As coffee fanatics, we are delighted to be seeing an increase in the number and quality of coffee subscription boxes available in the UK. We’ve picked our favourites and explain what they offer and what we love about them. The subscription box industry is big, and it is growing. Coffee Subscription services are a neat, convenient and often fun and exciting way to get your favourite things delivered directly to your home. Everyone likes getting surprise packages in the post and now you can arrange for your own little surprises each month.
So there we have it. I’m certain that this isn’t the end of this list as new subscription services are popping up all the time, so we’ll be sure to update this article any time a new plan shows up on our radar. If there are any obvious services that you think we’ve missed then please feel free to yell at us in the comments below and we’ll right (write?) those wrongs.
Blue Coffee Box Subscription
We like the ethos of this company, who adopt the Direct Trade method of procuring coffee. From the farmer to the picker, the Blue Coffee Box staff ensure the pick-to-pack process works within International Labour Laws. They also visit the farms to check social and environmental standards. They’re a pure-play coffee subscription company, so you can expect high-quality luxurious gourmet coffee and top service with lots of choice each month (or fortnightly if you’re thirsty!). There is free delivery throughout the UK and they guarantee it’ll fit through your letter box.
Subscribers have a choice of bean, coarse grind for cafetière, medium grind for drippers/Aeropress and very fine for espresso and stove tops. You then have a choice of roast depth (light to dark and decaf) and finally a frequency decision – fortnightly, monthly or every 2 months. A gift box option to arrive on a birthday or special occasion is also available.
The Blue Coffee Box guys have given Coffee Bazaar readers a whopping 50% off their first bag or box, just enter promo code TCB5 at the checkout. For example, an £8.99 bag/box in month 1 with the TCB5 discount code would be £4.50. Bags start at £7.99 and larger boxes start at £15.49
Dog & Hat Coffee Subscription
Whilst Dogs and Hats aren’t really anything to do with coffee, when combined, the Dog & Hat Coffee Co is definitely a leading player in sourcing some of the best coffee on a subscription basis. We trialled a pack that of 4 ground coffees from roasters we know very well here at The Coffee Bazaar; Neighbourhood (Liverpool), Send (London), Obadiah (Edinburgh) and Old Spike Coffee (London). The main plaudit of Dog & Hat’s monthly subscription offering is the sheer variety, you’ll certainly never be bored of the selection. Read more about the offering here.
Dog & Hat do their ‘homework’ in finding top class roasters across the world (yes, not just UK) and have them included in their monthly selection. We geeked out over the info booklet accompanying the coffee, plus the packaging was nicely done, as environmentally sound as possible. They do a prepaid gift subscription too, if you’re considering a monthly coffee subscription for a loved one as a present.
Get 20% via TheCoffeeBazaar by using BAZAAR30 at the checkout.
Pact Coffee Subscription
Pact Coffee, located in Bermondsey, London have been sourcing and roasting coffee since 2012 and have offered a subscription service from day 1. The Pact ethos is good karma inducing! Using the Direct Trade model, Pact pay on average 55% above the FairTrade base price, ensuring farmers aren’t screwed over.
The service is highly customisable, allowing the customer to select from filter, espresso or even pods, regular or decaf, choose the perfect grind, and even select the perfect delivery frequency in days – from a delivery every 1 day, right up to a delivery every 60 days.
The downside of these highly customisable options and the wide variety of choice is a slightly overwhelming purchasing process, although everything is reasonably well explained and illustrated throughout.
Pact are offering 40% off 1st & 3rd orders USE PACTSB40 at checkout. Shopping for a gift? There are lots of coffee bundles on the Pact Gift page
Clumsy Goat Coffee Subscription
Clumsy Goat’s “Roast of the Month” subscriptions are a great choice for anyone looking to try (or gift!) a selection of exciting new coffees. You receive a different Clumsy Goat roast each month, along with a handy origin guide with each delivery. They offer whole beans and a variety of grind options too.
Clumsy Goat’s subscription service is very fresh due to weekly roasting rota’s, the beans are 100% Fairtrade, ethically sourced and with letterbox friendly next day delivery as standard.
We reckon the coffee is exceptional value vs quality at £8.95 per bag. You also get free shipping and 10% off your first order. You can choose from weekly, fortnightly or monthly deliveries and can adjust, pause or cancel at any time.
Their gift subscriptions are also really popular – you can pre-pay for a set period and the lucky recipient receives a nice guide to the subscription and details of who it’s from. It’s a big thumbs up from us at Coffee Bazaar HQ!
Django Coffee Co Subscriptions
Based in Southport in Merseyside and aiming to bring the Melbourne coffee scene to the UK, Django also offer a choice of subscriptions plans. The terms here are a little less flexible than Unions and a tad strange as they offer a one month plan delivered weekly, a three month plan delivered fortnightly, a 3 month plan delivered weekly or a rolling subscription. This last option offers the most flexibility as you can choose how frequently you want your delivery and how much coffee you want delivered each time.
The sign up process is a little confusing and at first I thought you had to order the same beans every time. This isn’t the case however, but it does require you to email Django and let them know what your preferences here are – it would have been nice if this was built in to the signup process.
They also offer an office subscription so that you can be sent 1kg bags – which is pretty neat.
You were spot on with this.
Union – Sold. Good ethos, good packaging clear colour co-ordinated without looking over the top, too busy or off putting, good website that was easy to navigate and easy to set up subscription.
I was going to go with Hasbean as they’re local but I know it shouldn’t bother me, but the bright red packaging and overly in-depth website put me off. I’m glad they get their coffee from good farmers etc but I’d rather they spent the money on the website.
Be nice if the beans were slightly cheaper than ground though recognising the one less step in processing. But that’s just a small thing.
Hi Anthony – glad you found the guide useful, and happy you’re enjoying your Union subscription
Check out Beancounter-coffee.com, I signed up when they started a couple of months ago and have been really impressed with the simplicity and quality of coffee.
They even have simple brew guides for simpletons like me.
Thanks for the suggestion. I shall take a look
Hi Harry.
I enjoyed reading this, and have been a subscriber to two of these subscriptions in the past. I was reading Caffeine magazine a month or so ago and have since learnt of Gustatory’s subscription packages.
It might be worth you checking them out as their Plus 87 pack gives specialty coffees with a score of over 87/100. I am a subscriber to that particular package now, but was very much tempted by their US EU one as I quite fancy some coffees from across the pond. When I read over each pack, I thought theirs was generally more creative and diverse than others, so if this article is going for ‘The UK’s Best Coffee Subscription Services’, I definitely want to recommend them to you.
Cheers!
Thanks for the recommendation Jenny. I will check out Gustatory.
Hi Harry,
Really good article! – I researched into all of these…
However, I recently signed up to Craft Coffee Club and it’s really good! They are a reasonably new company that are not just giving a few bags of coffee a month, but are so ethical- which I thought made them stand out! I know that by buying this coffee subscription that I am helping the environment (due to the packaging being recyclable) and the farmers that help create the coffee I am drinking. I also received tasty treats that are meant to perfectly compliment the coffee sent every month! I was a lucky winner of the competition to receive the box early, and have now signed up for a 12 month membership which I am excited to start in September. Definitely recommend!
Thanks!
As well as Pact I use CoffeeGems.co.uk. I first found them via a craft market in Reading. The owner is a Colombian and roasts the beans himself.
An interesting new idea is the secret caffeine club which picks from a new roaster each week. I love pact but started to lose the speciality of my coffee hobby receiving the same/similar beans each week.
Great article, but I think Redber Coffee need a spot on here!! I haven’t looked back since using them, such a wider range of coffees in comparison to the others!
I found the article very informative. Readers can get some good ideas and suggestions from it. Thanks for sharing.
I have tried a few of these companies and I also enjoy them a lot. Balance Coffee are my new fave because the coffee and packaging is fab but they have some great ethical and sustainable practises.
Rave Coffee definitely deserve a shout out here. I’ve been using their coffee subscription service for the last few months and it’s really helped me appreciate the differences between coffees from different countries. To be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference before, but now I can smell a single origin coffee a mile off!