SUBSCRIBE & SECURE:
Why we put your coffee aside
Our coffees are roasted in small runs, and several sell out between one roast and the next. Before any of it goes on sale, a portion is set aside for the people who have it delivered. This is how that works, and why it's the reason to subscribe.
The Hawaii Kona is released at three hundred boxes a month. The Esmeralda Geisha comes from a lot measured in kilos, not tonnes. A Cup of Excellence coffee is a single harvest from a single competition, and when it is gone there is no more of it until a farm wins again. Coffee at this level is scarce because the farms are small and the lots are specific, and no amount of demand changes that.
So we do what any house dealing in something finite does. When a coffee is roasted, the first portion is reserved — put aside, before the rest goes on sale — for the people who have it delivered. That is what the words Subscribe & Secure on our product pages mean. Not a discount, though there is one. A reservation.
What is reserved
Every subscriber's order is allocated from each roast before that coffee is offered to anyone else. If the product page says "sold out" — and for the Kona, the Geishas and the competition lots it often does — it is sold out to everyone except the people whose coffee was already set aside. They are not waiting for the next roast. Theirs is in the post.
That is the whole of it, and it's the part that matters. A coffee that can be bought at any time doesn't need reserving. Ours can't, so it does.
The coffee people have every day
Most of our subscribers keep one coffee as a standing order and drink it each morning. For many it's the Brazil Yellow Bourbon from Daterra — dark chocolate, a little citrus, the cup people picture when they picture a good espresso, and a single estate that cups at 87 to 88 points, Daterra's own score confirmed for us by a licensed Q Grader. Delivered this way it is under a pound a cup. We mention the price once because it surprises people; it isn't the point.
Alongside it, many keep a second, slower subscription for one of the rare coffees — a Kona, a Blue Mountain, a Geisha — a box every month or two, reserved, so that there is always one in the cupboard for the evening it's wanted. If you want a morning coffee and an evening one from the same farm, the Foundation Collection pairs the Yellow Bourbon with its own Swiss Water decaf, and that is bought outright rather than subscribed.
Our longest-standing subscriber has been with us for more than nine years. We'd like to say we planned for that; what we planned for was that the coffee should always be there when they wanted it.
How it works
It should take no attention at all, so it doesn't. You choose a coffee — any single coffee in the range — and how often you'd like it, and it comes. Subscribers pay 10 per cent less than the one-off price. Everything can be changed from your account at any moment: the coffee, the interval, a skipped delivery, a pause for a holiday, or stopping altogether. There is no minimum and nothing to give notice of. We would rather you paused than received a coffee you didn't want.
When a new lot is released, subscribers hear first, and can secure it before it goes on general sale.
Questions we get asked
What does "Subscribe & Secure" mean?
That your coffee is reserved from each roast before that coffee goes on sale. When a coffee sells out, subscribers' orders have already been set aside.
Can I change or stop the subscription?
Yes, at any time, from your account: the coffee, the frequency, skip, pause or cancel. No minimum term.
Can I subscribe to a collection or a set?
No. The collections and sets are one-off purchases. Subscriptions are for single coffees, at 10 per cent below the one-off price.
Which coffee do most subscribers have every day?
The Brazil Yellow Bourbon — single estate, 87–88 points, under a pound a cup on subscription.
Do these work in a Nespresso Vertuo?
No. Nespresso Original machines only.
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