This post is mostly for me to look at alternatives. I currently subscribe to Trade. But recently I’ve been hearing about their bad practices like sending packages with wrong weight, or paying very little money to the roasters.
If you like your current subscription, please place a link so that others can check it out. If you don’t, and want to switch, tell why so that I can avoid it too.
I subscribe to coffee from my local roastery, which is great.
Ditto. It shows up each month less than 3 days after roast.
I do have some nice local roasteries. But I like some variety. So subscriptions that include multiple roasteries are ideal for me.
Do any of them do single origin roasts? My local roastery does new single origin roasts every month, so we get variety with a single subscription.
Yeah. A couple of them do. They have like 10-ish single origin roasts among the few of them. But I only like 3 of those. One Nicaraguan, one Ethiopian, and one Colombian.
Here’s a shameless plug for Nossa Familia Coffee in Portland, Oregon. I’m the head roaster there and we have a subscription service.
Speckled Ax in Maine - Matt roasts with wood, and it’s fucking delicious
Speckled Ax really is good shit. Love their new cafe as well if you’re ever in Portland!
I have been buying from HappyMug for years, I do a subscription thing with them that gets me one bag of one of their blends that I picked and then one bag of single origin coffee every month. I’m very happy with it.
Same for me. I usually have a “daily drinker” to keep me awake at work and then something nicer for weekends. I’ve been quite happy getting a bag of their roasters choice every couple weeks so that I have something fresh and new for the weekends when I can enjoy it more.
Their prices are very reasonable and I’ve received some bags that I would not have picked out myself but really enjoyed.
I couldn’t find any subscriptions on their website. Can you provide a link?
It looks like they’ve changed the way they do it a bit they now have these (this is light to med, there’s another one for med-dark roast): https://happymugcoffee.com/products/roasters-choice-a
Yes. I get my coffee from a local roaster as a subscription. A couple bags a month guaranteed at the same price each month, sometimes a few extra goodies in my box, a free cup of coffee in house every day of the month, and a discount on merchandise and coffee.
The roaster is Caravan Coffee. They ship, too, but I’m relatively local so I just pick my box in person. https://caravancoffee.com/
I use a local roster as well. They have a rosters choice option so I never know what I’m going to get.
I get mine from Cortez. They’re local but they moved their cafe further from me. So now I have them mail it across town. I’ve met the owner. He’s really nice and obviously cares a lot about coffee.
1+ for Cortez, fellow Phoenician.
I’m very happy with the coffee from Ahrre’s Roastery and I’m close enough to one of their locations to just pick up their beans, but they do offer a subscription service.
The Ethiopian is probably my favorite but the Tanzanian one has been in my French Press as of late and may stay there for a while.
I use Kick Back Coffee (in the UK) I have used them for about 6 months, but recently I have switched to try out Origin Coffee (also UK) on their weekly subscription, so far (3 weeks in) I’m enjoying it very much, I still go to Kick Back Coffee, but as they are local, I pop in and get it in person.
I have two great single-location coffee shops who do subscriptions by mail, I have one coming once per month and another coming once per week and when I get bored I switch them.
I prefer local roasters, but if you need variety and a stand up company, I have been happy with Atlas. Their selection does start to repeat after awhile, but their beans are not dissapointing.
I like Beanbros’ Guest Roasters subscription.
Bummed that you are not happy with Trade since I just gave a subscription as a gift to a family member that lives far from a roaster in a super rural area. I was stoked that they send coffee from different roasters each order so that the person can receive a variety of different beans through the year.
Trade’s subscription itself is very good. I have no doubt that your family members will be happy with it. The issues come up when you look beyond the subscription itself and read about their business practices.
Please send me a link regarding their business practices for my reference. I am not going to change the gift subscription since it is already given but next year I might look at other options like Atlas or Misto.
I haven’t seen anything in the media (Trade is a very niche company, so makes sense). But there have been many discussions online and looks like there have been issues with their behavior for a while. When it comes to coffee, word of mouth means a lot to me. You can read some of the conversation using these links:
Local to me, but https://www.modest.coffee/ offers subscriptions as well.
I haven’t subscribed because different times of year I order from Modest or pick up from another local roaster, but the beans I get were typically roasted a day or so before shipping.
I’ve been subscribed to Moustache Coffee club for years and they’re wonderful. They send their coffees in a vacuum sealed package so you can hold onto them for months and whenever you open it they’ll still be fresh. Selection is great and ever rotating, I’ve had positive experiences with the customer service for the rare mishap (which is usually USPS’s fault), would recommend.
