mean with a coffee subscription?

Drop shipping means a product isn’t stocked or stored ahead of time before ordering. With coffee subscription services, the coffee is roasted to order, and then shipped directly to the consumer with no middleman or storage facility. 

Why We’re the Experts

• Irvin Lin is a cookbook author, recipe developer, food writer, photographer, and ceramicist. He wrote the cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered, which was picked by The New York Times as one of the best baking cookbooks of 2016. Irvin also runs a blog called Eat the Love, where he’s developed, photographed, and written recipes since 2010. 
• He’s product tested and reviewed hundreds of kitchen items including, stand mixers and digital thermometers.
• For this review, Irvin tested 10 different coffee subscription companies, drinking multiple cups of coffee a day. He has been highly caffeinated for the past month or so.