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The online coffee space is small—especially when it comes to shops where you can buy beans from multiple roasters—so when a newcomer pops up, like Trade Coffee, we get curious and excited. Naturally, we had to do an honest Trade Coffee review.
In this transparent review, we’ll cover things like…
- Whether the beans are as high-quality as they say
- If 400+ coffees just make it hard (and stressful) to choose
- Who will love Trade… and who probably won’t
Should Trade Coffee be your go-to for fresh coffee beans?
Let’s find out.
Here’s How Trade Coffee Works
There are a few ways you can buy coffee beans through Trade:
One-off bags of beans. You just scroll through their massive list of coffees, find one that sounds tasty, and order it. Easy enough,
Subscribe and save. You either take a quiz to find your coffee style for a new bean each month, or just select individual coffees to subscribe to.
Either way you go, your coffee is freshly roasted so you don’t end up with stale beans (like from the grocery store).
Trade seems to have every kind of coffee you could imagine. Modern dark blends, crisp light roasts, exotic fruity coffees. There’s something for everyone here.
And it makes sense… they have 50 roasting partners and 400 coffees! Which is why the quiz can be really helpful, especially if you’re not a connoisseur who can imagine the flavor just by looking at the bag.
We Tried Two Coffees From Trade… Here’s How It Went
Ordering a couple coffees from Trade was easy. The website had plenty of information to help us choose and there were a bunch of filters to help us narrow down the list.
Overall, the ordering experience was very smooth and user-friendly, despite the number of options.
We landed on two beans—both from Colombia—and started brewing.
Quills Gran Galope, Colombia
Our first pick was a safe choice: mild and delightful—not too exotic.
Quills Coffee’s Gran Galope is a medium-dark roast with a really balanced flavor profile.
It’s overwhelmingly smooth, with subtle notes of chocolate and almonds. The very mild acidity perfectly complements the honey sweetness that rounds out the aftertaste.
Newcomers to specialty coffee (the highest grade beans in the world) will love this one. It’s approachable and familiar, yet on a whole other level in terms of quality compared to typical grocery store beans.
But we also wanted to try something a bit more… quirky.
Verve Colombia Rio Blanco
California-based Verve is well-known for their stellar beans—many of which go beyond traditional flavor profiles and turn out really interesting.
Their Colombia Rio Blanco was no different. And even though it was grown in the same country as the Gran Galope, the two coffees tasted quite different.
The first flavor we noticed was like a classic shortbread cookie—you know, the kind in those colorful tins you see around the holidays. Next we noticed the rich, buttery mouthfeel.
From there the flavor evolved to warm nuts and a mild lime-like acidity that added a final hint of zing before the coffee went down.
The flavor had just the right balance of approachability and adventure.
The Positives Of Trade
Here are the big pros we took away:
The Negative Of Trade
Honestly, we can’t find a major negative of buying from Trade Coffee.
Sure, buying beans in-person can be a good way to meet baristas and support local businesses, but ordering coffee online is just so easy—and sometimes even cheaper!
The only (minor) drawback we see is the shipping. It’s not really amazing for the environment, but as long as you recycle the box, we wouldn’t worry too much about it.
The Verdict: Is The Trade Coffee Subscription Worth It?
Overwhelmingly, we loved our Trade Coffee experience. From signing up on the website to finishing our last sip of coffee, everything was smooth and delicious.
Both coffees tasted amazing, the online ordering process was thoughtful and user-friendly, and we couldn’t believe the number of beans they had to choose from.
We think Trade Coffee is especially great for people who are short on time or live far from a great coffee shop, but who still want to enjoy A+ coffee from the country’s best roasters.
They’re offering 30% off your first bag of coffee right now, so if you’d like to give Trade a spin yourself (and save quite a bit), now’s a great time!
Alternatives To Trade Coffee Worth Considering
Here are a couple of Trade’s rivals to consider as well:
Mistobox
Mistobox has been around for a few years and pretty much works the same: personalized coffee suggestions based on a quiz. They have different roasters than Trade, but fewer overall.
Angel’s Cup
If you want to learn to taste coffee like a pro really fast, Angel’s Cup may be a good fit. Their “Cupping Flight” sends you coffees to blind taste and record notes in their original app. Then you can compare your tasting notes to the roaster’s notes and see how close you were.
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Think Trade Coffee sounds right after all? We think you’ll like them. Get your 30% discount here!
