Tasteology

What's in the box: A monthly selection of specialty coffee from Portuguese roasters, chosen to cover different origins and processing methods.

Tasteology is best known in Portugal as the team behind Lisbon Coffee Week and Porto Coffee Week, and its coffee subscription comes out of that network. Each month it picks specialty coffee from roasters around Portugal. The goal is to introduce you to new roasteries and give you a range of origins and processing methods. The main appeal is that someone else does the searching. You get to explore the Portuguese specialty scene without tracking down each roaster yourself. Plans start from 37.25€ per month. The site says you can customise, pause or cancel whenever you like, but that promise has an asterisk, so read the terms before you sign up. The main page does not say how many coffees arrive each month, what size the bags are, what grind options exist or what shipping costs. That makes it hard to compare value against buying straight from a roaster. The subscription is also just one part of a busy business that runs catering, team building workshops, consultancy and an online shop, so this is not a company focused only on subscriptions. Still, its festival connections suggest real access to the country's roasters. It suits people who already brew specialty coffee at home and care more about variety and discovery than about one favourite bean.