Asteaming cup of barista-made coffee is something worth getting out of bed for on a Monday morning. Whether your poison is a flat white, a filter or an oat milk latte, a little treat makes easing into the working week significantly less painful.
But habits are changing.More than half of the respondents to a Deloitte study of 7,000 coffee drinkers said price rises have put an end to their coffee pit-stop en route to work. And with a coffee shop cappuccino often commanding prices upwards of £4, it stands to reason that more of us are learning to recreate barista-quality coffee at home.
Happily, many wonderful independent coffee shops sell beans for home use. But if your favourite cafe isn’t nearby, or like me, you’re always running out of beans, a coffee subscription could be the answer.
With a good coffee subscription, you can enjoy a world of speciality beans without leaving the house – and at a fraction of the cost. From light and bright washed beans with acidic, fruity floral notes to cocoa and caramel-rich blends from Guatemala, Indonesia, Brazil and beyond, there’s a whole flavour wheel to discover. And sometimes by subscribing to these independent coffee brands, you’ll be supporting worthy causes in coffee-producing countries, too.
As a long-time coffee fan, I’ve tried a lot of beans over the years. As a rule, I buy whole beans, grind them myself and brew them either in aBialetti stovetop coffee maker, cafetiere or in mySage Barista Pro machine. I drink it black; but there are a few exceptions – like when I fancy a lazy Sunday cappuccino. I tested all of the coffee black and made it using my machine, unless it was in pod format. So, after a heavily caffeinated few weeks, here’s just a selection of my favourite coffees for your drinking pleasure.
From £7 a month at Rave Coffee
I’ve been a fan of Rave for years, and if you’re serious about getting to grips with speciality coffee, it’s the one to choose. With every box, Rave sends useful advice on the best brewing techniques, educates you on varietals, grind, extraction and how to texturise milk, and provides a flavour wheel with tasting cards to help get the most from your coffee.
Sign up for theDiscovery Subscriptionand you’ll receive a hard-to-find, single-origin coffee from one of Rave’s 52 chosen farms around the globe, roasted to order and delivered to your door, along with the roastery’s tasting notes. The Tanzanian Mbili Twiga this month was exceptional, if you like dark roast coffee.
From £10.69 for 30 pods at Grind
Since opening its Shoreditch coffee shop in 2011, Grind has gone from strength to strength, selling sustainable, directly traded coffee everywhere from Soho House to the supermarket. Its house blend is a universally pleasing high-quality coffee that can be taken in beans, ground, pods or cold brew cans; I’m here for the pods. Nespresso-compatible, genuinely delicious and with a decent strength, the pods are also completely compostable – as is all of Grind’s packaging.
Choose from 15 different blends, single-origin coffee and flavoured pods, or go for a mixture, then pick out your refillable Grind tin (there’s a special editionClueless tinavailable at the moment). Plus, with each pod, cop or can of coffee sold, the company will recover ocean-bound plastic – to the tune of 60,000kg in 2023.
From £13 every four weeks at Rise
One of the joys of coffee is experimenting with different roasteries, beans, processes and types of drinks. If that sounds like you, then a Rise subscription is sure to brighten your mornings. Each month, you’ll receive a selection of ethically sourced coffees from independent UK roasters such as Oxford-based Routes or Tamp in London, which this month produced a sweet, tropical-tasting Colombian coffee I loved black.
Rise also throws in cute treats and surprises like a dreamy ready-to-drink pistachio latte, chocolates and other coffee-adjacent goodies. And 1% of your purchase helps to send Ugandan children to school through the FriendlyCoffeeFund.
From £9.45 every four weeks at Kiss the Hippo
Kiss the Hippo’s eight coffee shops have some of the best baristas in London, in my opinion. Its coffee never misses the mark, and while most of it is in the mastery of the making, it’s also a delight to have a go yourself using Kiss the Hippo’s signature beans direct from its roastery to your door. Its blends are brilliant, withDonna(dark chocolate, caramel, walnut notes) among its most popular. Try them all, then get your favourite delivered fresh – you won’t regret it.
From £16 every four weeks at Exhale
After an extended bout of ill health and the discovery that he was developing an autoimmune condition, Exhale co-founder Alex Higham committed to a healthier lifestyle. The realisation that coffee can be contaminated with mycotoxins and pesticides – while losing the good stuff – saw him launch Exhale, an organic, health-focused coffee that harnesses the benefits of the coffee cherry.
More lightly roasted but still packing a flavour punch, Exhale’s deliciously nutty dark(ish) roast from Colombia is antioxidant rich, a good source of vitamin B3 and optimised for polyphenols to counter any potential jitters, while the decaf option still offers the same health pros without the caffeine cons. Incredibly, one cup contains the same antioxidants as 12 punnets of blueberries and 55 oranges. Exhale is also B-Corp certified and pays farmers higher prices than Fairtrade.
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From £7.43 every four weeks at Tambia
If single-origin, rich and smooth Colombian is your coffee bag, then Tambia has you covered. The company grows, harvests and processes several varieties of arabica coffee by hand at its family-owned and operated mountainous Rainforest Alliance certified farms before it’s shipped to the UK for roasting.
You can subscribe to Tambia’s house coffee, Finca La Sierra, which is so abundant with plum, coffee and chocolate flavours that it can stand up to your roast of choice. Choose from deliciously fresh whole beans (if you can), or pick your grind level to suit espresso, Moka pot, filter or cafetière. It’s not available on subscription, but I’d also recommend the company’s limited-editionGeisha light roast, which is delicate and unusual for those up for trying something different.
From £8.08 every four weeks at Ueshima Coffee Company
Japan was a centre of coffee innovation long before the west, pioneering techniques such as pour-over, siphons and flannel-dripped coffee with typical Japanese precision. Ueshima is Japan’s number-one coffee brand, using responsibly sourced arabica beans (although note there’s no more detail than that provided) in three blends: House Blend, Tokyo Roast and Fuji Mountain. All are harmonious, smooth and bold, and the company boasts six Great Taste Awards. A subscription offers beans, ground or Nespresso-compatible pods in various sizes and frequencies: a good value option for everyday coffee.
From £12 a month at Voyager Coffee
Each month, Voyager selects a single-origin coffee with a unique character to roast in-house at its roastery on the edge of Dartmoor national park to showcase to subscribers. From the sweet, clean Brazilian house favourite to the standout Kenyan coffee I tried that was fizzing with fruity notes thanks to its unusual anaerobic natural processing, and the Guatemalan washed coffee with notes of candied orange, a Voyage subscription really is a treat for coffee connoisseurs. There are extensive tasting notes to make the most of your experience, and all the coffee is sustainably sourced, and the bags are 100% compostable.
From £5.53 every four weeks at TrueStart
Whether beans or ground, bags or – whisper it – instant, plus cold brew, a subscription from sustainable family-owned roaster TrueStart is sure to have something to please all coffee drinkers out there. With an emphasis on coffee that’s free of added chemicals, mycotoxins and heavy metals, yet retains high antioxidant levels, TrueStart’s slow-release caffeine speciality coffee offers you the ability to choose your roast, flavour and strength. I like the super-strongSuper Blendmedium roast – a blend of intense Brazilian, Ethiopian, Indian and Vietnamese varieties – to kickstart the morning.
From £8.75 a month at Monmouth Coffee
Monmouth Coffee was the first independent coffee roaster in the UK back in 1978, and its Covent Garden coffee shop remains, along withtwo more shops. It’s worked with some of its farmers for decades, and all of its beans are top-notch. For a prepaid subscription, select your favoured roast profile (Monmouth is known for its darker roasts) and duration – any coffee-loving recipient will be thrilled. Personally, I’d self-gift a rolling medium-dark subscription and hope that it included the delightful Brazilian Fazenda Santa Inês in all its chocolatey, nutty wonder.
Create your perfect cup of coffee with our expert guides tothe best coffee machinesandthe best espresso machines
Joanne Gould is a food, drink and lifestyle writer with a decade of experience. As well as enthusiastically eating her way through London’s best bars and restaurants, she’s also a keen home cook and can often be found trying a new recipe or kitchen gadget, while taste-testing anything from South African wines to speciality coffee or scotch. Luckily, she also enjoys walking, running and keeping fit and healthy in her spare time – for balance