To test the best coffee subscriptions, we sampled sixteen different brands, tasting at least two types of coffee from each. These were delivered as whole beans and tested in a home setting, using the same grind, water type, water temperature and brewing method across all samples. Read on to discover our reviews of the best coffee subscriptions to buy online.
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Best coffee subscriptions at a glance
- Best subscription for gourmet coffee: Blue Coffee Box, from £9.39 per month
- Best subscription for never running out: Grind, from £13.50
- Best for customisable frequency: Pact Coffee, from £7.95 per fortnight
- Best for gifting: Balance Coffee, from £10.99 per bag
- Best for discovering new coffee roasters: Batch Coffee, from £17.99 per month
- Best for coffee blends and easy ordering: Caravan Coffee Roasters, from £8 per bag
- Best for expertly curated coffee: Monmouth Coffee Company, from £7.50 per month
- Best for ethical coffee: Horsham Coffee Roasters, from £6.75 per month
- Best for professional-grade coffee: Square Mile Coffee Roasters, from £12.50 per month
- Best for an easy introduction to learning about coffee: Hasbean, from £8.96 per month
- Best London based coffee subscription: Perky Blenders Specialty Coffee, from £8.90 per bag
- Best sustainable coffee subscription: North Star Coffee Roasters, from £11.50 per 250g
- Best simple coffee subscription: Rave Coffee, from £8.95 per month
Best coffee subscription boxes to buy 2024
Blue Coffee Box
Best subscription for gourmet coffee
About: Blue Coffee Box puts its emphasis on speciality coffee – prepare to be surprised and delighted by the flavour. Each pack comes with a detailed card telling you about the coffee variety, process, region and flavour profile ,plus more details about the producer and traceability.
Value for money: 1 x 227g bag is £9.39 per month or 2 x 155g bags = £17.99 per month. They offer savings if you sign up for longer subscription plans.
Packaging: the coffee is delivered in cardboard envelopes and the coffee bags are resealable, foil lined bags.
Subscribing: choose from one type of coffee per month or a three-variety selection box. You also get the option of choosing the roast: light, medium, dark or their choice. Your subscription can arrive either every two weeks, every month or every two months.
We tried Oporapa campbell & syme and found lemon and caramel flavours. It’s complex, with a lot of flavours going on, but has a good, smooth finish. We think it would pair beautifully with a sweet/savoury modern brunch dish. In the Women of Huehue coffee, the beans have a toasted hazelnuts aroma, while the brewed coffee has a rich plum sweetness and smoothness with low acidity, followed by a little anise prickle. Surprising and pleasing.
Sign up to a Blue Coffee Box subscription (from £9.39 a month)
Grind
Best subscription for never running out
About: Grind started as a café-bar in East London and now comprises eleven locations, including espresso bars, cocktail bars, restaurants, a coffee roastery and a recording studio. Grind’s subscription service provides you with access to its house blends which can be bought as beans, ground or as compostable pods for a coffee machine.
Value for money: 2 x 227g compostable refill pouches* for their branded coffee tins = £13.50 per box.
(*purchase a £9 tin of whole coffee beans first to use then store the new coffee in)
Packaging: two refill pouches in the delivery is a neat idea, keeping the second half fresher for longer and helping you to never run out. Grind’s tins are in a cheerful yet stylish pale pink with a tight-fitting lid so are worth purchasing first before subscribing to the bags.
Subscribing: choose your quantity, delivery frequency between one to eight weeks and your chosen flavours, e.g. for ground coffee whether you want their house blend, black blend or decaf. If it’s your first order, you can choose the Trial Box of a mix of different blends to find the right Grind coffee for you. You can also fill in how much coffee you drink a day to estimate how much you’ll need.
We tasted the Black Blend, which we found to be smooth with a touch of smoke and a hint of fresh hazelnuts. It’s very easy drinking and has been thoughtfully blended to be enjoyed without milk. We also tried the House Blend, which has an incredibly rich and complex aroma. This is a well-balanced coffee drink, ideal for everyday drinking and designed to work as well with milk as without.
Sign up to a Grind Coffee subscription (from £13.50 per order)
Pact Coffee
Best for customisable frequency
About: Celebrating their 10th year in 2022, Pact are now a B Corp certified company. With their experience you’ll find the ordering process easy to navigate. The coffee arrives through the letterbox and although you can’t adjust how many bags you get, you can change the frequency instead to match your level of coffee consumption.
Value for money: from £7.95 for 250g bag every fortnight.
Packaging – Pact are looking for and have been conducting trials on recyclable coffee bags. Currently their resealable bags are not recyclable in all areas. However, their pods are aluminium and are recyclable.
Subscribing: Subscribing is simple and very customisable. The website lets you choose early on whether you want to opt for decaf or regular and asks you to select your preferred coffee making method from a list of 8 options to determine the grind. You can also choose to the day how often your coffee is delivered – meaning instead of just every 7 or 14 days you can choose every 13 or 15.
We tried Pact’s house espresso and found the beans had a milk chocolate and roasted hazelnut aroma. When brewed the coffee had a clean complex flavour profile with hints of black tea, malt and chocolate.
We also tested their La Pedregosa coffee, which is from their “microdot” premium subscription. On opening the bag you get an overwhelmingly delicious aroma of butterscotch. After brewing, the aroma is bitter cocoa, baked plums and lemon zest. There’s a touch of liquorice on tasting with a rich almost umami bitterness and more roasted plum skin as the flavour develops.
Sign up to a Pact Coffee subscription (from £7.95 per fortnight)
Balance Coffee
Best for gifting
About: Balance coffee is a London-based company that sources their beans worldwide and roasts them in London. Their website explains the health benefits of coffee and therefore the importance of testing their coffee for pesticides, mycotoxins and moulds. They have a range of gift subscriptions available along with other coffee related gifts and kit.
Value for money: from £10.99 for 250g bag.
Packaging – is recyclable and made from paper. Printed with tasting notes, roasting date and country of origin for the beans.
Subscribing – Select from whole bean, filter, cafetière or espresso ground and whether you want to receive it weekly, fortnightly or monthly. You can also select the weight from 250g, 500g or 1kg bags which makes it good for large households or small offices.
For the tasting we tried the “stability blend”. The beans gave off a fresh light aroma packed with crisp sea air and crunchy savoury biscuits. When brewed the aroma imparted diverse notes of honeysuckle and short ribs. The coffee had a beautifully rounded flavour profile with good lingering bitterness reminiscent of papery hazelnut skins. Fresh cherries, peanut, maple syrup and fig coat the palate.
We also tasted their “level up” coffee – the aroma of this coffee was packed with chocolate hazelnut richness which continues through tasting. Cocoa-heavy brownies, a touch of toasted coconut and sour cherry notes prevented any sickliness.
Sign up to a Balance Coffee subscription (from £10.99 per bag)
Batch Coffee
Best for discovering new coffee roasters
About: Batch are different from some other subscriptions as they don’t roast their own beans, instead packaging and curating coffee from other roasters. Batch select your coffee from a growing list of independent UK and Irish roasters and send out their coffee in double pack boxes so you can try 2 samples side by side. Choose from 5 grind options or whole bean.
Value for money: rolling subscription costs £17.99 and includes 2 x 200g bags of coffee fortnightly or monthly. Choose from 4 subscription plans which work out cheaper the more you pay upfront. The single box rolling subscription for 2 x 200g bags is £17.99 but if you prepay for 12 boxes that becomes £14.49 per box.
Packaging – Arrives in a letterbox friendly cardboard box and in fully recyclable bags. Their box and pack are peppered with QR codes which means you can get as nerdy as you want to and there’s not lots of extraneous paperwork in the box. The QR codes link to brewing guides, lots of detail about the coffee itself and a printable flavour wheel.
For this sample we first tried the Hermosa from Meletius. The beans themselves had an element of red lentils/split peas on the nose, but found a lot of depth and subtle sweetness in the tasting. Scorched toast, brown sugar and vanilla sit alongside earthier notes of wood, oats and cashew nuts. We then tried Divino Nino, from New Ground. The brewed coffee had notes of roasted carrot and blanched hazelnuts on the nose but the palate explodes with walnut, touch of mint tea and dark rum. Lingering bitterness with a hint of liquorice.
Sign up to a Batch Coffee subscription (from £17.99 per month)
Caravan Coffee Roasters
Best for coffee blends and easy ordering
About: each bag of coffee from London-based Caravan Coffee Roasters comes with a card highlighting detailed tasting notes, a brewing guide and background information on the blend or the producers.
Value for money: 1 x 250g bag every month for three months = £9.50 per month (£28.50 total).
Packaging: the white paper bags are plastic lined with a resealable top, making it easy to keep your coffee fresh without needing to decant it into another container. On the front of each bag there are details of where the coffee is from and brief tasting notes.
Subscribing: a simple, step-by-step ordering process. You can completely tailor the subscription to you. Choose between filter or espresso, your pick of four flavours, frequency of delivery (weekly, fortnightly, monthly), bag size (200g or 1kg), ground or whole bean coffee and either a three, six or 12-month subscription.
We tried Caravan’s Special Brü and picked up tasting notes of blackcurrant and cream with low acidity. It’s an easy-going coffee which transported us to a modern, city coffee shop, and would be perfectly partnered with a fried egg on a brioche bun for brunch. The Market Blend scored well too – a decent, straightforward but great quality coffee.
Sign up to a Caravan Coffee Roasters subscription (from £8 per bag, excluding postage)
Monmouth Coffee Company
Best for expertly curated coffee
About: each coffee comes with a postcard of information about where it’s from, how it was processed and tasting notes.
Value for money: 1 x 250g bag coffee every month for three months = £22.50.
Packaging: the coffee comes in chic, brown, biodegradable/compostable paper bags with a simple, coloured tag at the top which tells you who and where your coffee comes from. Subscription boxes are delivered in a neat, letterbox friendly cardboard box.
Subscribing: the site’s subscription page is easy to navigate and offers several options. Choose if you want delivery every fortnight or month, take your pick of six different grinds, four roasts and three bag sizes. The subscription is a repeat model and you can pause, change or cancel at any time.
The coffee we tasted was outstanding. We tried a bag of Finca Perla Del Valle, which we describe as a strong, punchy, dark roast which is creamy, with hints of tobacco. It has light and dry sweetness and is incredibly drinkable – it would be a dream with a cinnamon bun in hand. We also tasted Fazenda Santa Lucia.
This is super strong – a deep, dark roast, almost acrid, but with a really full delicious flavour. This is everything you would need from a coffee to get you through an unbearably early morning. Delicious and very, very awakening. Both examples got top marks for flavour in our taste test.
Sign up to a Monmouth Coffee Company subscription (from £7.50 a fortnight)
Horsham Coffee Roasters
Best for ethical and eco-friendly coffee
About: Horsham Coffee Roasters is a small business based in Sussex, focussing on ethical standards through its ‘relationship coffee’, whereby it works directly with the producers. It also uses a low emissions roaster and is part of a tree-planting initiative. Each pack of coffee comes with information about the coffee, tasting notes and how and when your coffee was roasted.
Value for money: 1 x 250g bag = £6.75-8.50.
Packaging: coffee arrives in resealable white plastic pouches. If you have problems recycling them in your area, you’re invited to send them back to the roastery where they will ensure the bag is recycled for you.
Subscribing: select from blends or single origin coffees or their choice, and whether you’d like one or two 250g bags per month. Select how you want it ground and they also do a direct debit or pre-paid option. You can also buy 1kg or even 2.5kg packs of beans through subscribing if you want to buy in bulk.
Horsham Coffee Roasters’ Nova blend is delightful, with lots of milk chocolate and hazelnut notes and lovely dark roast aftertaste. We wanted to dunk a biscotti in it immediately! The Workhorse Blend is lovely and smooth, with a pang of acidity that’s balanced by sweetness and a gentle bitterness at the end.
They say chocolate, orange and caramel. We agree but feel that doesn’t do it justice – think really good chocolate and the freshest orange zest, then a complex caramel with hints of very fresh hazelnuts and almonds. It’s complex but soothing – like a posh bubble bath!
Sign up to a Horsham Coffee Roasters subscription (from £6.75, excluding delivery)
Square Mile Coffee Roasters
Best for professional-grade coffee
About: Square Mile is focussed on wholesale and making sure its coffee tastes as good as possible when it gets to the cup, so has lots of technical advice and information on its blog.
Value for money: 1 x 350g bag monthly to UK = £12.50.
Packaging: slightly bigger pack sizes here (350g instead of the more common 250g). Their black plastic bags are printed with a faint map design from their signature map of a square mile of London from the 1700s. Each also displays a sticker of the name of the coffee, tasting hints and a short sentence about the coffee, where it’s from and the process used. As their packs are larger you will find their bags and boxes don’t yet fit through the letterbox, but they’re working on ironing that out.
Subscribing: choose from a blend, their choice or decaf and whether you want to use it for filter or espresso coffee. You get an option of 350g or 1kg quantities and whether you want it weekly, fortnightly or monthly, on a recurring or fixed term subscription. The website walks you through the process seamlessly.
On tasting we found the Huye Mountain coffee very acidic, smooth and with high bitterness, like a 90% dark chocolate – not for the faint hearted. With the Muungano, we got the gooseberry straight away. There’s an oiliness too that balances well, like gooseberries and custard. Superb.
Sign up to a Square Mile Coffee Roasters subscription (from £12.50)
Hasbean
Best for an easy introduction to learning about coffee
About: Stafford-based Hasbean is focussed on the different flavours that coffee can produce. They source beans from loads of places – Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Thailand – so you can really travel the world with this subscription.
Value for money: 1 x 250g bag = £8.96.
Packaging: their coffee comes in compostable pouches (great eco-friendly boost), stating the region, name, tasting notes and roasting date.
Subscribing: the ordering set up on their site is super easy – choose to pay by direct debit or up front for weekly, fortnightly or monthly subscriptions. You can take your pick of their range of coffees or let them choose, which is great if you don’t really know what you like yet. For each coffee, a new tasting video is uploaded to their site so you can learn about the coffee you’re drinking. The videos are informative and relaxed, with extra info in the text below so you can get as nerdy as you like!
Doi Pangkhon tastes packed with cocoa nibs and smooth caramel notes but ends with a sour acidity. It would be a great partner to a spicy brunch like sweetcorn fritters, poached eggs and sriracha. The Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama is chocolatey-smooth but with good bitterness from almond skin. A great easy-drinking coffee for lazy days.
Sign up to a Hasbean Coffee subscription (from £8.95 per 250g)
Perky Blenders Specialty Coffee
Best London based coffee subscription
About: this company started as a family business and has a clear focus on sustainability, as well as a definite sense of fun. You can personalise a bag of coffee as a birthday gift or ‘intricate prank’. Their website also sells merchandise and accessories, including a collaboration between them and Soapsmith in the form of a coffee body scrub.
Value for money: 1 x 200g bag = £6.50-£8.50
Packaging: Perky Blenders coffee comes in biodegradable, lined paper bags – you just have to cut out the valve on the bag before recycling and remove the sticky label. Alternatively, if you live near their Leyton branch you can bring your own container and pay for your coffee beans by the gram and go fully packaging-free. Their subscription packs fit through the letterbox too.
Subscribing: Perky Blenders have a range of different ‘clubs’ as their equivalent to subscriptions. There’s a six-week club where you get a 200g bag delivered every week for six weeks. Their flexi club is a rolling subscription of either weekly or monthly deliveries. They also do three, six, and 12-month subscriptions. There are four beans and eight brew methods to choose from.
The blend of the month ‘A New Hope’ really did match its tasting notes description of raspberry, grapefruit and chocolate. Smooth and delightful, it’s a ‘brighten up a drizzly afternoon’ kind of coffee. We also tried the Forest blend – the initial taste is smooth, but it’s got some seriously strong bitterness that really lingers. I’m awake now…and a little afraid. Great stuff.
Sign up to a Perky Blenders subscription (from £8.90 a bag)
North Star Coffee Roasters
Best sustainable coffee subscription
About: each coffee comes with an info card, detailing location, owner, preparation and flavour profile. They also list the best brew method for that blend and a well written description of the region that is really transporting.
Value for money: from £11.50 for a 250g bag, or great value for money if committing to a 1kg bag, from £25.65.
Packaging: North Star bags have all the information about the coffee on a recyclable cardboard sleeve and the coffee itself is in a recyclable, resealable plastic bag which they state has a ‘totally neutral carbon footprint thanks to responsible processing techniques’.
Subscribing: You can choose coffee to be delivered weekly, or every 2 weeks, 3 weeks, month or 2 months. Within those you can choose whether you want to be buying in 1kg or 250g packs and a range of grind sizes including whole bean, espresso or aeropress.
The Colombia blend we found to be rich, smooth and slightly sour, with a good balance of sweetness. The Ethiopian blend is very complex and not for the faint hearted. It has dark chocolate flavours with acidity, and a savoury note. We think it would be pretty spectacular with a sweeter chocolate dessert or a custard tart.
Sign up to a North Star Coffee Roasters subscription (from £11.50 per 250g)
Rave Coffee
Best simple coffee subscription
About: a note card with each coffee gives details of the coffee, the farm, the processes etc but also has a space on the back for you to pick out your tasting notes and give your own rating. The cards are small and easy to keep hold of, allowing you to build up a vocabulary of what coffee you really like.
Value for money: 1 x 250g bag = £8.95.
Packaging: the coffee comes in a biodegradable, resealable bag. Affixed to the bag with a bulldog clip is a card about that coffee.
Subscribing: choose from traditional or discovery coffees, how you want to brew it and whether you want one, two, three or four bags a month. The subscription process is very simple to use.
We tasted a couple of Rave’s single origin coffees; the Guatemala san jeronimo Miramar coffee we thought was a bit more of a darker roast than we expected. It has quite a lot of bitterness but it’s smooth, nicely balanced and easy drinking. Initial miso notes give way to red apple skin (red apple is a tasting note they give which we agree with) and a nice chocolate aftertaste unfolds. Their El Salvador, Los Pirineos coffee has a good balance of richness and acidity, with hints of complexity. It tranports you to a cosy café.
Sign up to a Rave Coffee subscription (from £8.95 per month)
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This review was last updated in January 2024. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at [email protected].
