Travel the world of coffee without leaving your home
Certainty and surprise. Too much of one can be boring, the other nerve-wracking. But the right mixture can lead to a very pleasant experience, like being certain that you will have a pleasant surprise. These kinds of things are rare, but that’s the exact mentality we’ve tried to bring into our single origin "Roaster’s Choice" coffee subscription program.
Is it right for you? We’ll answer that with a little riddle: What do Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Ethiopia have in common? Read on to find out, and see how our current customers have already had a personal tour of the coffee world!
Here, we'll cover:
- What Roaster’s Choice means
- How the coffee selection is determined
- Coffees that have been selected in the past
- If Roaster's Choice is right for you
What is a Roaster’s Choice Subscription?
We put a lot of time and passion into sourcing for our single origin specialty coffee program (single origin is any coffee that solely comes from one farm, cooperative, or producer). Each year, we get thousands of samples from around the world, then get to roasting, cupping, and scoring them as we whittle down the ones that “wow” us and have a great story to match its taste. When sourcing and selecting, we try to design our lineup so there’s a nice balance of origins, tastes, and prices. But, due to coffee harvest schedules and limited availability, the coffees that we offer come and go through the year.
Our Roaster’s Choice subscription, then, is simply a monthly selection of our current single origin lineup. Each month, subscribers receive one of the coffees that we think is tasting great and meet a few criteria. So it’s 12 different coffees a year, sent on their schedule.
How is the selection determined?
When we decide what coffee to make Roaster’s Choice for the month, we consider:
- What coffee origins have our subscribers received recently?
- We want subscribers to experience different coffee origins from around the world
- What is freshest?
- We want our subscribers (and all of our customers) to have coffee that is fresh and is tasting its best
- What kind of flavors have our recent coffees had?
- We want subscribers to have a good mix of actual tastes along with origins. For example, Brazilian coffees are generally known for a nice nuttiness, while Ethiopian coffees range from fruity to floral to chocolatey. Getting this back to back provides an excellent change of pace.
The coffee that you receive is a bit of a surprise (this page is kept updated as soon as the coffees switch), but it’s mixed in with the certainty of knowing that your subscription is:
- carefully curated
- a mixture of the best coffees in the world, and
- comes to your door on your schedule without you having to do a thing!
As an added bonus, the Roaster’s Choice program is $16.49 a month, which is almost always cheaper than the bag that you receive.
Different coffees from around the world
WHAT COFFEES GET SELECTED FOR ROASTER'S CHOICE?
Let’s take a look at the coffees we’ve launched since early 2020 to see how this plays out:
| May 2020 | Ethiopia Ardi Natural |
| June 2020 | FTO Rwanda Sholi |
| July 2020 | Ethiopia Nano Genji |
| August 2020 | Guatemala Carlos Rivas |
| September 2020 | Nicaragua Roger and Isabel Meirana Natural |
| October 2020 | El Salvador La Esperanza Orange Bourbon |
| November 2020 | Ethiopia Naga Singage |
| December 2020 | 'Tis the Season |
| January 2021 | Kenya Kagwanja / Congo Muungano Natural |
| February 2021 | Congo Muungano Natural / Congo Muungano Washed |
| March 2021 | FTO Rwanda Sholi Washed |
| April 2021 | Brazil Ariovaldo Bonfim |
| May 2021 | Tanzania Masangula |
| June 2021 | FTO Peru Percy Rojas Torres |
| July 2021 | Ethiopia Nano Genji |
| August 2021 | Ethiopia Worka Sakaro Anaerobic Natural |
| September 2021 | Guatemala San Ramon |
Looking at October 2020 through January 2021 more closely, we went from a delightfully smooth and fruit El Salvadorian coffee (Central America) to a floral and citrusy washed Ethiopian (African), to our ever-popular seasonal blend of Ethiopia and Sumatra (Africa / Indonesia) and finished with a two-fer month of some punchy, sweet African coffees.
Thus, through the year, subscribers essentially travel the coffee world.
IS ROASTER'S CHOICE RIGHT FOR YOU?
To recap:
- Roaster’s Choice is carefully curated and changes monthly
- Roaster’s Choice comes at a discount versus normal retail price
- Roaster’s Choice is a great way to get a better understanding of the world of coffee and to keep things fresh in your coffee life
So, the Roaster’s Choice recurring (i.e. pay as you go) subscription can be a perfect way to keep your coffee fresh and your coffee life from going stale. It also makes the perfect gift to the coffee lover in your life! Mixed in with some of the tips and tricks from our previous blog, you can set yourself up with Roaster’s Choice in a variety of ways.
For instance, you could set a subscription for 700 every 2 weeks, then interchange with Roaster’s Choice so you can have a stellar, consistent blend followed up with an always new single origin (week 1 700, week 3 Roaster's Choice, and so on).
Choosing Roaster’s Choice
Humility is a core value at Kaldi’s, but we are pretty proud of our Roaster’s Choice program. It's a fantastic representation of the passion and thoughtfulness that we put into our coffee sourcing. Many customers have found that it’s the right fit for them, and we think it has a place in every coffee lover’s life. And when paired with our set-it-and-forget-it subscription model, tasting the world of coffee is easier than ever.
Read Next:
MAKING A COFFEE SUBSCRIPTION WORK FOR YOU
Related content:
-
Much More Than a Blend: 700 | Kaldi's Coffee Blog
-
Choosing Your Next Single Origin Coffee | Kaldi's Coffee Blog
-
Coffee Processing & Your Cup | Kaldi's Coffee Blog