I REVIEWED THE BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE CLUB THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED

The Blue Bottle Coffee subscription makes freshness a priority.

Freshness is everything with coffee. That’s why you buy whole beans, grind them moments before brewing, and use them within about a week, right?

These guys claim there is a window of optimum flavor – a best-of-the-best moment, like peak ripeness for fruits or vegetables – and they ship your coffee to arrive at the start of that peak flavor window.

Do you have similar priorities? Then check out my Blue Bottle coffee review to see if it’s the answer to your coffee prayers.

The Full Blue Bottle Coffee Subscription Review

Blue Bottle Coffee takes its name from The Blue Bottle in Vienna, central Europe’s first coffee house, founded in the late 17th century (1). Today, Blue Bottle focuses on freshness, flavor, and consistent quality.

Blue Bottle staff blind-taste each individual batch of coffee repeatedly to determine when it’s reached peak flavor and how long it stays there. Then they make sure you get to experience it at that ideal. This is a coffee geek’s subscription if ever there was one.

How I Rated It

• Coffee Selection
• Membership Options
• Unique Features
• Overall Experience
• Price

4.1

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Coffee Selection – 4/5

Blue Bottle has a small but diverse selection of coffee, all roasted in-house. There are usually about 30 coffees on offer, with changes happening monthly. Regularly rotating stock is the mark of a premium brand. Like any agricultural product, coffee goes in and out of season, and Blue Bottle strives to offer only the freshest options at any given time (2).

That said, this is a very different subscription experience compared to a coffee market place with hundreds of coffees from dozens of roasters. 

Despite the concise selection, this is a subscription service I’m confident can satisfy any coffee preference. There are blends, single origins, all roast levels, cold brew and espresso-specific options, and decafs. There is even a specialty-grade instant coffee.

You can subscribe to regular shipments of a particular coffee, but I think the assorted subscriptions are much more fun. I’m not alone in that opinion; they’re also the best sellers. You can choose assorted single-origins, blends, espresso beans, or cold brew beans. 

Membership Options – 3.5/5

Interestingly, Blue Bottle is one of few coffee clubs that doesn’t start with a quiz to help you find your perfect brew. You need to start with an idea of your preferences. This isn’t surprising when you consider their target customer. 

This is highlighted again by the fact that Blue Bottle doesn’t offer pre-ground coffee. If you’re willing to pay to have the best specialty beans delivered at peak freshness, you probably want to experience them freshly ground. I respect this commitment to coffee quality, but it’s unfortunate that those without the means for a good burr grinder are excluded. 

You can check out our review of Peet’s coffee if you’re looking for a reliable pre-ground subscription option.

Once you pick your subscription type (I went with the Single-Origin Assortment), you’re asked to choose coffee quantity and frequency. Coffee is only offered in 12-ounce bags, and you can receive one, two, or three at a time, with an increasing discount the more you order. 

I feel like encouraging you to buy more coffee at a time goes against their ethos of “fresh is best.” But the larger quantities make sense for big households – or heavy-duty coffee fans. Just avoid buying more than you’ll consume in two weeks. Frequency can be either every week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks.

You can change your preferences, pause, or cancel at any time with no added fees.

The first bag should arrive within 1 to 3 days of ordering, after which it continues on your chosen schedule. My order was roasted on a Monday and arrived on Wednesday, and that freshness was definitely noticeable in the aroma and flavor.

Unique Features – 4.5/5

Blue Bottle has two things going for it: the freshness of the coffee beans and the taste and sophistication of their roastmasters. 

With only 30 or so coffees to choose from, Blue Bottle can’t rely on sheer volume. They make it up with their knowledge and experience in sourcing and roasting.

Every Blue Bottle Coffee is specialty grade, including their single origins and any beans incorporated into one of their blends. To achieve specialty status, a coffee must score 80 on a 100-point scale. Blue Bottle doesn’t buy coffee with a score below 84.

Most of the coffees are certified organic – exceptions occur in emerging regions where organic standards aren’t well established – and all our traceable right to the producer. Blue Bottle develops long-term relationships with growers to ensure you get the best quality beans, and they pay above Fair Trade minimums to keep those relationships thriving.

Every coffee is roasted to order in small batches and shipped straight from the roaster to you.

What does all that mean for the consumer? It means incredible coffee, with flavors you’ll never encounter from a grocery store brand or a lower-end subscription. It also means ethical, sustainable coffee you can feel good about consuming. In my mind, those are things worth paying a little more for.

Overall Experience 4.5/5

While my experience with Blue Bottle Coffee was wonderful, I appreciate that it’s not the service for everyone – nor is it trying to be. It’s best suited to those who already know a lot about coffee. 

The Blue Bottle subscription isn’t really designed to help you find new preferences or save you money. It’s about exposing you to the best of the best, whether that’s rare single origins or expertly crafted blends. 

There aren’t a lot of membership options, but that’s okay because the best option is to just trust Blue Bottle’s experts.

Price 4/5

Blue Bottle Coffee doesn’t come cheap. You know that if you’ve ever visited one of their cafes (3). But this is a clear case of “you get what you pay for.” 

My single-origin assortment subscription cost $25 per shipment of 12 ounces of coffee. The blend assortment is a bit more affordable at $21 a bag. And as already mentioned, you can save up to 17% by ordering multiple bags.

In general, expect to pay between $20 and $30 per 12 ounces. Happily, shipping is free on all subscriptions!

You can find cheaper specialty coffee online or in stores. And if you’re happy drinking good or very good coffee, you definitely should. But if you’re a coffee nerd looking for exceptional coffee, Blue Bottle delivers. The quality is amazing, the selection is unique and exciting, and the beans always arrive at peak freshness.

Plus, the subscription comes with nice perks obviously designed to cater to serious coffee fans, like early access to limited edition coffees.

How To Choose The Right Coffee Subscription Service

Choosing the right coffee subscription service for your expectations is the key to satisfaction. To begin, consider these main points:

• Frequency. How much coffee do you drink in a week or a month? Are you planning for this coffee club to be your primary source of beans or a nice diversion from your regular brew? The only thing worse than wasting coffee is running dry before your next shipment!
• Coffee preferences. What roast levels and flavor profiles do you enjoy? Do you want to explore a wide range of coffee from exotic locations or stick with balanced blends? Do you know what exactly you want, or would you rather have a club that steers you toward new experiences?
• Overall cost. If you’re after high-quality specialty coffee, you know it’s going to run a bit more than bargain beans in a can. But you’re presumably still looking to stay within a budget of some kind. Make sure you know the overall cost – including shipping, frequency, and price per bag – so you don’t end up with unpleasant surprises on your monthly credit card statement.

Here you can compare Blue Bottle’s subscription to other services available in the US:

	Reviewed Subscription
Coffee Company	Blue Bottle	Bean Box	MistoBox	Volcanica	Driftaway	Trade	Atlas	Angel's Cup	Crema Coffee	Craft Coffee
Subscription style	Roaster	Coffee marketplace	Coffee marketplace	Roaster	Roaster	Coffee marketplace	Roaster	Coffee marketplace	Coffee marketplace	Roaster
Coffee options	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Instant, Cold Brew, Decaf	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Decaf	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Decaf	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Decaf	Single Origin, Cold Brew Blend, Decaf	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Decaf	Single Origin	Blend, Single Origin	Blend, Single Origin, Espresso, Decaf	Blends, Single Origin
Roast options	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Light-Medium, Medium, Medium-Dark, Dark	Light, Light-Medium, Medium, Medium-Dark, Dark	Light/Medium, Medium/Dark	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Medium, Dark	Light, Medium, Dark
Curated	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Coffee quantity options	12, 24, 26 oz	12 oz, 24 oz	12 oz	16 oz, 3 lb, 5 lb	8, 12, 16 oz, 2 lb, 5 lb	11 oz, 32 oz	6, 12, 24 oz	12 oz	7 oz - 5 lb, depending on coffee	one to six 12-oz bags
Delivery frequency options	Every week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks	Every week, 2 weeks, or monthly	Every week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks	Weekly or monthly	Every week, 2 weeks, or 4 weeks	Every week, 10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, or 6 weeks	Every 2 weeks or 4 weeks	Every week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, or 4 weeks	Every 3 days, 5 days, week, 10 days, 2 weeks, month	Every week, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 weeks
Number of coffees	30ish, rotates twice monthly	100+	600+	150+	10, rotates monthly	450+	1, rotates monthly	Hundreds	1000+	11
Special features	Early access to new releases	5% back in credits, special member gifts	Coffee curator, two membership tiers		Guided tastings, sustainability	Two membership tiers	Information postcards, microlot coffees	Blind tasting kits	Workplace subscriptions	Super inexpensive
Pre-ground available?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Only for espresso	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pods available?	No	No	No	No	No	No	K-cups and Nespresso capsules	No	No	No
Prices start at	$21	$20	$12.71	10% off regular price	$14.40	$15.75	$9	$16.99	$20	$7.99
US shipping fees	Free	Free to US	flat $5	flat $6.95 or free over $60	Free to US	$1.95 for one bag. Free if you sign up for 3+ bags.	Varies by location	flat $5 to US, $20 to Canada	Free	Free to US
Ships to	US only	US and Canada	US only	Worldwide	Worldwide	US only	US and Canada	US and Canada	US only	US only
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Blue Bottle Isn’t For You? Check Out These Other Options

There’s a lot to like about Blue Bottle, but if it isn’t quite for you, here are three subscriptions that consistently rate the highest among our readers and staff. Or you can find more info about different coffee subscription clubs here.

• The Atlas Coffee subscription – Our current top pick for best coffee subscription. Atlas combines exceptional single-origin coffee from around the world with insights into the land, people, and culture that produce it. It’s as educational as it is delicious. Read our full review of Atlas Coffee Club here.
• The Angels’ Cup subscription – One for the adventurous coffee drinkers among us. They ship you blind tastings of several varieties of coffee. After brewing and tasting, you use their cool app to rate the coffees and interact with other members of the Angels’ Cup coffee community. Read our full review of Angels’ Cup here.
• Driftaway coffee – Driftaway is well known for coffee quality and sustainability. They source exclusively single-origin coffee, which they roast in-house just hours before shipping it to your door. In terms of sustainability, they stand head and shoulders above the rest. Read more about Driftaway coffee here.

The Verdict

Blue Bottle’s commitment to quality and consistency is second to none. It’s one of the more expensive coffee subscriptions, but any serious coffee enthusiast will get their money’s worth. You’ll have access to a rotating cast of super-high-end specialty beans, roasted to perfection and delivered at peak freshness.

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