The 5 best coffee subscription services of 2022

June 10, 2022 admin

It’s no fun having to figure out where the coffee is the night before, or worse, the morning that you need it. The best coffee subscriptions have emerged in part because it is convenient to have delicious, curated coffee show up on your doorstep without you having to stop by a local roaster every week to get your fresh, tasty beans.

We find that coffee subscriptions create value in a few ways beyond convenience. They also curate, in that they have someone with an expert palate evaluate each roast and make sure that it is up to the standards they want to hold for their subscribers. Coffee subscriptions also provide attunement in that some of them help you evaluate and choose a coffee that will taste great with cream and sugar or when brewed with a particular device like a Chemex. Finally, many people enjoy the tasting experience, trying something new and learning to sense all the complexity and the novelty, trying coffees roasted in different ways from all over the world.

When you choose any of our top 5 best coffee subscriptions, you or a gift recipient can enjoy all the services that are packed into these tasty shipments. While each company offers common options, like offering light, medium, and dark roasts as well as decaf, these five distinguish themselves in areas like reliable quality, sustainability, giftability, or tasting variety.

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Trade Coffee Company

Features:

Wide variety of options for making the subscription your own.
100,000+ satisfied customers and lots of customer reviews.
More than 450 individual coffees available.

Trade Coffee has become the go-to subscription for those who want to try different kinds of coffee that fits their profile of coffee style, all while supporting great roasters all over the United States. Their system has cataloged whether any of the 450+ coffees they can access will be best with cream and sugar or best as espresso taken black, and they quickly ship coffee to you from their roaster network in a compostable bag that keeps waste packaging to a minimum while delivering highly fresh coffee. The quality is consistent enough and the flavors attuned enough to literally get them 100,000 subscribers over time.

Pros:

High customer satisfaction via their many reviews.
Many options for roasters and coffee types.
Simple, compostable packaging minimizes waste and gets you coffee while it’s fresh.

Cons:

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MistoBox

Features:

Best known for their effective questionnaire to pair you with coffee
Classy, simple packaging for strong giftability
60+ roasters means you get long-term variety

There’s a trend in subscription boxes of all kinds to make it truly personalized to your tastes, be it a wine club or a shampoo and conditioner subscription. MistoBox is the coffee subscription for the person in your life who loves an extremely specific kind of coffee, brewed one way, and served at their exacting specifications. The reviews show that this box’s questionnaire does a good job connecting to particular coffees, and they adjust the algorithm if you don’t actually like a coffee, helping to narrow down your preferences. Between that and the classy packaging, you’re sure to please your own palate and maybe even discover a new favorite.

Pros:

Highly-attuned questionnaire for finding your preferences
Recyclable packaging
60+ award winning roasters supplying the beans

Cons:

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Just Coffee Cooperative

Features:

Worker-owned coffee collective with strong focus on sourcing ethical beans
24+ roast options
Simple subscription options at affordable price point

While many roasters are committed to fair sourcing and getting everyone in the supply chain a fair deal, Just Coffee Co-Op has really taken their motto, “justice from the grounds up,” to heart. You can read about the farmers they work with on their website, and they source both for quality and taste as well as to make sure that their chosen farmers make a just living from the coffee. The roastery in Madison, Wisconsin is owned by its workers, so there’s no upper-level admin getting rich off your roasts, and as a result, their subscription cost is one of the lowest on our list. They have roasts from light to dark and decaf, and with a subscription, it’s easy to fill your coffee pot every day and feel great about it.

Pros:

Ethical sourcing from farmer all the way to the people who work to pack your subscription.
Highly-regarded roasts in a variety of flavor profiles.
Affordable price point makes for great daily coffee use.

Cons:

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Angels’ Cup

Features:

Each box arrives with blind tasting samples to try
App allows you to guess the tasting notes then learn about the coffee
Sourced from hundreds of roasters for endless variety

Angels’ Cup boasts the highest variety of roasters of all of the coffee subscriptions we feature, and they claim to be trying thousands of coffees a year, trying to find new tasty blends to use in their tasting flights. Their core product is a box that contains four unmarked coffees, each one with a unique number code that you can input into the free Angels’ Cup app. This app allows you to brew the coffee and submit things like flavor notes and roasting profile, trying to evaluate the coffee’s full subtlety. After you submit your evaluation, you can see how close you got, learn more about the coffee and read other reviews and leave your own review. Angels’ Cup makes any coffee break into a combination of a wine tasting class and a party game, which makes it a unique and fun concept that can make coffee fun for everything from advanced coffee brewers to newbies who just like the caffeine and novelty.

Pros:

Blind tasting app makes coffee a fun game or conversation starter
Hundreds of roasters featured for wide-ranging options
12 ounce bag delivery option if you find a new favorite

Cons:

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Bean Box

Features:

Shipments available of small samples and large bags in varying quantities
Coffee and sweets pairings for the sweet tooth in your life
Portland and Seattle roaster focus

Bean Box has a variety of subscriptions, from the coffee of the month to sampler packs that help people find their new favorite coffee from the many high-end coffee roasters in Seattle and Portland. The thoughtful touches make this subscription: Bean Box coffee comes lovingly nestled in a box with tissue paper and, in some cases, a little vanilla caramel or other treat added with the coffee. Sourcing treats from high-end bakeries and candy makers; Bean Box makes some great biscotti and coffee or chocolate and coffee treat boxes, creating a gift box that goes beyond the typical delivery of coffee.

Pros:

Small and large coffee bags
High-end, high-quality beans from Seattle and Portland roasters
Variety packs with biscotti, candies, and more available

Cons:

One of the most expensive options on our list.
Less sustainable than buying local if you’re living far from Seattle/Portland.

What’s the best coffee subscription service?

The best coffee subscription for you may depend on the use you want: for instance, Trade Coffee’s pricing is far better when you choose to buy multiple months at once for your subscription, and Just Coffee Co-Op offers only two-bag subscriptions, which are very affordable but may or may not deliver more coffee than you can use, depending on how much you typically drink. To find the best option for you, consider going through the sign-up process for each one and seeing what your ideal subscription would actually cost since most of the subscriptions have a lot of customization options that change the price.

Coffee subscription service	Price for 12 ounces of coffee beans, including shipping	Roasters Featured	Customizable Via Survey?
Trade Coffee	$20-$25 (discounts for long-term subscriptions)	50+	Yes
MistoBox	$17-$20	60+	Yes
Just Coffee Cooperative	$14 (as part of a two-bag subscription)	1 (is a roaster, but with 24+ varieties)	No
Angels’ Cup	$22.50	Hundreds	No
Bean Box	$24	30+	No

Which is the right coffee subscription service for you?

Because there are people who want to give a thoughtful wedding gift subscription, people who just want to fill their coffee pot each morning with ethical beans, and those who want to say they’ve tried hundreds of coffee, we set up a decision chart to help you pick the perfect coffee subscription for you.

Choose this coffee subscription service…	If you want or are…
Trade Coffee	A tried-and-true, high-variety coffee service with compostable packaging.
MistoBox	An elegant way to get a variety of coffees that fit exactly your flavor palate.
Just Coffee Cooperative	A simple, affordable source of ethical coffee from a worker-owned company.
Angels’ Cup	A gamified way to learn more about tasting notes and find your next favorite micro-roaster.
Bean Box	Fun and variety for Seattle/Portland coffee gifts.

How did we choose these coffee subscription services?

While many coffee subscriptions meet the basic goals of sending coffee while it is fresh and flavorful on a schedule, these five coffee subscriptions were selected based on their features as well as positive product reviews, as well as the reviewer’s personal experiences trying the coffees. Trade Coffee, for example, has garnered thousands of positive product reviews, lending credence to the idea that they have mastered an effective supply chain that sources and sends excellent quality coffee quickly enough to get a great brew.

Unique product offerings, like Angels’ Cup’s tasting flights that have a blind tasting option with an app to evaluate your coffee tasting notes, also were factored in, and product reviews that mentioned that a service like MistoBox really was able to figure out their coffee taste and send great-fit coffee were also considered.

Finally, we made sure that the coffee subscriptions had an option in the $14-$30 price range, making them comparable to buying a bag of high-quality coffee at a coffee shop, rather than selecting only bargain coffees or highly-selective, high-priced coffees. In every case, you’ll pay less for a serving of coffee than you’d pay in most coffee shops, all while getting the same kind of quality, variety, and freshness that characterizes a coffee shop experience.

What is the difference between whole bean and ground coffee subscription services?

With whole bean coffee subscriptions, the roaster completes the bean’s roast and then packages the coffee, with the subscription company then mailing it out as soon as possible. With ground coffee subscriptions, the roaster then grinds the coffee, sometimes coarse or fine depending on how you’ll use it, and ships it to you while it is still fresh in packaging that preserves the flavor.

What is a light roast or a dark roast in a coffee subscription?

A light roast is a bean that has been roasted for less time or to a lighter color, while a dark roast in a coffee subscription is a darker colored bean that has been given higher heat or longer duration or both in the roaster. Light roasts tend to be more floral and have a lighter flavor, with darker roasts getting more malty, chocolate-y tones and being bolder.

What is the best coffee subscription service for decaf drinkers?

All our coffee subscription choices have great decaf options. Your best bet is to try the decaf coffee subscription that fits your other goals, like a coffee subscription with an ethical focus or a coffee subscription-like Bean Box that allows you to add sweet treats as well. Coffee subscriptions can be a great way to find a decaf coffee that actually matches your palate since they often source from many roasters and may offer better options than the decaf available in your local stores.

Are there alternative coffee subscriptions worth considering?

A variety of excellent coffee subscriptions offer particularly great services. Many local roasters also have their own simple coffee subscription, so if you know a roaster that always knocks it out of the park, you can arrange a simple shipment from them once a month or at your given frequency.

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