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- While 62% of Americans said they drank coffee daily in 2017, it seems fair to say a far smaller percentage knows much about the drink, including which flavor profiles they personally enjoy.
- Brooklyn-based startup Driftaway Coffee will send a "Tasting Kit" of four major flavor profiles for customers to taste and rate.
- Driftaway uses the results to create a flavor profile for you and will cater their next shipment to fit your taste buds, so you can enjoy trying new coffees you'll more than likely like.
While millions of us can agree that coffee is some sort of delicious, ordinary miracle, it can be difficult figuring out which flavors you actually enjoy, especially since there are few opportunities to get the insight of people who know enough about it to actually advise you in the process, or a streamlined test that will get you the results you care about without bogging it down with details that you don't.
So while about 83% of adults in the US drink coffee (as of 2013, the most recent available data point), there's still a separation between those who do it out of love and enjoyment for a gourmet drink and those who, like me, love the warmth and caffeine and are still relying on a healthy pour of 2% milk and a tablespoon of sugar to transform it into something standardized and drinkable. If you have the ability to identify your flavor profile, though, you can pick coffees that suit your taste buds and add something in addition to energy to your mornings.
If that sounds good to you, Brooklyn-based startup Driftaway Coffee wants to help. The company offers a subscription service meant to help you identify your flavor profile and then customizes what it sends you based on your results, so you can really enjoy your morning brew and learn about what you like, so you can shop and order better in real life.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up for the subscription service and they’ll have you start out with their Tasting Kit.
- Rate the Kit on the app or website.
- They’ll send new coffees matching your taste.
- Keep track of your favorite coffees.
Your first Tasting Kit will be made up of four 2-ounce bags of single origin, whole coffee beans from four flavor profiles: a bold roast, a classic roast, a balanced roast, and a fruity roast.
From there, simply taste your way through the kit to find which roast and flavor profile is your favorite. Future shipments will then be informed by your results so you’ll be getting coffee that’s catered specifically to you each time. However, you still get the final word on what you get; Driftaway will send an email with the contents of your upcoming box every Wednesday before they ship it out on Friday, so you can preview and alter the selections should you so choose.
You can also customize size (11-ounce or 16-ounce) and frequency of shipments (weekly, every 2 weeks, or monthly), as well as billing frequency (per shipment or every 6 months). Because of the ability to customize, the subscription price fluctuates from $16 to $22 per shipment. If you choose to pay every 6 months, those prices can drop to $13.71 and $18.86, respectively, saving you up to $88 over the pay period.
The coffees are all gourmet, single-origin selections that hail from coffee standard-bearers, such as Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and span multiple continents. They roast each week on Friday and ship beans within 12 hours, unless a different shipping date is specified. To prevent degradation of flavor and to give you the best home brew possible, they only sell whole-bean coffee.
While the tasting kits change from time to time, as their coffees do, you can always expect to get roasts from each of these flavor profiles. For instance, their current coffees are:
- Fruity – EYG | Yirgacheffe GEDEB
- Classic – CSF | Cafe Vida
- Balanced – ESV | El Derrumbo
- Bold – HNZ | Honduras Cerro Azul E/P
If you’re looking for decaf, though, you’re out of luck. But, if you already know what you like and would rather skip the experience of a tasting kit, you can order individual bags.
If a coffee service that will do all the legwork of catering to your taste buds for you sounds good, you might want to give Driftaway Coffee a chance — at the least, you’ll get some delicious, fresh coffee and some insight into how to order for yourself in the future.