One of the better things that Corona has brought to the world is the increasing availability of fantastic, fresh roasted, coffee bean subscriptions to all those who value excellent coffee when working from home! There are so many coffee roasters that have popped up as well and they sometimes bring you true gems from the coffee world to your home.
A coffee subscription brings you freshly roasted coffee beans to your doorstep on a regular basis. Some let you choose the frequency at which this happens, others deliver it to you every other week or month. Often, you can choose the “profile” of the coffee, which means you can decide if you want to the coffee roasted for espresso (a little darker) or for filter (a little lighter).
Most coffee subscriptions give you a fixed set of beans that will rotate regularly. A few promise to occasionally send you a surprise coffee or a special coffee as well, as a thank you for your loyalty. This means you get a reliable source of great coffee beans sent to your house. The quality level is above and beyond what you can get from the supermarket or your local coffee store, despite the latter already offering a much better bean than the supermarket. Local coffee roasters simply have access to better green coffee, take more pride in their (artisan) craft and take more care to roast the beans slowly, which greatly enhances the flavors in the beans. (source)
Another benefit of getting a fixed set of beans on a rotating schedule is that you don’t need to complete redial your brew settings all over again. Each bean often has a unique recipe: the setting on the grinder, the weight of dry coffee you use for the best flavor, the temperature of the water used to brew the coffee and maybe even the number of pours used to make filter coffee. If you write down your recipe (I highly recommend you do!) then when you get a known coffee again, you can simply reach for your last recipe and use that instead of having to go through several runs to optimize the recipe for taste.
Rarely, these coffee subscriptions give you a different specialty coffee every time they send you your subscription. And understandingly so. It’s a lot of work to source coffee beans on a regular basis, roast them and taste/cup them, adjust roasting profile, weigh and package all the subscriptions and do it all over again a week (or so) later. That’s something that only a handful people manage.
Here is my list of recommended coffee subscriptions in the Netherlands:
- the coffee vine (ships to the whole EU!)
- Nordkapp
- Friedhats
- Giraffe Coffee Roaster
- Single Estate Coffee
- KEEN coffee
- boon Coffee
- hetkoffieverbond.nl (subscribing is an option when ordering a product)
Not a subscription, but an honorable mention: Black and Bloom’s filterbox. They really should offer a subscription plan because they roast excellent coffee and have a nose for finding small lots with exotic coffee!
Update: the filter box by Man met bril coffee also deserves an honorable mention!
If you are a coffee roaster, you offer a subscription as well and would like to be included in this list, please get in touch with me!
No Pressure Coffee 