Coffee and spice delivery with good variety
February 15, 2019 9:12 AM   Subscribe

I live in an area where I can't buy good, whole bean coffee conveniently so I have it delivered. I enjoy constant variety so I'm looking for a subscription service that will send me different coffees. I've identified a few and am seeing if anyone has personal experience with them (or any that I've missed). On a similar note, if anyone has experience with spice subscription services, I'm also looking for experiences with them.

I like coffee. As long as it's good and not decaf, I enjoy trying it - light, medium, dark, single source, blend, it's all of interest to me. I've been using Blue Bottle but they don't really offer much variety so I'd like to switch to someone that will send me way different things each time. I go through a little over a pound a week.

Looking around, I've found Mustache Coffee Club, Creama, and Brothers Coffee, though I'm open to others. Most of the reviews I've found for them are of the "this is fabulous, now click through my sponsored link to subscribe" variety, so I'd like to see if anyone has used them and what their experiences have been.

Wants: whole bean, freshly roasted, quality, unusual finds, variety
Preferred: the ability to order additional bags of stuff I really like, shipping every two weeks (it looks like Brothers only ships monthly), not too expensive, the ability to easily skip shipments while traveling, a recommendation engine where you can provide feedback on ones that you did and did not like that will help tune what they send you in the future
Do not want: artificial flavors - things like roasted with chicory are fine but I don't want beans soaked in Flavorchem French Vanilla #2.

Because there's generally an overlap of people that drink fancy coffee and people that use fancy spices, I'm also looking for a spice subscription service that'll deliver weird and unusual things once a month. I don't really need recipes to come with them but don't mind them either.

As with coffee, I like just about everything and I can take full Thai/Indian hot. Blends of spices as fine as long as it doesn't effectively come down to getting a bunch of salt and/or garlic powder with a little other flavor added. I'm interested in things you can't grab at a commodity grocery store.

Ones I'm looking at are Raw Spice Bar, Spice Breeze, and Piquant Post - something that's around $10/month for 3-4 spices.
posted by Candleman to Food & Drink (9 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Zingerman's has a coffee club. I'm not a coffee drinker myself, but as a general rule, Zingerman's is pretty dang reliable.
posted by praemunire at 10:17 AM on February 15, 2019


Came here to second Zingerman's coffee club. I use it for corporate gifts (and only for corporate gifts, because it's pretty darn pricey), but I always gets rave reviews and excited e-mails.
posted by joyceanmachine at 10:40 AM on February 15, 2019


Best answer: Dark Matter, which is delicious, does a subscription for their special monthly blend. I don't have experience with their subscription service, but their coffee is excellent.
posted by crush at 2:03 PM on February 15, 2019


Best answer: My husband bought me a monthly subscription to Spice Breeze and I love it. The blends are fantastic and the suggested recipes are easy enough for a novice cook. The recipes also use common ingredients that are easy to find in any grocery store and they even recommend substitutions in case you’re not a fan of a listed ingredient.
posted by _Mona_ at 2:13 PM on February 15, 2019


I have no experience with spice subscriptions, but I can vouch that the spices at Penzey’s are an order of magnitude better than any others I’ve tried. Their prices are reasonable, they have both common and rare spices, and they do a lot of online business—why not just periodically order a few things that look fun and make your own subscription?
posted by musicinmybrain at 6:53 PM on February 15, 2019 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I am a fan of Klatch Coffee. Looks like you can set the delivery cycle. They allow suspensions, and you can order more of whatever. Pricing seems reasonable given that it includes shipping. I don't see an explicit recommendation engine, but they're a pretty small shop and I imagine would be responsive to requests. (Note - I've not personally used their subscription, but my spouse did it for a research group for several years, and I went to a tasting on site and drank their product for several years. I enjoyed their coffees.)
posted by annabear at 7:16 PM on February 15, 2019


Penzy's spices! Excellent quality, exceptional customer service, frequent specials on product and shipping fee, and a really great company all around. You'd have to choose your own box, but they have so many fun blends that it's worth doing. I recommend Fox Point seasoning and Mural of Flavor. My husband can't do without Salad Sprinkle, and their chili powder is perfect.
posted by AliceBlue at 5:26 AM on February 16, 2019


Best answer: I got the Mr a 6-month subscription to https://driftaway.coffee/ last year and he loved it so much that he's continued the subscription on his own ever since. They send you a taster kit, you taste the 4 varieties in it and send back tasting notes, then they send you coffee each month that they think you'll like based on your notes.
posted by telophase at 6:10 PM on February 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


Modern Times has a multi-tier subscription/club/thing I've never used, but I do buy single bags occasionaly.
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2019


« Older Help me ship (semi-) fine art!   |   Marry fox, throw grain in water, feed HDMI cable... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.