Best subscription services for pour over coffee
We love coffee. We love pour over coffee. And, of course, we love trying different coffees. But since we can’t always be travelling and finding great coffee, the next best option is to get the coffee to come to us!
As recently as 2 years ago coffee subscription services were hard to come by, but thanks to growing demand you can now receive coffee from some of the finest roasters in the world. Here, we round up our favourite pour over coffee subscription services (espresso options are available too).
Blue Bottle Coffee
What started out as a tiny store in Oakland, California dedicated to freshly roasted coffee and careful brewing has now expanded to a global network of cafés in San Francisco, New York, Los Angles, and most recently Japan. In fact, we’ve also featured Blue Bottle Coffee’s helpful brewing guides on our site. The company has been doing so well that Tonx, the very first online coffee subscription service, has now become a part of Blue Bottle.
Blue Bottle Coffee’s subscription program is as customizable as it gets:
- Select the size of your bag
- Decide how often to receive each bag
- Choose the type of coffee to get (Espresso, Blend, or Origins). You can even subscribe to a specific Blue Bottle blend if you want, but we recommend the Origins for pour over coffee lovers.
The only drawback to Blue Bottle Coffee’s subscription service is quality. Growing and expanding is a double-edged sword and we’ve heard reports from fellow coffee pros that the large-scale roasting has led to coffees not reaching their full flavour potential. They’re still good, though, so do give them a try!
Price (US only)
- US$21, 12oz bag (approx. 340g)
Craft Coffee
Craft Coffee is the most versatile coffee subscription service we’ve tried to date. They feature roasters in the United States, some of them less heard-of outside of the country but good nonetheless (our favourites are George Howell, Klatch, and Sightglass).
With Craft Coffee, you get a lot of freedom to customize your coffee subscription. With 6 roast strengths, 4 price categories, and choice of a single coffee or 3-coffee sampler, the best part is that nothing’s set in stone. You can update your preferences anytime in your account.
One thing we didn’t really like, though, was the rather commercialized Craft Coffee packaging, even for the coffee, rather than the roasters’ original bag. This results in less of a personal touch and reduces the perceived authenticity.
Price (US shipping. International shipping extra)
- US$11.99-24.99/12oz bag (approx. 340g)
Get Craft Coffee
MistoBox
MistoBox’s unique proposition is their highly curated coffees, sourced from roasters all over the United States. These include Crema, La Colombe, and Verve, among many others. Hence, the MistoBox is also another more exploratory coffee subscription service.
Like Craft Coffee, MistoBox customizes your subscription with a quiz that asks you about your coffee preferences: origins, flavour profile, and amount of coffee you brew per week. It will then recommend the frequency of your coffee shipments. This way, you don’t have to worry about too much or too little coffee, or end up with espresso blends when you prefer single origin pour over coffee.
Price (US only)
- US$21, 12oz bag (approx. 340g)
Due to the large number of late and lost packages, MistoBox has temporarily paused international shipping and only ships within the United States. For those of you outside the US, just hang on!
Get MistoBox
Square Mile
If there’s a coffee you have to try from the UK, it would be Square Mile Coffee Roasters in East London. Founded in 2007 by James Hoffmann (World Barista Champion 2007) and Anette Moldvaer (World Coffee Cup Tasting Champion 2007), Square Mile has won multiple awards and are members of the SCAA, SCAE, and Cup of Excellence.
Square Mile’s coffee is lauded by coffee connoisseurs all over the world, and subscription members may get exclusive blends, microlots, and previews that aren’t available for retail. While it’s all from a single roaster, we’re definitely happy with the consistency and excellence of Square Mile’s roasts.
With a choice of an espresso subscription or filter subscription for pour over coffee, you get freshly roasted whole beans together with detailed information about the coffee.
Price (International shipping)
- £80.00/6 months, 350g filter roast
- £105.00/6 months, 500g espresso roast
Three Thousand Thieves
No coffee subscription list would be complete without something from Melbourne. Three Thousand Thieves (or 3tt) works with small batch roasters from the world’s most well-known city of specialty coffee, such as Seven Seeds, Sensory Lab, and St. Ali to ship you your monthly coffee fix.
The fun of Three Thousand Thieves’ monthly coffee subscription is that the coffee isn’t strictly curated – the roaster decides what they’d like to share. The downside of this is that you’ll get beans for espresso coffee as well as pour over coffee, but no matter what, this is a fantastic way to discover the wonderful world of Melbournian coffee.
3tt includes a beautiful booklet with information about the coffee’s origins, roasting, and flavour profile. The 3tt blog also showcases lovely onsite photos of the roasters, so you can pretend you’re right there in Melbourne as you sip your coffee.
Price (International shipping)
- A$30/month, 250g pack. 500g and 1kg packs available
