Which Coffee Subscription Should You Go With?

What do you want out of a coffee subscription?

Of course, the first thing you must ask yourself is what are you looking to get from a coffee subscription? Is it to find delicious coffee you'll love without having to go to a million cafes to find it or is it to get your coffee delivered to your door every month? It could be to save money and effort or maybe it's to find new coffees you would have never thought to try before.

Maybe you want all of these things combined (we would!)

Knowing what you want out of a coffee subscription will help you choose wisely out of the many subscriptions available. A lot of the coffee subscriptions are tailored to one or two of the reasons mentioned above. Some are very cheap, however, the coffee is questionable.. Some have delicious coffee but will cost you a lot more. Some have great prices and coffee but are hard to cancel. Some subscriptions get coffee from all different roasters which is great if you want to try different roasts but not so great if you don't like the coffee and would instead stick with your favourite blend you know you love.

Coffee taste, the customisation of a plan, external factors & price we've identified as the four main factors to help decide what coffee subscription you should go with! Below we will briefly define each factor and then have a look at the four most popular coffee subscriptions and how they rank against each factor.

Coffee Taste

This is pretty self-explanatory & obvious. How we define taste is subjective and so the definition is do YOU like it or not... Now you could argue it depends on how you make it, but we assume you like the way you normally make your brew!  

Customisation

By customisation we mean, is the subscription personalised to how you like your coffee to taste? Does the subscription offer multiple different options of sizes & frequencies?

Can you easily pause or cancel your subscription? 

External Factors 

External factors are initiatives or values you align with that the business is acting upon. Things like fair trade coffees, organic coffees, B-Corp certified etc.

Price

Again a pretty self-explanatory one, this is the price of the subscription relevant to all the above factors and other offerings out there.

2X Espresso

Coffee Taste

Well of course we believe the taste of our coffee is extremely delicious, BUT there's a sound reason as to why. Because we curate the coffee to how we like to drink them. For example, some of the team members like to drink pour-over. So the coffee they drink is more of a lighter roast and comes from more fruity regions. Whereas some of the team like espresso or lattes and so the coffee they use is a darker roast with more nutty & stone fruit notes. 

Customisation

Customisation is something we believe makes us (2X Espresso) unique compared to other coffee subscriptions out there. We have spent over 12 months creating algorithms that can help predict the perfect coffee for you. We believe certain attributes in a coffee determine whether the brew tastes good or bad from the way someone drinks/makes their coffee. 

External Factors

2X Espresso has made it a focus to ensure the coffee farmers we work with are paid fairly. One of the reasons Nick our founder started the company was because of the high prices of coffee at cafes, after doing some research though he then realised that the coffee industry has so many middlemen between the farmer & the roaster or cafe. With so many middlemen means farmers get paid very low amounts & the consumers pay extremely high prices...

We believe business should be a win, win. The customers should win by getting a great product at a fair price, the business should win by getting paid for their value creation & the earth should win by the business giving back to mother nature with innovative ways of recycling, packaging etc. And working with other businesses like B-Corp to ensure we are a force for good.

Price

Our price ends up being about $1.15 - $1.90 per up (depending on the amount you order) This is significantly cheaper than cafe coffee of course but is also cheaper than a lot of the other subscriptions out there. 

We believe though we have reached the perfect balance between, price, quality of coffee (meaning taste) & utility value (free delivery over $45, cancellation anytime, the 2X Promise etc) 

Three Thousand Thieves 

Coffee Taste

After trying Three thousand Thieves for several months we got some delicious coffees and some that we did not like. This was because they work with a different roaster each month, meaning Three Thousand Thieves don't actually roast any of their beans. 

Working with different roasters is awesome as it means you get to try different roasts from different roasters, however, it might mean you will pay for a few coffees you don't like...

Customisation

We would give them a six out of ten for the level of customisation level. You can customise your sizes and bean type (like every other subscription) however you're not able to customise what kind of beans you will get each month and you're not able to customise your frequency. 

So you have to be happy with getting new beans every month. This can't be changed. 

External Factors

As Three Thousand Thieves don't roast their beans some of the roasters they work with will be fair trade and some will not, some will be organic and some will not. This again is something that they can't guarantee or control. 

Price

A subscription with Three Thousand Thieves will cost between $1.30 - $2.10 per cup (depending on the amount you order) Slightly above the median price for a coffee subscription. This makes sense though as there are more middlemen involved as they are not the roasters.

Sample Coffee 

Coffee Taste

The Sample Coffee crew know how to brew great coffee. After trying them out for three months we can confirm the coffee tastes good. However, there wasn't an easy way to find the type of coffee to order for someone who drinks pour-over coffee or french press. It seems like they focus mainly on espresso & milk coffee drinkers.

Customisation

We would rate Sample Coffee seven to eight out of ten for their customisation. They offer a nice range of sizes and frequencies. Oddly they charge $1 extra if you want your coffee ground... 

External Factors

From what we can see on the Sample Coffee Website, they are B-Corp certified and have a range of other initiatives that care for the environment, which is awesome!

Price

These guys are probably the cheapest. At about $1.08-$1.50 per cup (depending on the amount you order) 

Coffee Curators 

Coffee Taste

The Coffee Curator's business model is very similar to the Three Thousand Thieves model but slightly less customisable. They work with new roasters each month, so your coffee will be different every time.

We subscribed to the coffee curators for three months and had two coffees we like & one that wasn't too pleasant...A bit annoying when we paid $36.95 for a coffee that tasted bad.

Customisation

Similar to Three Thousand Thieves we would give them a four out of ten for customisability. You can customise your sizes and bean type (like every other subscription) however you're not able to customise what kind of beans you will get each month and you're not able to customise your frequency. 

Unlike Three Thousand Thieves, they don't offer the ability to get your coffee in capsule form.

External Factors

From what we can see on site they don't work with any businesses like B-Corp. The coffee they get from roasters each month is claimed to be ethically sourced.

Price

The Coffee Curators are priced the highest of all the subscriptions we reviewed in this blog. They are priced at about $1.20-$2.26 per cup of coffee (depending on the amount you order). This makes sense though as there are more middlemen involved as they are not the roasters.

In Summary 

Well, we hope this helps you decide what coffee subscription to go with if you're looking for one! It's an awesome idea, to get delicious specialty coffee delivered to your door when you want and have it be cheaper than buying a coffee at a cafe...

If there are any questions at all please chat to us via the chat icon in the bottom right corner or email us at service@2xespresso.com