There are so many different types of coffee out there, and it can be hard to know what you like until you try it. If you’re looking for a coffee subscription service, this can be especially hard because of all the different options.
So, what if there was a way to try different types of beans without having any preconceptions determining what you do and don’t like when it comes to coffee?
With Driftaway Coffee’s subscription, you can do just that!
Driftaway Coffee: Company History/Overview
The Driftaway Coffee company was started in 2014 by Anu Menon and Suyog Mody, who desired to create something that they were passionate about. They wanted to be proud of the work they were doing, so they made sure every detail was perfect, from the design of their website and coffee packaging to roasting the beans themselves.
While Anu and Suyog are marketing professionals from their past experiences, they also have a strong passion for great coffee and learned everything they needed to know as they got ready to start Driftaway Coffee. They’re constantly building new things within the company as their passion for this business never ceases.
Driftaway Coffee Subscription Review
Personalized, farmer-focused & eco-friendly subscriptions, with a unique tasting experience!
- Different subscription options
- Choice of Explorer Box for first delivery
- Flexible subscription
- Sustainable roasting
- No savings on pay-per-shipment
- No free shipping
This subscription box was a bit different from others I’d tried because it contained Driftaway Coffee’s Explorer Box.
Essentially, this is a tasting box that lets you try five fresh-roasted, single-origin coffees from around the world. Upon first tasting them, you don’t know any of the tasting notes, profiles, or origins. This lets you genuinely find what you like when it comes to coffee without any preconceptions.
Also included in the box, aside from the five sample bags of beans, is a grind sample so that you can adjust your grinder to the correct size. If you don’t have a grinder, you can choose to get pre-ground coffee samples sent to you instead.
There’s also a flavor wheel to help you along as you taste the different coffees and fill out your coffee-tasting form.
When you taste these coffees you can either join a Zoom meeting with Driftaway or follow along on their self-guided tasting available on their website.
After you’ve performed the tasting and filled out your form, you can then open the provided envelope to reveal what each bag contains as far as origin, tasting notes, and coffee profile.
For my tasting experience, I decided to follow the self-guided tasting, which can be found under the Explorer Box Tastings tab on Driftaway’s website. This was a really helpful guide with neat little tips included on every step and made the tasting very easy.
Step One
The five coffees were color-coordinated so it was easy to remember which one was which. I set up my five glasses in front of their corresponding bags and got to grinding each coffee according to the sample grounds. I also started heating a pot of water for the brewing process and put two tablespoons of each coffee into separate mugs.
Step Two
After every coffee was prepped, I then followed Driftaway’s instructions to get a good sniff for the fragrance of each one.
Using the provided flavor wheel really helped to guide me in the direction of what each coffee might be and write down my ideas on the tasting form.
For me, yellow seemed to be sweet and chocolatey, blue was sweet and spiced, red was fruity and toasty, green was sweet and toasty, and purple was spiced and smoky.
Step Three
Once my water reached boiling I poured 7 ounces of it into each cup of coffee grinds and set a timer for four minutes.
I also set up a separate cup of hot water with two spoons for after the coffee was done steeping. In the meantime, I smelt each coffee for its aroma and also took note of them on the tasting form.
Step Four
When the coffees were done steeping, I then took one of my spoons and broke the crust of each cup, also smelling for the aroma as I did so.
This was done in a careful motion, not really stirring the coffee but simply pushing the grinds that settled on top around. I used my separate cup of water to rinse my spoon between each cup of coffee and continued until each crust was broken.
Step Five
Next, I used both of my spoons to gently scoop off the foam that formed on the top of each cup of coffee. This helps to get an accurate tasting of each one.
I then let them cool for a bit before finally giving each one a careful taste. For me, I noticed that yellow had a sweet and slightly fruity taste, blue was sweetly spiced and nutty, red was really well-balanced with sweet fruit and nutty notes, green was sweet and toasted, and purple was very bold with smoked and chocolate flavors.
Step Six
Finally, I could open the envelope that held the secret identities of all these coffees! Inside there were five postcards, each with the colors of the sample coffee bags and all of their information.
Yellow
Yellow, or Rwanda Nyamagabe Ibisi Mountain, was a light roast coffee from Rwanda, Southern Nyamagabe.
These washed processed beans are grown at an altitude of 1,700 meters by farmer Bernard Uwitije in partnership with Rwanda Trading Company.
The tasting notes include yuzu, cantaloupe, and milk chocolate, and the coffee profile is labeled as “fruity.”
Blue
Blue, or Papua New Guinea Arokara Mile High A, was a medium roast coffee from Papua New Guinea, Eastern Highlands.
These washed processed beans are grown at an altitude of 1,600 meters by a cooperative of plantations known as the Arokara Co-op.
The tasting notes include gingerbread, molasses, and nutty, and the coffee profile is labeled as “classic.”
Red
Red, or Peru Cusco Yanatile, was a light-medium roast from Peru, Cusco.
These washed processed beans are grown at an altitude of 1,700-2,100 meters by the Valle Inca Cooperative in the Yanatile Valley.
The tasting notes include apricot, brown sugar, and cashew, and the coffee profile is labeled as “balanced.”
Green
Green, or Colombia Tolima Agua de Dios, was a medium-dark roast coffee from Colombia, Tolima, Agua de Dios.
These washed processed beans are grown at an altitude of 1,650 meters by producers from a group called CDNT in northern Tolima.
The tasting notes include vanilla, dulce de leche, and toasted, and the coffee profile is labeled as “bold.”
Purple
Purple, or Brazil Mineiro Ipe Amarelo, was a medium-dark roast from Brazil, Cerrado Mineiro.
These natural processed beans are grown at an altitude of 1,060 meters by multiple smallholder farmers in southeastern Minas Gerais.
The tasting notes include smoked spices, toasted almonds, and dark chocolate, and the coffee profile is labeled as “extra-bold.”
End Results
Overall, I noticed I wasn’t far off with most of these sample beans and it was a really fun project to try out.
I loved determining the fragrance, aroma, and taste of each cup of coffee, seeing how they differed, and learning the results.
If I had to pick one of these to be my favorite if I was continuing with this subscription, it would probably be the sample green: Colombia Tolima Agua de Dios. This was a bold but sweet cup that really stood out to me with all of its tasting notes.
Driftaway Coffee: Subscription Options
The great thing about Driftaway’s subscription options is that they vary greatly. You can choose to get a subscription for yourself, as a gift, or for an office.
You can then pick between whole bean, pre-ground coffee, blends designed for cold brew, or a decaf-only option.
To start your subscription, you can choose to get sent an Explorer Box, such as what was sent to me, and choose your coffee based on your tasting experience, or you can choose to skip it altogether.
Personalized, farmer-focused & eco-friendly subscriptions, with a unique tasting experience!
- Different subscription options
- Choice of Explorer Box for first delivery
- Flexible subscription
- Sustainable roasting
- No savings on pay-per-shipment
- No free shipping
Driftaway’s delivery frequencies occur between every week, every two weeks, or every four weeks if you choose to get bags of 8 ounces, 12 ounces, 1 pound, 2 pounds, or 5 pounds. If you want to only get Explorer Boxes, you can also do that every four weeks.
Driftaway Coffee will tell you that their most popular subscription is a 12-ounce bag every 2 weeks since it’s perfect for people who frequently make coffee at home with occasional exceptions.
Driftaway Coffee: Roasting
Because Driftaway Coffee is considered a Direct-to-Consumer company, they roast their coffee beans themselves in Brooklyn every week on Sunday and Wednesday and, in the process, cut down on waste and distribution emissions. They also roast 75% of their coffee on a Loring Kestrel S35 roaster, which is energy efficient and keeps emissions to a minimum.
This means that Driftaway Coffee’s roasting only contributes to 5.46% of its carbon footprint. An environmentally conscious coffee company that roasts its own beans? It doesn’t get better than that!
Driftaway Coffee: Pricing
Driftaway Coffee’s subscription pricing depends on two things: bag size and billing frequency. Essentially, the more in advance you pay for your coffee, the more you save.
If you choose to pay-per-shipment it will be the base price of every shipment, if you choose to prepay for future shipments every six months you save 5% on each shipment, and if you choose to prepay every 12 months you save 10% on each shipment.
So, at the time of writing, an 8-ounce bag of coffee would be $16 if you pay per shipment, $15.20 each if you pay every six months, and $14.40 each if you pay every 12 months. A 12-ounce bag shipment would be $19 each, $18.05 each for every six months, or $17.10 each for every 12 months.
These saving percentages also apply to the 1-pound, 2-pound, and 5-pound bags of coffee. If you just want to receive the Explorer Box every four weeks, you can pay $40 for each shipment, $38 each every six months, or $36 each every 12 months.
What Makes Driftaway Coffee Unique?
There are many things that make Driftaway Coffee a unique subscription service. From the variety of coffees that are always changing and allowing for new coffee discovery to their goal of remaining sustainable and minimizing their carbon footprint, Driftaway truly stands out among the crowd.
Most prominently, Driftaway set itself apart by offering its Explorer Box, which allows a subscriber to taste coffee without preconceptions to see what they truly like.
Suyog Mody says that the virtual tastings they offer for this kit were a “pandemic-era creation that’s allowed [them] direct deep engagement with customers that nobody else has.”
How To Cancel Driftaway Coffee
Most of everything regarding your subscription can be handled by going to your account page on Driftaway Coffee’s website. If you need to pause, change your delivery frequency, or skip a delivery, you do it all on your account and subscription page.
If you find yourself wanting to cancel your subscription with Driftaway Coffee, you can easily do that as well by going to your account page on their website, scrolling to the bottom, and choosing “cancel subscription.” You can also get a refund for prepaid subscriptions if you cancel them within the first 30 days of purchasing them.
Personalized, farmer-focused & eco-friendly subscriptions, with a unique tasting experience!
- Different subscription options
- Choice of Explorer Box for first delivery
- Flexible subscription
- Sustainable roasting
- No savings on pay-per-shipment
- No free shipping
Driftaway Coffee: Final Thoughts
Overall, Driftaway Coffee is a very unique and user-friendly coffee subscription service. I really appreciated being able to test out their Explorer Box, which is what they recommend to people just starting their subscription. It was a fun experience and it was great learning more about those coffees through the process.
Through this, Driftaway Coffee ensures you’re getting coffee that you actually like based on your taste preferences. You can constantly try new coffees and save by prepaying for shipments.
If you’re someone who wants to learn more about coffee and taste profiles, this is definitely the subscription for you!
Driftaway Coffee Subscription Review: Taste Exploration
We present our Driftaway Coffee subscription review of the Explorer Box and tell you everything you need to know about this sustainable company.
4.5
