Best Coffee Subscriptions in SA?

Gozado said:
Genuine question: why? What are the reasons to prefer a subscription over just shopping for and making your own choice of coffee(s) as you go along?
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In my case, there are a few reasons, one being that I dont have to do all the searching for all these places, I can leave it up to where I am signed up to do the searching for me. The other reason is cost...if I want to get a variety of coffees each month, then I can buy from lots of shops, but I will have to pay shipping on each of them, so getting a variety bundled saves in terms of shipping costs. The other reason is convince, I get coffee delivered on a scheduled bases without me having to go to each store every time I want to get beans....they just arrive.

Thats the way I see it and why I am looking for subscription service.

After doing a bit of calculations, 250g bags in my house will last about 3 to 4 days, which is not long, so non of these subscription services will actually carry me through a month, so I will have to supplement with buying directly from some roasters as well...to tie me over.
 
Quite a few options but I decided to look for roasters in my area.

I am the only one at home drinking the good coffee and one cup a day as well. So I am rather going to drive to the 4/5 roasters around me and collect than pay R80 per pop for a bag every 2 weeks.
 
Vetseun said:
I'm likely going to give these guys a whirl for a couple of months

www.bluebirdcoffeeroastery.co.za

Coffee Subscription | Fresh Coffee Every Month | SA and beyond

Join our curated coffee subscription and access incredible value with a deep selection of specialty coffee. Pause, upgrade or cancel anytime.
www.bluebirdcoffeeroastery.co.za www.bluebirdcoffeeroastery.co.za
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THey big on branding and advertising. Have only had their coffee at The Barn Owl in midlands. No idea what the quality or source of the beans are.
 
Snyper564 said:
Quite a few options but I decided to look for roasters in my area.

I am the only one at home drinking the good coffee and one cup a day as well. So I am rather going to drive to the 4/5 roasters around me and collect than pay R80 per pop for a bag every 2 weeks.
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Can recommend Heavenly Coffees in Hennopspark and the box deal from Pierre Lotti is great value with free delivery, both roast fantastic coffee.
 
RedViking said:
THey big on branding and advertising. Have only had their coffee at The Barn Owl in midlands. No idea what the quality or source of the beans are.
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I did a bit of digging - they won coffee mag's best new roaster in 2019 - so been around for a bit it seems. They also seem to provide a lot of information about the coffee provided and have have a pretty broad range... so gonna give it a test and see.
 
Vetseun said:
I did a bit of digging - they won coffee mag's best new roaster in 2019 - so been around for a bit it seems. They also seem to provide a lot of information about the coffee provided and have have a pretty broad range... so gonna give it a test and see.
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They have been around for a little while yes. I really think it is worth the try. But I know branding and advertising cost money, and they go big on it. So you pay for that as well.
 
Personally I don't like the Quaffee packaging.

Edit: See a different opinion on the bags here:
www.quaffee.com

About our coffee packaging

In the coffee industry, there are many standards that have just been blindly accepted. However, at Quaffee, we believe in experimenting and thinking outside the box. When it came to packaging our f…
www.quaffee.com www.quaffee.com
 
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I use Culinary Table in Lanseria, they have a deli with a range of single-origin coffee beans in 250g to 1kg bags, plus they roast their coffee beans on their premises - so you get them fresh!!
 
So I decided to give Discover Great Coffee Club a try, and boy do I regret it now! I ordered yesterday and got it today, so shipping was super fast, but opened the box to find that all the coffees were roasted in March, with the one bag saying best before 21 June 2021 (Lat week Monday). This is appalling! All the beans are just over 3 months old! Wont be buying anything from them or coffee magazine again.
 
zs-kev said:
So I decided to give Discover Great Coffee Club a try, and boy do I regret it now! I ordered yesterday and got it today, so shipping was super fast, but opened the box to find that all the coffees were roasted in March, with the one bag saying best before 21 June 2021 (Lat week Monday). This is appalling! All the beans are just over 3 months old! Wont be buying anything from them or coffee magazine again.
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call and complain thats unacceptable
 
zs-kev said:
So I decided to give Discover Great Coffee Club a try, and boy do I regret it now! I ordered yesterday and got it today, so shipping was super fast, but opened the box to find that all the coffees were roasted in March, with the one bag saying best before 21 June 2021 (Lat week Monday). This is appalling! All the beans are just over 3 months old! Wont be buying anything from them or coffee magazine again.
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Exactly the same happened to me. And only 1 of the six bags was near drinkable...
I emailed to complain and their response was basically "we put all the coffee in the deep-freeze, so it it's still fresh, here's the link to an article"
What a waste of money
 
I dont get why anyone would want a subscription service, the coffee you get is never going to be as fresh as picking it up from your local roaster.
Get to know your local and only buy as much as you will use within a 15-20 day period.
 
RedViking said:
My biggest gripe with Quaffee is their horrible packaging. So the coffee deteriorate within a couple of weeks only. They just chuck their beans in a "ziplock" bag, place it in a carton box and send it off to you.
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Yes, I decant the beans into 2 x 1 litre jars
 
Got a response, and it seems a copy paste as @wonduhboy claims he got the same, here it is:

Hi Kevin!

Sorry you’re disappointed and thanks for getting in touch, we’re always open to feedback.

We order the coffees at one time for logistical and cost purposes, then we follow our own(and international coffee professionals) advice (Freezing Coffee https://www.coffeemagazine.co.za/blog/1/5858/frozen-in-time-putting-an-end-to-stale-coffee) and keep the groups of 6 coffees in vacuum sealed bags in the deep freeze to retain freshness until a once off order is placed (most are annual subs that get sent off straight away). When our new drop is about to arrive we generally have a sale to clear the freezer of the previous drop. We will include this info if we have Sales in future to avoid this confusion.

We opened the Roasters Mug yesterday in our office and it made a great cappuccino. We would encourage you to try the coffees, as conventional wisdom around freshness is always evolving and while we will always encourage people to buy fresh from their local roasters, we also encourage people to be open minded; I once brewed a very poorly stored year old coffee and it was still one of the tastiest coffees I’ve ever had! I was so pleasantly surprised.

Have a great day!
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Wont ever buy from them again.
 
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