When the opportunity to write an Atlas Coffee Club review came up, I knew I had to jump on it. To say that coffee and I go way back would be an understatement. I first discovered coffee when I was in middle school and a classmate brought a Frappuccino into the cafeteria—I was hooked. I would beg my mom to pick up the creamy, caffeinated drink from the local grocery store each week when she went food shopping. Yes, I was a 12-year-old who loved a cup of joe. In high school, I graduated to Dunkaccinos, Coffee Coolattas (RIP), and White Chocolate Mochas, which I drank at all times of the day. Even when I took breaks from coffee—for instance, there was a time when I replaced it with ginger shots—I always found my way right back to it.
Although coffee and I have had a relationship that’s lasted for the better half of my life, I’m a coffee lover who, surprisingly, doesn’t have a go-to coffee brand or drink preference. In fact, my approach to coffee is one that I consider pretty unique: I often ping-pong between picking up mobile to-go orders from Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, cycling through iced lattes, iced coffees, or whatever trendy drink my best friend is raving about at the moment. Right now, I’m going through an iced decaf latte with French vanilla phase. I’m not someone who feels like they need coffee to function in the morning, so I often enjoy a cup sometime between late morning and the afternoon. When I’m not ordering coffee out, I like to make it at home with my pour-over coffee set.
Coffee, for me, is more about the taste and experience, which is why I wanted to give an Atlas Coffee Club subscription a try. I’ve come across this service, which was also named one of our best coffee subscriptions, a few times and it has always piqued my interest. Exciting and fresh coffee delivered straight to your door? Sign me up! Not to mention it is more cost-effective—ordering coffee out all the time can get pretty expensive. This Atlas Coffee Club review breaks down everything you need to know about the subscription service.
What is Atlas Coffee Club?
Atlas Coffee Club is a curated monthly coffee subscription that sources international coffee from all over the world. Some of its past selections have included chocolatey brews from Costa Rica, beans from Colombia that have hints of toasted marshmallow, and a blend from Ethiopia with notes of raspberry and blueberry. After signing up you can expect to receive an exciting coffee haul right at your doorstep monthly, or on the schedule that best works for you.
How Does Atlas Coffee Club’s Subscription Service Work?
Atlas Coffee Club offers personalized coffee subscriptions through which you can opt to get a half bag, full bag, or two bags every two weeks or monthly. After you set up your account, you can also schedule deliveries on a more tailored basis, either weekly or up to every ten weeks. Standard shipping timelines are three to six business days if you’re located in the U.S., and 5 to 12 business days if you’re in Canada.
What Types of Coffee Does Atlas Provide?
Be prepared to try delicious coffee from all different parts of the world with an Atlas Coffee Club subscription. The Austin-based company sources premium single-origin coffee from places such as India, Indonesia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, and more. Atlas pays well above the market price for these beans, which in turn helps local farmers and their communities along the way. All of its coffee beans are fair-trade, and sustainability is kept at the forefront—the company works with farmers to help develop and support sustainable practices.
Order and Delivery Process
I found the ordering process through Atlas Coffee to be pretty seamless. To order all I had to do was click “Get Started,” which brought me to a screen asking me whether I was interested in the “Coffee of the Month Club” or if I would like to browse past coffee selections. After clicking on the monthly subscription option, I was brought to a page that listed a series of simple coffee-related questions. Here I could decide things such as how many bags I’d like, how often I’d like them, my roast preference, and whether I want whole beans or ground. There was also a decaf option for those who prefer less of a buzz. I decided on two bags of ground coffee in all roast types to be delivered every month. Once that was all in, I then proceeded to “Checkout,” and voilà! My coffee journey began.
A few days later a small white box arrived in my building’s package room. Inside were two bags of carefully curated medium roast coffee from Tanzania, a postcard from the country of origin, tasting notes, and brewing tips. On my account, I saw a note that the coffee had traveled over 9,000 miles to get to me, which I found fascinating. I felt the included background info was a nice personal touch that definitely added to the buying—and tasting—experience.
Ease of Use
I’m someone who freezes up when faced with having to make a decision, no matter how small it may be, so having the coffee ordering process streamlined made me feel a lot less overwhelmed. I was also impressed by how easy it is to skip a month or deactivate the subscription if need be. I don’t know about you, but auto-renewal subscriptions that are tricky to cancel or pause make me a little nervous (this is coming from the girl who still gets charged monthly by Planet Fitness even though she hasn’t walked into one in years). Thankfully, Atlas Coffee Club makes both cancellation and skipping shipments very easy. To cancel, all you have to do is log in to your account, click “Coffee Membership Settings” and tap “Stop Subscription.” If you’d like to skip a delivery, just go to your account portal and choose “Skip Your Next Coffee Shipment.”
Quality of Coffee
For this review, the pre-selected coffee that was sent to me was from Mbozi, which is a sub-region of Tanzania that has been cultivating coffee since the 1600s. From the moment I opened the coffee bag I was impressed—it smelled so good! I even interrupted my boyfriend during a work call to make him stick his nose in the bag and get a whiff too. It was so aromatic and enticing that I whipped out my pour-over coffee maker at 6 p.m. and started making a cup. What I noticed also was that there was no aftertaste—just a nice, smooth flavor with notes of rich black tea and tart cherry. Each batch of coffee is roasted to order just hours, or even minutes, before it gets shipped out, so it’s really no surprise as to why it tasted so good!
Affordability
I’m not too proud to admit that I often spend (drumroll, please) up to $7 on just one cup of coffee per day. This doesn’t include all the random stuff I also end up throwing into my cart before checking out. Atlas Coffee Club, on the other much more affordable hand, offers three different price tiers that definitely won’t break the bank: A half bag (6 oz.) subscription comes to $9 per shipment, a full bag (12 oz.) will run you $14, and two bags costs $28. They were also running a discount on the site when I ordered, so each price was discounted at 50% off. Shipping costs are separate, so you should budget for that separately.