Craft Coffee Blog

"A great value for fresh coffee"

Wirecutter refreshed their roundup of the best coffee subscriptions this month, and we're very proud to be in such good company! Lesley Stockton writes:

Craft isn’t doing cofermentations and esoteric flavor profiles like other roasters in this guide (I’m looking at you, Black & White), but if you want a reliable delivery of consistently roasted coffee for much less than you’d pay the other roasters on this list, Craft Coffee is for you.

Affordable, fresh, and reliable? Say no more.

Lots of our subscribers are espresso enthusiasts who pull shots at home—so why don't we offer an "espresso blend"?

Well, espresso is an extraction method rather than a specific roast style or blend of coffees. With a little experimentation and elbow grease, just about any coffee can work as an espresso shot!

That said, we recommend Daydream Blend as a great starting point for home baristas. It's a warm, approachable medium roast that's heavy on Brazilian coffee for big, nutty sweetness. It will work well in any espresso-based drink.

Vice is singing our tune on coffee subscriptions: "Brewing coffee at home is glorious: Never again do you have to brave the outside world without the cocoon of caffeine."

Needless to say, we're super excited to be singled out for "Best price" in their new list of the 12 Best Coffee Subscriptions!

Natalli Amato writes, "If you got into making coffee at home to save money and not to find new ways to splurge, I see you. Craft Coffee is all about bringing you freshly roasted coffee at the lowest price."

And guess what: domestic shipping is always free! For the best possible deal on our coffee, try a Buy More, Save Money plan: craftcoffee.com/buy-coffee-wholesale-prices

We’re proud to be named the Strategist’s “Best less expensive coffee subscription” in their latest subscription roundup!

Author Sal Vaglica writes:

“In a category with competitive pricing, it’s hard for other subscriptions to touch Craft’s value...  This is the only subscription I tested that asks which mainstream brands you buy—like Starbucks, Dunkin’, or Peet’s. Craft recommends a blend based on your answer, and you can adjust it to be lighter or darker or switch to a pricier single-origin coffee.”

We’re thrilled that Women’s Health named us the “best affordable coffee subscription” in their new roundup! 

We focus on efficiency and simplicity so you can drink better coffee for less money. Women’s Health understands our approach:

Who It’s For:

Someone who wants affordable coffee, but a step up from the grocery-store offerings.

We’re pleased to introduce two new single origin subscriptions for adventurous coffee drinkers:

Exploration Single Origin - Roaster’s Choice is a line of light roasts highlighting alternative coffee processing methods: natural, honey, and beyond. Rotating every 4 weeks, these coffees feature unique flavors, complex structure, and fruity sweetness—perfect for anyone seeking new expressions of coffee’s inherent flavors.

The Single Origin Discovery Sampler (above) is an excellent option for gift recipients this holiday season. Featuring 4oz each of three Roaster’s Choice selections (including the Exploration Single Origin), the Discovery Sampler offers a constantly changing lineup of distinctive coffees from around the world.

Forbes gets it:

A really great cup of coffee is one of life’s simple pleasures: the taste, the smell, the feeling of a warm mug in your hand—it’s just all so good. But if you’re getting your coffee beans from the grocery store, you’re missing out on a giant piece of the puzzle: really fresh coffee.

We couldn’t agree more! So we’re super excited that Forbes recommends Craft Coffee as one of the best coffee subscriptions out there:

If you’re tired of settling for stale coffee beans from the grocery store, Craft Coffee will hook you up with deliciously fresh beans. This company uses your go-to coffee brand to recommend a similar brew, and they ship out beans 24 to 72 hours after roasting for maximum freshness and flavor.

Gear Patrol gave us a shoutout in their roundup last summer:

Craft Coffee was one of the first names in online coffee subscriptions (they’ve been around since 2010), and they’ve got it down. Their online information form is concise and the personality test questions are pretty accurate.

They kept their eyes on the prize:

In short, it’s an all-around solid option without any gimmicks. And that’s great — especially if you haven’t had any coffee yet.

Did you catch us in marthastewart.com’s guide to coffee subscriptions? 

“If you don't already make coffee at home, now is the time to start. If you do make coffee at home, maybe you're ready to up your game and explore new brews, or else you might need a new place to source top-quality beans because the spot you usually buy coffee from is closed.”

Why Craft Coffee?

“If you're looking to move on from grocery store coffee, Craft Coffee can help. They are one of the original coffee subscription services, and they pride themselves on offering their own-brand, small batch coffee blends and single origin coffees delivered when you want it for prices comparable to (or even better) than you'll find in the supermarket.”

We’re so pleased to announce the launch of our first decaf coffee!

Avoiding caffeine doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor. LIGHTS OUT is a rich and velvety cup with notes of dark chocolate and raisin, plus baking spice undertones.

The Strategist is one of our go-to resources when it’s time to buy just about anything. Needless to say, we’re thrilled to be featured in their new coffee subscription roundup!

Sal Vaglica writes:

The Wirecutter calls Craft Coffee “The best deal for stocking up” in their new roundup of online coffee subscriptions!

(Photo: Sarah Kobos)

Here’s what Wirecutter staffer Anna Perling had to say about us:

Craft Coffee is an affordable option for stocking up on coffee. If you buy four or more 12-ounce bags, you get them at wholesale price, up to 42 percent off the retail cost. You can select whole beans or opt for one of several grind options. The company also offers a subscription that allows you to customize how many bags of coffee you receive and how often. Senior staff writer Nick Guy, who subscribes on and off, says, “It’s the kind of coffee that I can enjoy in the morning without thinking about it, which is really all I need most mornings.”

Each month we feature one stunning, light-roasted single origin coffee via our coffee subscription program. With our new four-bag coffee subscriptions, you can get these beans at the unbeatable price of $12.99 per 12oz bag ($1.08/oz), with free shipping and no tax! 

Here’s the stellar Colombian coffee we’re roasting through April 13...

These are coffees that retail for $19.99 with our individual-bag coffee subscriptions, and you’d typically need to pay at least $20 ($1.67/oz) to get coffee of this quality and style anywhere else. So at $12.99 per 12oz bag, we’re really excited to make it easier than ever to drink truly amazing coffee at super low prices.

At these low prices, it’s hard to know exactly what kind of quality we’re talking about here, so we want to walk you through how we source these coffees; because you won’t believe it...

HOW WE SOURCE COFFEE

In order to source coffees at this quality level, we work very closely with a small group of importing partners who have traveled the world for years (often decades) building relationships with farmers and coffee growing communities.

We pay 3x to 4x fair trade prices for our single origin coffees, so they are on a different level.

Our single-origin coffees are often such small microlots that perhaps only 500 to 1,500 lbs are available in the US. We often contract for these coffees many months in advance of their arrival in the US, so that we can lock them in for you -- because they'll sell out before they even arrive.

Sampling

Our importing partners regularly provide us with small samples of the best lots, typically 200 grams. We "sample roast" dozens of coffees every month in our Brooklyn office. Then we brew them to evaluate each coffee for quality and character.

All the coffees we consider for our single origin offering are super clean and sweet, so that's necessary but not enough. What we look for in these coffees is a distinctive character -- that special something that makes us wake up the next morning excited to brew another cup.

Profiling

When we find a coffee we love from the sampling process, we purchase it immediately. Then, the next challenge is determining how we'll roast it for you. The goal is to bring out each coffee's best expression of itself. This process is called "profiling" -- it's a mix of art and science.

Our importers will ship us 1 kg of the coffee we purchased, and we'll roast four different "profile roasts" of about 200 grams each, trying different variations with each roast to see what we can pull out of the bean. How can we focus the distinctive characteristics and deliciousness that made us decide to buy this coffee? That's the profiling challenge.

To assess each profile, we brew each one for the better part of a week. During profiling weeks, our profile roasts are often the only coffee we'll drink all week. We get to know it inside and out.

Production Roasting

The results of the profiling process lead us to decide how to approach roasting the coffee for you in production. We work very hard to replicate our chosen profile in your production roasts.

Our quality control process includes brewing every batch we roast, and we also use technological tools to analyze each batch against our profiling targets. We tweak and adjust our single origins as needed to make sure they're always delicious.

SINGLE ORIGIN COFFEES WE SHIPPED OVER THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS

We source these seasonal coffees as fresh crops arrive in the United States. Around April/May the best Ethiopian, Kenyan and Guatemalan coffees start arriving in the US, and we fill our menu with those coffees. Then we see the best Colombian, Peruvian and Rwandan coffees starting to arrive in the US around September/October, and we feature the best of those origins. Other promising origins you might see on our menu in the future include Honduras and Burundi.

If you had found us a year ago, this is what your last year of coffee would have looked like ...

March 2018 - Cusco, Peru A sugary sweetness is balanced by a distinctive pink lady apple flavor. Notes of caramel and baking spice highlight the creamy body.

February 2018 - Kercha Woreda, Guji, Ethiopia A sweet, juicy cup with flavors of mango, butter cookie, sweet almond, perfumed florals and hints of cantaloupe and chocolate malt in the cooling cup.

January 2018 - Nyeri, Kenya Sugary fruit aromas welcome a vibrant, sweet and complex cup with a pink lemonade acidity balanced by a deep, starchy sweetness. Flavors of blueberry and melon linger through the sweet, bright finish.

December 2017 - Agaro Region, Jimma, Ethiopia A clean and sugary sweet cup with flavors of watermelon and sweet tea. Every cup left us wanting more.

November 2017 - Kibirizi, Nyamagabe, Rwanda Sweet, spicy and citrusy aromas welcome this dynamic cup with a distinctive lime soda acidity balanced by a starchy, butter cookie sweetness. Juicy honeydew and sweet spice in the cooling cup.

October 2017 - Santa Barbara, Huehuetenango, Guatemala Aromas of cooked berries and brown sugar introduce this flavorful and sugary cup. A refined white grapefruit acidity provides structure, supporting notes of strawberry, tart plum, lemon verbena, caramel and clove.

September 2017 - Kericho County, Kenya Malty, sweet aromas welcome a bright, sweet and juicy cup with a mixed citrus acidity of limes, oranges and lemons, flavors of plums and red fruit and a sweet chocolatey finish.

August 2017 - Aleta Wondo, Sidamo, Ethiopia Aromas of stone fruit and sweet tea introduce this sugary sweet cup with flavors of cooked stone fruit reminiscent of peach cobbler. Highlights of blood orange and red apple emerge in the cooling cup that ends with a deep caramelly sweetness.

July 2017 - Chimaltenango, Guatemala Sweet, juicy and clean with flavors of purple grape highlighted by a lime acidity that mingles with sweet spice notes to create a cola-like experience. As it cools, its sugary base flows between malty milk chocolate, nougat, and a cookie-like sweetness.

June 2017 - Keffa Zone, Bita Genet District, Ethiopia Melon aromas welcome a juicy cup with a delicious cantaloupe flavor that intermingles with delicate florals. Very nice clarity and structure through the end of this syrupy, sweet cup.

May 2017 - Gera Woreda, Agaro Region, Jimma, Ethiopia Sweet, tart flavors reminiscent of orange marmalade and lemon candy welcome a complex cup that evolves as it cools into flavors of passionfruit and then creamy tropical fruit flavors like soursop. The cup finishes sweet, creamy and bright.

April 2017 - Incahuasi, Cusco, Peru A sweet, creamy body with malty flavors combine with an orange acidity for a creamsicle experience. As it cools, some of our brews remained deliciously consistent, while others evolved into the flavors and mouthfeel of a European-style hot chocolate highlighted by caramelized hazelnut notes. Either way, creamy and sweet til the last drops.

Whew, a lot goes into sourcing the world’s most incredible coffees for you. Coffee at this quality doesn’t come easy, but now with our bulk coffee subscriptions you can get this amazing coffee for less money.