Mistobox Review: A Respected Coffee Subscription, But Is It Worth It?

Mistobox is one of the original coffee subscription services. It was started back in 2012 as a school project, but picked up traffic quickly. The founders even got a deal with Mark Cuban on ABC’s Shark Tank. 

It’s the biggest coffee subscription service out there (as far as we know), but even after browsing the beautiful website, we were still left wondering: is Mistobox the best place to get specialty coffee, or is it just like all the other subscription services after all… just with a nicer website?

Let’s break down how Mistobox is different and find out.

How Mistobox’s Coffee Subscription Works

Mistobox doesn’t roast its own coffee. Instead, it partners with 50 different roasters around the country to provide a huge range of options—you have nearly 500 coffee options to pick from.

It’s overwhelming to look through them all (of course), so Mistobox has a quiz that helps narrow down options that’ll match your unique tastes, asking about your favorite roast levels, flavor profiles, blends vs single origins, espresso, and more.

Once the quiz is complete (takes about 3 minutes), you can access your dashboard and “Brew Queue”, a line of subscription shipments where you can insert and switch around coffees. And there are a few ways you can go about choosing coffees:

Bags of coffee beans are also sorted according to three tiers:

• Basic — $14-17 price range, featuring primarily well-rounded dark and medium roasts.
• Deluxe — $17-20 price range, featuring larger single-lot origins, espresso blends, and more nuanced medium roast coffees.
• Exclusive — $20-25 range, featuring micro-lots, special releases, exotic light roasts, and direct trade beans.

(Don’t forget about the $5 flat rate shipping fee.)

We Tried Three Mistobox Coffees… Here’s How It Went

We had three coffees shipped to us—one bag per month—to see if the Mistobox coffee subscription is everything is claims to be.

We chose two of the coffees and let Mistobox choose the third according to our quiz results. Here’s how it all went.

Ethiopia Beriti, Topeca Coffee Roasters

Coming from Topeca Coffee Roasters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this Ethiopia Beriti was natural processed, which means the beans dried inside the coffee fruit for a few days. This usually leads to an extra fruity flavor.

We brewed coffee in a pour over cone, in a french press, and even in a moka pot—we really wanted to give it a thorough review. And it delivered every time.

This medium-light roast coffee had a wild blueberry aroma that permeated every sip. It was unbelievable—the kind of flavor you can only get in the top 1% of coffees.

There was also a smooth chocolate flavor that acted as the base of the remaining flavor, which included a juicy sweetness and subtle tang. 

Simply put, this was the exotic-tasting coffee we were hoping for. It was rich, smooth, and that blueberry aroma was exciting and inspiring.

Organic Guatemala Concepcion, Kickapoo Coffee Roasters

We let Mistobox pick this coffee for us, according to our quiz results. And we weren’t disappointed.

Roasted in Viroqua, Wisconsin by Kickapoo Coffee Roasters, this bean was wash processed, meaning the beans were removed from the fruit and fermented in large tanks of water. It normally leads to a really clean, crisp flavor.

Upon each sip, we were instantly met with a mild lemonade flavor, a brown sugar sweetness, and gentle citrus tang.

It was balanced, pleasant—the kind of coffee that could make anyone smile. And despite the lemony notes, it didn’t taste anything like the lemony bitterness of old, stale beans. It was exceptional!

Burundi Karyenda, Intelligentsia Coffee

Chicago-based Intelligentsia is well-known for its exceptional (and more expensive) coffees, so we picked this one out for ourselves.

We loved the mild orange sweetness, which paired perfectly with the mild plum-like tang. The coffee was light-bodied, smooth, and had a subtle, sweet fruity aroma.

Overall, this one was more of a straight-shooter. Not too exotic, but still a wonderfully pleasant, balanced, and sweet coffee!

The Positives of Mistobox

It was very clear, just from the website, why Mistobox has become so popular. And once we got our coffees in over the course of three months, we were pulled into the hype.

The real key here is the variety. Offering hundreds of coffees, there’s no better place on the internet to see such a wide variety of beans.

The Negatives of Mistobox

Of course, Mistobox isn’t perfect. There are a few negatives worth mentioning.

These negatives, in our mind, are hardly negatives. They’re a bummer if you like french roast coffee, but if you’re after a high-quality, balanced flavor experience, that negative of not selling lower-grade beans turns into a positive.