Coffee Club from Union Hand Roasted Coffee
Regular readers will remember Union Coffee from our features in the past. Union have been sourcing, roasting, living and loving good coffee since 2001. They find and work directly with talented farmers, paying them a fair price so they can invest in their farm, families, and workers It’s called Union Direct Trade. Those fair prices, and Union’s investment in smallholder farmers, make their specialty coffee extra special.
They hand-roast their coffee in small batches. Tiny, carefully-tended batches. To them, roasting is an art. And it shows. All of their coffees are scored 84 and above on the SCAA’s international scale – the definitive measure of coffee quality. And their micro-lots? (Small quantities of rare, incredible coffees, grown in the best conditions possible.) Those typically score more than 88.It’s all thanks to their people. The farmers who grow their coffee. The roastmasters working tirelessly to perfect each roast. And the trainers, who teach baristas, enthusiasts, beginners – everyone – how to brew exquisite coffee.
Prices start from £12.95 monthly, for which you will receive 2 X 200g bags of coffee. You can customise your delivery by choosing your coffee as wholebean or pre-ground and you can adjust your delivery frequency to suit – monthly, fortnightly or weekly.
A couple of really nice features are the option to specifically select the coffees you will receive, specify a genre you like (e.g. nutty/spicy flavour notes) or alternatively just let Union send you whichever coffees they fancy! This last option is my personal favourite as it adds an element of intrigue when your subscription box is due. The setup process and the website are super easy to use and getting started is a doddle. Highly recommended.
Perky Blenders
Perky Blenders offer a really great range of customisation options which will be right up the street for coffee nerds out there. Firstly you can choose the coffee you want from a single origin coffee to the blend of the month and even a decaf option, as this is becoming increasingly popular . But also there is a great range of grind options. You can even select if you want your coffee delivered on a specific recurring day, and you can also gift a subscription. Absolutely tons of flexibility in this service. With beans from Brazil to Rwanda, all put together in east London. . All of those are beautifully put together by a careful and small business, and then put through your door in fresh packets. Delivery is customisable, with weekly being the most frequent option available, and the coffee is specific to your favoured brewing technique.
Django Coffe Co
All of Django’s single-origin Arabica beans are hand-roasted in small batches and posted the same day, with roast dates printed on the packaging. The company works strictly with suppliers with a focus on sustainability, and who pay a fair price to farmers. Each delivery comes with colourful notes on origin and variety of the beans, the altitude they were produced at, how they were processed and flavour. Based in Southport in Merseyside and aiming to bring the Melbourne coffee scene to the UK, Django also offer a choice of subscriptions plans. The sign up process is easy and I love that they have an office subscription so that you can be sent 1kg bags. We tried the Burundi Mpanga with delicious notes of orange, black cherry and milk chocolate.
Has Bean Coffee
Has Bean Coffee offers a truly immersive experience, with online videos accompanying each roast, showing subscribers exactly where their beans have come from and introducing them to the farmers who have grown them. The company is based in Stafford, but it travels the world in search of the finest beans to bring home – the selection now includes coffee from at least nine countries across Africa and the Americas. A one-month subscription will get you four different 250g bags of coffee for £30 at once, or you can opt for a weekly subscription for £6.50 a pop. More adventurous coffee drinkers can also sign up for Steve’s Super Secret Stash subscription, which offers a year-long supply of exclusive coffees, curated by Has Bean’s founder Stephen Leighton, that coffee drinkers “won’t be able to get anywhere else” for a total of £75.
Now, admittedly this is likely to be overkill for the average person who just wants some decent coffee through their letterbox each month, but for a coffee addict I think it would make an awesome and unusual gift!
We hope we’ve helped you to narrow down your choices when it comes to choosing the right UK coffee subscription for you and we’re also super excited to be able to offer our readers the chance to win a Royal Doulton Coffee Studio 1.5Ltr Porcelain French Press Cafetiere.
This dipped-grey glazed porcelain cafetière has a capacity of 1560ml thus making it perfect for group get-togethers rather than lone coffee-drinking. It’s dishwasher and microwave safe. Being made of porcelain means that it keeps coffee warm for longer than the glass cafetières and it pours and filters beautifully. Perfect for testing out your new coffee subscription. If you fancy winning one of these amazing cafetièrs for yourself just enter via the rafflecopter below. Good luck!
