Atlas Coffee Club Review: Is This The Right Subscription For You?

If you’re a fan of high-end artisan coffee, you may have found that there’s one thing missing from this abundance of quality grown beans: the novelty factor.

That’s why we decided to do the Atlas Coffee Club review. Atlas have mastered the art of bringing a continually novel element to your routine morning cuppa. No joke! A subscription from Atlas feels a lot like mixing the excitement of a pen pal with the absolute best beverage in the world.

They landed a place in our best coffee subscription roundup, but lets break them down to see if they are good choice for you.

The Atlas Coffee Club Subscription ‘In a Nutshell’

The Atlas Coffee Club is a unique coffee subscription service that specializes in providing a different micro-lot artisan coffee to its members each month (1). Their subscription comes with information on how to brew, flavour profiles, and even a postcard from the region of interest. You get more than just coffee: you get a coffee tour of the world’s most exciting plantations.

See our video review of Atlas, or continue reading to get to the nitty gritty:

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Their flexible preferences also allow you to control the roast, grind, and quantity of coffee flowing to your door on a regular basis from all over the globe. All in all, we rated them our best coffee subscription for these reasons + more.

How To Choose The Right Coffee Subscription

Before signing up to a subscription, make sure you’re clear on what you want, and what you don’t want. We don’t want you to dive into a decision that will leave you with buyer’s remorse. So:

If you look at all the coffee subscriptions in detail like we have, something will become clear: they are each good at something in particular. Some offer a ridiculous amount of coffees to choose from; other don’t give you a choice – you just get something new each shipment.

In our review below we’ve looked at Atlas from a few different angles. We’ll tell you this: The Atlas coffee club gives you an educational experience of coffees from all over the world. If you like the idea of tasting coffees from micro-lots from all corners of the globe while learning what makes them unique… keep reading.

The Full Atlas Coffee Club Subscription Review

Atlas Coffee Club know their business. For starters, they take the time to painstakingly curate micro-lots of coffee from some of the best coffee-growing regions around the world.

Of course, travelling around sampling coffee is a pretty nice gig, if you ask us. But there’s no doubt they put in the work with this one! They even continue to monitor and refine their roast profiles over time. It’s not just a set-it-and-forget-it kind of operation.

In other words, with Atlas Coffee Club, the product itself is solid. And on top of a good product, they also deliver an incredible experience, one that brings fresh excitement and vigour to your coffee-brewing adventures.

What’s more, Atlas isn’t an unknown company. They’ve been touted as an excellent subscription option by the likes of Forbes (2), USA Today (​​3), and multiple other bigwigs.

What does this mean for us? That even the hypercritical professionals have tried this stuff and decided it checks out. There’s nothing quite like the endorsement of a hotshot to reinforce that you’re getting something worth its weight in gold.

Atlas Coffee Subscription

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

4.4

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Coffee Selection: 4/5

What differentiates Atlas from other coffee subscriptions is that their coffee is always changing, not just in terms of flavour and roast profile, but specifically regarding the country or growing region that the beans are sourced from.

This is because they deliver a global experience with their subscription, something that gives you the feeling of a world traveller trying coffee at each “stop,” whether it’s in Kenya, Indonesia, Colombia, or any other coffee growing area. Each month they make sure to offer a uniquely different coffee that is meant to continually surprise and delight their club members.

They even have a rewards program, much like a frequent flyer program, that earns you extra goodies like store credit or free shipping as you travel the world with them.

They send you high-quality, unique coffee from micro lots all over the world; but if you want a bigger selection you’ll have to look Trade or Mistobox, each of which offers  400+ coffees to choose from. This is where Atlas loses a point.

Therefore, Atlas is a great choice for the coffee explorer who’s on a mission to try new beans, and excited to do so. If you have a strong sense of what you like (geographically or in a flavour profile), the customization isn’t very flexible. You get the beans they give you.

That’s how they put it on their site (4), and it’s true. Atlas does NOT take the process lightly.They’re committed to getting good coffee in an honest and upfront manner that puts ethics on an equal footing with quality.

While this approach can be a bit more expensive, it allows them to expect more professional, high-quality efforts from the farms that they work with, which in turn yields both better profits for the farmers as well as elite beans from their crops.

Overall Experience: 4.5/5

The ordering process couldn’t be simpler: sign up, pick the roast types you like from “light to medium” or “medium to dark” (or leave it up to Atlas to send you a variety of roasts). You can also choose between whole bean, pre-ground options or K-Cups. Then select the quantity (6, 12, or 24 ounces of coffee) and frequency (two or four weeks), give them your payment information, and wait for great coffee to show up.

Where they lose a point: some other subscription services have technology that lets you narrow down the beans that have the specific flavour and aroma characteristics you’re looking for. With Atlas, you’re essentially paying for their considerable expertise in delivering you a curated coffee experience from around the world (that’s why they’re called Atlas… get it?)

But once your shipment arrives, the fun begins. Atlas is strong on the experience front, and this is obvious as soon as you open a box up. You get a bag of beans (designed in local, cultural art), a postcard about the growing region, and tips on how to best brew and enjoy your beans. It’s all about the journey.

Membership Options: 4.5/5

Because you can choose anything from a “half bag” (6 oz of beans) up to four “full-size” (12 oz) bags, delivered every 2 or 4 weeks, quantity is entirely under your control. There’s no excuse for finding yourself facing the unspeakable horror of running out of coffee.

That 6-oz. half bag, for example, brews up a touch over 3 litres of coffee at the SCAA “golden ratio,” which for reference is just about three pots in a Chemex or five pots in the Hario V60. If you go through as much coffee as I do, that’s only three mornings, so plan ahead. Few things fill me with more sadness than finding the coffee beans have run out by Thursday.

And as a final note for this subject: the coffee changes every month, which means that if you order every two weeks, you’ll get two shipments of the same coffee. (But it will be fresher than if you keep twice as much for twice as long.)

Unique Features: 5/5

As mentioned above, their packaging highlights the unique character of Atlas. Package designs reflect traditional textiles and landscapes (5). Each shipment from Atlas doesn’t just come with good coffee – it’s also a full-blown “travel package” loaded with tasting notes on the specific micro-lot, tips on how to brew the beans, and even a nice postcard from the coffee’s “home region” to boot!

If you have a favourite coffee (and there’s nothing wrong with knowing what you like), there are lots of places where you can order regular subscriptions of that and know what you’re getting each time. But the Atlas club is like having a new adventure every month to a different coffee growing region, learning about the people who live there and the beautiful beans they grow for us to enjoy.

Price: 4/5

One factor that you’re going to want to keep in mind is that Atlas Coffee Club shipping is not free. We found it to typically be only a few dollars within the United States, but expect shipping to Canada to be aaround US$6 more. This explains the point they lose for price.

But in saying that, they very often offer promotions which include shipping, so clicking through to see if shipping is free is a wise choice.

Even without considering the added shipping cost, however, the price reflects the quality of the beans and the research, travel, and expertise that goes into finding and delivering them. Which is to say it’s pricier than buying bulk beans from the grocery store.

But how much more pricey? It’s still a bargain for gourmet beans, in my opinion. You can opt. for a half bag for $9, a full bag for $14, or a double bag for $28.

At the time of writing they are offering 2 generous offers for HomeGrounds.co readers: 50% off (ideal for larger orders) or $10 off (ideal for smaller orders, i.e. half a bag or a full bag) That’s hard to beat:

If you’re ordering 1/2 bag or 1 bag:

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If you’re ordering more than 1 bag:

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On the other hand, after a few shipments of truly fresh, exotically-sourced beans from Atlas, go ahead and buy a quarter-pound of something in the bulk aisle… we dare you. Once your taste is attuned to genuinely fresh coffee, there’s no turning back.

The Atlas Subscription Isn’t For You?

Of course, for all of the great benefits, even an Atlas subscription isn’t perfect for everyone. If you count on getting beans with the same flavour profile every single time, you’re going to want to reconsider this one, as you won’t have that level of control over the kind of beans you’re getting each month.

If you’re looking to choose your own options you might want to consider another subscription, which leads us to…

Driftaway Coffee – Your first shipment from Driftaway will be a tasting kit, which will help you (and the roaster) determine what kinds of coffees suit your palate. From here on in you’ll have curated deliveries that include the flavours you enjoy. You can also tweak your preferences after each coffee through their app.

Read our full Driftaway Coffee review here.

The Angels cup subscription – If you’re a mystery fan, Angels’ Cup has the subscription for you. Each month, you receive blind tastings of a number of artisan coffees. Then, the Angels’ Cup app lets you record your reactions to each bean. And after enjoying the surprise of each new shipment, you can participate with an active community of Angels’ Cup members and share tasting notes and coffee favourites.

Read our full review of Angels’ cup here.

THE VERDICT

Atlas Coffee Club is a subscription that appeals to the world traveler in all of us.

From a different, unique coffee each month to their commitment to expert roasting, to their efforts to make sure that they’re sourcing quality beans from responsible, sustainable farms, this company knows how to turn coffee into a simultaneously elite and novel experience that just keeps on giving.

If you’re interested in trying Atlas Coffee Club, or if you’ve tried it already, drop us a line in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!

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