A coffee subscription box is the closest thing you'll find to a year-round, adult-friendly advent calendar.
Taking your underwhelming Monday mornings and stepping them up a notch, the best coffee subscription boxes promise to take you on a global adventure one mug at a time.
The good part? You'll discover endless new blends, beans and boxes without having to step a foot past your doorstep. The bad part? You'll never be able to look at a standard cup of coffee the same way again.
Coffee subscription boxes come in all shapes and sizes depending on your preferences. Those with a fairly high tolerance for caffeine will love weekly deliveries, while anyone just looking for one cup a day will probably prefer a monthly or fortnightly box.
The large number of different subscription services nowadays means it's easy to set up a regular delivery from your favourite coffee shop or to leave it to the experts with a different option to try each month. We'd recommend the latter: even if you're a proud, OG coffee connoisseur, there's always something out there you're yet to try.
Not sure where to start? Read on for all of the best coffee subscription boxes, and all prices seen are the starting price per box per month.
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Rise Coffee Box
Rise is the UK’s number one voted coffee subscription box, so you know it’s doing something right. If its vibrant packaging doesn’t wake you up in the morning, its strong coffee definitely will do.
Taking “rise and shine” to a new level, the brand’s coffee subscription is made up of blind-tasted samples from hundreds of independent UK roasters of all strengths and tastes, which are then refined and split into unique boxes of whole bean coffee or ground coffee depending on your preferences.
Inside each eco-friendly, sustainable box, you’ll find 2 x 250g of premium specialty coffees as well as recipe cards and snacks from Rise’s partners. Choose between fortnightly, monthly or bi-monthly deliveries, depending on the strength of your coffee habit.
Buy now £22.00, Rise Coffee Box
Blue Coffee Box
Blue Coffee Box tastes good and does good. For a start, it's an entirely plastic free brand. It works with only ethical suppliers and sources its beans from 22 countries around the world.
Every bag comes from a different roaster, country or region - including plenty from the UK including Horsham, North Star, Artisan Roast and Heart & Graft - and contains different coffee bean varietals so there's literally something for everyone.
As far as gourmet coffee subscription boxes go, Blue Coffee Box is up there with the best. Open up its compostable bag and breathe in the smell of your single origin beans and you'll swear to never unsubscribe.
Buy now £8.49, Blue Coffee Box
Pact Coffee
Like its name suggests, Pact Coffee is on a mission to make the coffee industry a better place for those who work in it, while curating its beans sustainably and accessibly.
It sources all coffee directly from its farmers and pays, on average, 65 per cent above the Fairtrade base price. It's just as impressive when it comes to the actual coffee: a winner of the Great Taste Award 2020 for its Asomuprisma and Fruit & Nut Espresso Blend and seller of more than 21 million cups of coffee, per year.
Create a pod or bag-shaped plan of decaf or regular and choose your brewing method before picking your blend of choice. Warning: they're all pretty delicious.
Buy now £7.95, Pact Coffee
Gustatory
Gustatory doesn't just sell coffee but, somehow, it also stocks some of the largest varieties out there. Focusing on speciality coffee from across the globe, Gustatory has a "kid in a sweet shop" kind of appeal for coffee lovers, who can scroll almost endlessly until they find a blend of their choice.
Perfect for anyone looking to branch out with their coffee drinking, its breakdown includes a full flavour profile, location of origin, altitude in which the beans were grown and preparation process.
Gustatory might be more of a marketplace than a specific coffee subscription box but also offers seven subscription options, ranging from its “Curated Surprises” box through to lighter or darker roasts, decaf-only roasts, or Nespresso-compatible options.
Buy now £10.25, Gustatory
Grind Coffee London
Grind's millennial-pink branding and number of stores across London ensures its position as a top pick for any centrally-based coffee drinker. Its coffee subscription service comes in three strengths - house, light or dark - and is packaged up in letterbox-friendly, carbon-positive bags.
Starting out in Shoreditch as a tiny cafe-bar before growing into a cult favourite across the city, Grind's subscription is consistently delicious. Perfect for those who know what they want from a cup, it's budget friendly, sent in a cute, pastel pick tin (the first time) and is available in ground, whole bean or Nespresso-compatible form.
Buy now £9.95, Grind Coffee London
Caravan Coffee Roasters
Caravan Coffee sources its beans from all over the world, so if you've ever fancied pouring a mug while casually reeling off a list of exotic countries, this is your best option. Based in London, the brand refines its coffee beans using the Tesla of the coffee roasting world, ensuring rich flavours and intricate blends.
Choose between filter or espresso and take your pick between a classic coffee blend, the "no boundaries brew" (which we'd recommend) or an ever-changing "roaster's choice" bag. There's also a decaf option if you're looking to feed your coffee habit but not so much your caffeine one.
Caravan's also a great choice if you're looking to be more mindful, with its eco-friendly packaging and fully compostable coffee bags. You’ll also get a free Caravan cookbook the first time you sign up.
Buy now £8.55, Caravan Coffee Roasters
Horsham Coffee Roasters
Brazil, Costa Rica, Rwanda and Kenya: Horsham Coffee Roasters may be based in the UK, but it sources its coffee from all over the world. One of the best coffee subscription boxes particularly if you're a fan of V60 coffee, Horsham Coffee Roasters' bags come with so much flavour, you'll swear you can actually taste those dark chocolate, red berries and peach notes the packaging talks of.
Grab a tasting box if you're not sure where to start, which pulls together a curated selection of five best blend creations and single origin coffees. Choose between every one to four weeks for subscription and opt for the "Coffee of the Month" to keep your daily mug even more interesting.
Buy now £7.50, Horsham Coffee Roasters
Perky Blenders
This East London roaster goes all out when it comes to personality, and supplies coffee to match. Taking a deep dive into each of its unique suppliers, you're able to read up on the exact farm and origins of your coffee, like the "unorthodox" Sow Blend from the Juba project in Mexico or the Forest Blend, named after Waltham Forest, featuring beans from Brazil and Ethiopia.
You'll get serving tips and recommendations as well as a flexible delivery service sent in biodegradable packaging. Or, if you're local to their Leyton branch, you can pop in and pick up your beans by the gram. Perky Blenders is a little stronger than your average coffee, so sip carefully during your first brew.
Buy now £8.97, Perky Blenders
Monmouth Coffee Company
Monmouth Coffee Company doesn't do things by halves. Based in Bermondsey, these coffee roasters started out with an oldâfashioned, direct-flame machine in Covent Garden before upgrading to a much larger, fancier roasting and tasting space. The result? A long list of carefully curated blends, added one-by-one over the years after discovering new coffee co-ops and farms.
Coffee snobs among us will especially love MCC's attention to detail: not only listing flavour notes of each bean but also taking it one step further by elaborating on the washing process. Once you've chosen your favourite blend, you'll be given an intricate background of exactly where it's sourced from, right down to the family farm's name. Choose which sort of beans you require (from seven options) as well as the strength of your roast and you're good to go.
Buy now £7.50, Monmouth Coffee Company
Bear
Bear started out as a humble coffee shop and cafe in Uttoxeter, before quickly becoming the busiest in the area. The next step was to ease the crowds by launching a coffee subscription service.
Thanks to its (relatively) small batch nature, Bear's coffee subscription is one of the most flexible around. Choose between "Hometown", "Adventure", "Wake up" or "Decaf", pick between four different grinds and decide how frequently you'd like delivery.
All of Bear's coffee is sustainably sourced and fairly traded, while individual blends are available on a seasonal basis. Tried Bear's coffee in person? They serve the Hometown blend in store, if you've fallen in love and want to replicate the experience.
Buy now £8.50, Bear
Union Roasted
Union Roasted sells coffee hand-roasted to order, so it's always freshly ground and impressively flavourful. One of the best options for anyone looking to dip their toe into the world of specialty coffee, Union Roasted offers guidance and recommendations dependent on your coffee preferences with roast strengths, quality scores and grind styles. Most coffees from here lean towards the stronger end of the scale, utilising bold taste without any bitterness from high-altitude, globally sourced beans.
The CoffeeClub subscription can be tailored towards your favourite blends or kept as a monthly surprise, pulling together Union's most popular options. Each delivery contains enough for 24 cups, making Union Roasted one of the best value coffee subscription boxes, too.
Buy now £14.95, Union Roasted
Balance Coffee
For premium coffee delivered right to your door, look no further than Balance. Created during lockdown, founder James Bellis wanted to offer healthy coffee free from mould, mycotoxins and pesticides, the nasties which are present in the majority commercial grade beans.
So, through his brand, he sources from the top 5 per cent of coffee farms worldwide, and is comitted to paying 25 per cent more for the best coffee available. Even better, he donates 1 per cent of annual sales to Project Waterfall, an initiative which helps build wells to water deprived coffee producing communities, sources beans ethically, and for every order, plants a tree through Ecologi.
By subscribing, you can save 15 per cent on some of the best coffee on the market.
Buy now £8.99, Balance Coffee
North Star Coffee Roasters
A family run business, North Star’s journey started over conversations with coffee producers in Kenya about their experiences of fairtrade production, so the brand has a focus on the impact of coffee throughout the entire supply chain - as well as the delicious taste, of course.
Each bag will be accompanied by a card with all of its informaion, including the flavour profile, location of origin, and preparation method, as well as the best way to brew it.
Buy now £7.00, North Star Coffee Roasters
Rave
Based in Cirencester, with a small cafe attached to the roastery, Rave sources the best quality raw coffee available, and offers it at a great price, too.
With every bag of coffee that’s delivered in biodegradable resealable packaging, you’ll receive a note card on detailing everything from the farm it comes from to the processes used before it arrives at your door. Designed to be collected, theres space for you to rate the coffees yourself so you can keep track of your faves.
If you’d like to try before you buy, head to their cafe to see what all the fuss is about - then you’ll be transported there with every sip.
Buy now £7.95, Rave
Verdict
The huge variety of ever-changing beans and those extra personal touches make Rise Coffee the best coffee subscription box out there. If you're looking to take a deep dive into the world of specialty coffee, Rise's subscription box is a brilliant option for coffee newbies and connoisseurs alike.
