*AD – the item in this review was gifted to our household for this post. All opinions, as always, are our own.
We’ve been trying out the Blue Coffee Box monthly subscription, a box which includes two large bags of ethically sourced, gourmet coffee as well as lots of well-thought-out extra information included.
I know a lot of people who are very particular about their coffee, be that how it’s made, where it’s from, what it’s served with or, of course, what it tastes like. I’d never really lump myself into the category of being a coffee enthusiast, but I do drink a lot of the stuff and we have recently acquired Vietnamese Coffee Makers/Phin Vietnamese Filter following a great experience out at a pho restaurant. I’ve tried a lot of coffee over the years, be that from vending machines, instant or coffee grounds, and had a decent variety of it too. With that in mind, I was very interested in what kind of flavours we could expect from a box like this.
Firstly, the box is brilliant. It’s a slim box which could probably be shoved through most letterboxes, the benefit of sealed things is that they take up less space, and the two 227g bags of coffee – in this case Colombian Cajibio and Tapantogusto RFA from El Salvador – fit inside with no problem. They’re fully sealed beyond a couple of pinholes for the coffee, and the bags not only include details of the blend (flavour notes, process, variety, altitude, producer and region) but also the initial roasting date and type of brewing that it’s prepared for. In our case that would be Cafetiere – although they can also come in Whole Bean, Dripper, Aeropress and Espresso. You’ll specify the form that it comes in when you start your subscription.
Due to the nature of how we received it, the box also included a gift card and a note from the sendee, which was nice to see. Alongside that, there were little cards which went into greater details on the brewers and coffee that’s included. I think this is a wonderful idea, and – to be honest – they almost feel like collectable baseball/football cards, and will surely persist even once you’ve drained your coffee supply dry. This is probably important for another reason too. Ahead of writing this up I did a little bit of research surrounding mailorder coffee and there’s a surprising amount of producers online – in fact there seems to be a big culture surrounding being able to directly purchase your coffee of choice. This is something I wasn’t aware of until I had a look around, I’ve seen coffee shops selling their own beans and grinds, and – of course – I’ve seen the fluctuating range of coffee from household brands while at the supermarket, but there’s actually quite a few providers out there who will deal with you face-to-face.
While this might sound like it works against the Blue Coffee Box, I think it’s quite the opposite. A box which gives you generously-sized samples of two products that you’ve not tried before is great – and from what I’ve seen they only work with excellent companies, reinforcing that. We’ve dipped into both bags now, and, frankly, there’s enough to get most people through the month if you’re also using the Phin Vietnamese Filter technique like us.
As for the flavours, although the contents might vary for you. Tapantogusto is a very subtle taste, and I actually adjusted (increased) how much coffee I was putting into each cup, eventually drinking it as a sweet-black rather than adding milk. There’s a slightly nutty taste to it, but all in all, I’m really surprised that there’s such a nice, subtle flavour to it which I’ve not had in coffee before. The other coffee was Cajibio, it’s noted as having Citrus, Caramel and Toffee notes, I didn’t quite pick up on most of this, although the caramel taste – like you often get in stouts – is definitely notable. It’s another one which I found to benefit from avoiding milk, as this tended to only leave a little bitter bite at the end of the cup.
While the Blue Coffee Box comes in quite high compared to some of the other subscriptions we have reviewed, it’s very reasonably priced considering the quantity of coffee that you get. Another major consideration is the value of an introduction to new types of coffee. I’d certainly revisit both of the coffees that were included in the box.
You can use the discount code JH3 for £3 off any product on their website!
I’ve tried a coffee subscription box before but it certainly wasn’t slim enough to fit through the letterbox, nor did it have any cute collectible cards – I think this is a great idea, and the coffees sound delicious as well!
Sounds like coffee subscriptions have improved since then! 😛