Over the past few years I’ve subscribed to a number of coffee to your door delivery services. It started in 2012, a good few months before my interview with the founder of one such service, Kopi / Phil Wilkinson. Since then I’ve been luck enough to subscribe to many other services and trial out new services to the UK market in my quest for the best coffee subscription services in the UK. This post is an over view as to a few services I’ve tried and my thoughts on them – in the coming weeks details from each will be posted along with a table of detail for comparing coffee subscription services.
Kopi Coffee
I started with Kopi and I remain with Kopi – ultimately the quality Kopi have delivered every month to my coffee cup is astounding. They were one of the first such services in the UK and are in my view the best today (still).
Kopi specialise in single origin coffee, they work with some of the best growers in the world and on average a cup of Kopi coffee is just 35p (according to their website). Travelling around the world with seasonality, each month Kopi delivers coffee to your house in box which will fit through any letterbox (inside the box is your coffee in a bag you can use for storage and details about the coffee and guidance on brewing this months coffee).
Kopi Coffee costs £8.95 a month, for that you get 250g of the single origin coffee of the month and free delivery within the UK. So that is 2 or 3 coffees in your favorite high street store for around £9 or somewhere between 20 and 25 amazing brews from Kopi – I know which I prefer.
Give Kopi a try, claim a FREE 250g coffee trial here.
EIGHTPOINTNINE coffee
Coffee can be quite a specific want, each person’s taste buds may want something else. 8point9 are different to Kopi and most other providers in this respect, instead of sending their single-origin coffee or a blend made by the company you choose your blend as per your desire.
This means if you find something you love you can keep getting that same blend every month, it costs £5.95 for a 150g bag. This is about on par with Kopi, however if you are having your own blend made is pretty good value.
For me the coffee from eightpointnine was good quality and ok value. I did feel that they were trying to attract a different audience to me, an audience who wants the same good blend each time and who weren’t willing to pay a little more for better quality. (though let me be clear this is good quality, but my preference to
single-origin means blends aren’t for me when it comes to subscription coffee).
Grab a free 150g bag of your coffee blend by using the code 24X89N2 on the 8point9 website.
Bean And Ground
Offering 2 different coffees in each delivery, with a choice of when your next batch is due (anywhere from one week to six weeks spacing) makes Bean and Ground fairly unique in this market of coffee lovers. The pack size is 125g of each variety of coffee, as with Kopi each coffee comes with a back story and brew guide.
Bean and Ground subscription coffee costs £7.95 a month, which for 250g of good quality coffee is pretty good value for money – and with flexibility built in it’s clear to see why Bean and Ground are a big player in the market.
For me Bean and Ground are perfect for anyone who wants to try something new each month and have plenty of variety, it’s always fresh and always nice.
Give Bean and Ground a trial, once signed up email matt@beanandground(dot)co.uk quoting ‘SEOANDY’ to get your second bag free! Sign Up Here.
Pact Coffee
Our fourth coffee subscription services overview is for Pact Coffee, a service which aims to deliver great coffee and then to make it amazingly easy for you to reorder (because they know you will love the coffee!).
At £6.95 per 250g bag of fresh coffee, again with free shipping, Pact stands firmly with bean and ground in the middle ground of general coffee subscription services in the UK. The quality is comparable with bean and ground, though in my view not with Kopi who tops that league table.
For mean Pact Coffee is for the professional who wants something far superior to supermarket coffee but isn’t sure whether subscription coffee services can offer the great coffee they want. Pact is the perfect recession busting coffee subscription offering.
Get Started with Pact here.
Tonx Coffee UK
In my search for the best coffee subscription service in the UK I was lucky enough to be a beta tester for Tonx Coffee in the UK. Tonx are the biggest subscription coffee provider in the USA currently and are starting to come to the UK.
Tonx offer two sizes of coffee delivered each month, the half bag (roughly 170g) and the full bag (around 340g) at around £8 and £14 respectively. The coffee is very high quality coming second only to Kopi in my rankings.
With Tonx its no fuss coffee, single origin (again), with a brewing guide as per your needs. Unlike Kopi it does vary just not so much. The only issue i’ve ever had with Tonx is simply not having enough of it to keep me happy for a whole month, even on a full bag! That is how nice it is!
Grab a few quid off your first Tonx order by clicking here.
(Devon’s) Coffee Factory
The Coffee Factory are a family run business, they employ friends and family to ensure quality of coffee each and every dispatch. I tasted the Black Bear and Big Red, the later a seasonal offering. Both were truly delicious, I loved Big Red – hand’s down one of the best brew’s I’ve had this year.
As with many other coffee subscription services, Coffee Factory offer 2 levels of subscription – the two bag mixed offer (like I had) or a single artisan roast – orders are roasted and sent within 24 hours making the brew ultra fresh! A single bag (250g) per month is only £7.50 ith a dual subscription at £14.95 per month – you can select multiple single bags if you are a heavy drinker like me!
Overall, the coffee from Devon’s Coffee Factory is fantastic value and makes a brilliant brew. If you want a constant great brew with the occasional seasonal surprise coffee then the Coffee Factory is the place for you. My advice is to try out the Factory’s coffee before you subscribe, daily brew’s start from just £4.
Grab a brew with Devon’s Coffee Factory
Square Mile Coffee Roasters
What I can only describe as a prestige offering, Square Mile Coffee are an award winning roaster based in East London.
There are two things which seperate Sq Mile from others in this list of great subscription coffee offerings. 1) You can buy only 2 types of subscription – these are espresso and filter 2) these are paid for every six or twelve months. Regardless of which you choose its around £12.50 for espresso each month and £10 for filter. Looking at filter this puts it in the same ball park as Kopi for price.
In terms of quality and taste, I have to say Square Mile is up there for me and competes with Kopi and the Coffee Factory – however Sq Mile only offers beans which as many know can be a pain, especially if you want a good brew at work! This said it can ensure a really fresh brew – so it’s ‘swings and roundabouts’. For me the six month subscription is it’s stumbling block, I know it is great for them and keeps them afloat and means they can do more – but for joe bloggs subscribing to coffee should be easy and not about a big outlay. The answer here is try before you subscribe, my advice is to try a featured coffee from their range – at £11 it will tell you whether you want to put your eggs into this prestige basket.
Try Prestige Coffee Susbcription from Square Mile.
Has Bean Coffee
Since I began my rounds of the coffee subscription world, Has Bean Coffee has been mentioned again and again to me. They are apparently “the people to beat” in the subscription coffee arena.
The services and offerings seem to cover most levels of want, you can have weekly or monthly coffee and for as long or as short time period as you want – if you go weekly you also get a video for each coffee from InMyMug which is a cool feature, though honestly doesn’t do more than the info sheets you get with most of the above subscription offerings. For me it’s not worth it for this alone, but for others these ‘tid bits’ of information are gold.
A simple (none inmymug) monthly subscription is £6.50 a month with weekly InMyMug offerings more expensive at £5.50 a week! Uniquely HasBean offer payment by direct debit, this has it’s pro’s and con’s but shouldn’t change your mind either way.
Ultimately the coffee I had from HasBean was quite nice, but I wouldn’t rank it above Kopi, Coffee Factory, B&G or Sq Mile – it really is middle of the road and the monthly price reflects this. Whether the weekly premium offering is better, I will have to find out – but for now…
Try HasBean Coffee for yourself here.
Brown Bear – Gourmet Coffee
Brown Bear was first mentioned to me a few months back and I had been meaning to try it since then. Let me assure you the wait was worth it, Brown Bear coffee is fantastic. It’s up there with the Coffee Factory and actually Kopi.
Brown Bear is at the mid-range of cost, starting at £6.99 – you get lots of choice with Brown Bear coffee, you can choose a favourite coffee, a mixed coffee selection etc – its really a nice system. You can also choose how often you want coffee to be delivered, including bi-monthly (which is something many dont offer). It’s so flexible its fantastic – I’d urge you to give the site a look even if its just for a look at these options.
If you love a certain type or roast of coffee, and that is what you really want, then Brown Bear is the one for you – if you want a trip around the world with a fresh roast then Kopi is for you… if you’d like the best of both go for the Coffee Factory.
You can try Brown Bear today, and use the code ‘CS10′ get 10% off for the lifetime of the subscription!
Other Coffee Subscription Services
Above are a few of my favorite services, there are indeed many others though. Over the coming weeks and months I will be posting about those here too and posting interviews with some of the top brands.
If you would like to hear my views on a given service, or would like to know which service is going to best suit you – tweet me @andykinsey or leave a comment below.
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