A subscription is a better bet than a single bag, particularly with the discount for paying in advance. I found that the first coffee I received based on my taste profile-a natural washed coffee from Brazil’s São Gotardo region with tasting notes of lemon, roasted almond, and dried cherry-was on the mark. Once you pick your favorites, coffees of a similar ilk roasted in Brooklyn by Driftaway will be sent to you. The website features a sensory wheel to give you an idea of how to describe what you’re smelling and tasting. ![]() ![]() “Unlike other subscriptions,” Mody told me, “the sign-up process doesn’t involve any questions besides plan configuration since we believe that tasting is the only way to know which coffee you like.” The one I watched was wonderfully wonky (I learned the pro sensory analyst’s tip of smelling one’s arm in between samples to “reset” the nose when assessing a coffee’s aroma). Subscribers can then attend a live “cupping” (coffee talk for a tasting) hosted by Brewers Cup champion barista James McCarthy. Its Explorer Box, an optional add-on for subscribers that’s listed for $22 on the website, comes with five 2-ounce bags marked with a number and a color. Driftaway also offers the most intensive process for ascertaining your tastes in coffee. Discounts are available for paying in advance for six or 12 months of subscriptions. Price per single-bag 10-ounce shipment: $19.00 (with free shipping via USPS, estimated delivery in three to seven days lower costs via prepayment options)įounded in 2014 by the husband-wife team of Suyog Mody and Anu Menon, Brooklyn-based Driftaway lets you customize your order according to what size, frequency and shipping service you choose.Days between roast date on label and date received: 7.Note: For each coffee, I used a Baratza Encore grinder, a Hario digital scale and at varying times, a Clever Coffee Dripper and a Hario carafe, as well as a Technivorm Moccamaster maker. Read on to find the one that’s right for you.) Pair any of these subscriptions with our top coffee gifts to really make someone’s day. (In a nutshell: All of these are worth it if you love exploring new craft coffees. Here’s how their offerings taste, along with all the math. With all that in mind, I narrowed the field of coffee subscriptions down to five, a combination of curated services and companies that roast their own. Rather than just putting out language like “ethically sourced,” she says, actual data should be transparently available, revealing how much a roaster paid to a grower (versus, among other things, its price on the open market, as well as what’s known as the “Fair Trade minimum”). But higher costs, note Jessica Easto, author of “Craft Coffee: A Manual,” often reflect an effort to fairly compensate growers. “Having a regular subscription really allows for that consistency and freshness,” Milletto says.Ĭoffee subscriptions aren’t necessarily a place to go bargain hunting, at least for some highly touted roasters of “Third Wave” coffee-some services charge up to $50 a month for two bags of around 300 grams (roughly 12 ounces). Matt Milletto-a longtime coffee industry consultant and co-founder of Portland’s Water Avenue Coffee, which works with subscription service Bean Box and was among the earliest roasters to have its own subscription service-says coffee is almost tailor-made for the subscription ideal: Most coffee drinkers want it every day, they want it fresh, and they don’t want to run out. Want to test your coffee connoisseurship? Try the “Black Box” from Angels’ Cup : Get a handful of unlabeled coffees each month and try to guess their origin. Worried about ordering too much, or too little, coffee? Bottomless, the “first usage-based coffee subscription,” includes a Wi-Fi-connected scale and tracks-and automatically reorders-the amount of beans you’re going through in a month. Like Scandinavian-style coffees? There is Copenhagen’s Beanbros or Oslo’s Tim Wendelboe. There are even services for cold brews, espresso, even K-Cups. These days, however, amid the panoply of artisanal, terroir -focused and painstakingly roasted farm-to-cup options there’s a staggering variety of ways to get some of the world’s best coffee delivered to your mailbox, mere days from roasting. ), no longer offers the free maker, but you can still order its coffee by mail. Gevalia, the heritage Swedish brand (now a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz Co. I instantly signed up and prepared to transform the family home into a smart European coffeehouse. What’s more, if you signed up for their novel coffee-by-mail service, you would get a free coffee maker. When I was a suburban teenager first discovering coffee back in the mid-1980s-and coffee, mind you, meant Maxwell House, Folgers or whatever else the grocery store stocked-I opened a magazine one day to find an advertisement for a “gourmet” coffee that seemed brimming with continental flair and sophistication.
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