If you’re a big coffee lover, you might have explored avenues to get your coffee fresher, more high quality, or just purer. Depending on where you live, your options are either scarce or abundant.
Truth is, while some shops offer the purest of coffee blends, it’s really a hassle getting your weekly or daily fresh supply of coffee. But nowadays, there’s a more convenient and more modern solution – coffee subscriptions.
Companies like Pact Coffee and Trade Coffee not only offer pure and fresh blends, but they’re also subscriptions which means they’re very convenient. But which one out of the two is better? Is there even a clear answer to this question?
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Pact Coffee & Trade Coffee In A Nutshell
What Pact and Trade Coffee have managed to do is keep the whole coffee shopping thing pretty simple. If you’re not really interested in coffee but you want the purest of coffees, you know that choosing or shopping for coffee is overwhelming.
There are just so many things that you need to consider before choosing the right coffee. Anyways, the reason why both of these companies excel is because they have quizzes that you can take which determine your whole subscription plan.
Also, despite the quiz choosing what coffee is best for you or frequency, you’ll still have some control of your subscription plan.
Basically, their goal is to get you the freshest coffee and purest as much as possible. They work like subscriptions and you can tweak the subscription to your liking. Frequencies are usually weekly and not monthly, despite popular belief.
Differences Between Pact Coffee & Trade Coffee
Let’s talk specifics. What are really the differences between the two companies?
I’ll just be straight to the point here, there aren’t a lot. In terms of the plan choice, the type of blends, the type of coffee, etc., these aren’t that different. But the coffee is different of course.
Anyways, here’s a side-by-side look of Pact and Trade Coffee:
| Pact VS Trade: Coffee Subscriptions |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Roast | Dark Espresso, Medium-Dark, Medium, Dark, Medium Espresso & Light | Light, Light-Medium, Medium, Medium-Dark & Dark |
| Origin | Columbia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador & Brazil | Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawa & a lot more. |
| Tastes | Chocolate, Chocolate Fruit, Fruity & Fruity Floral | Chocolate, ChoBerry Fruit, Brown Sugar, Citrus, Earthiness, Florals, Nut, Ripe Fruit, Sweet Vanilla, Spice, Tropical Fruit & more. |
| Brewing Methods | V60, Cafetiere, Stove Top, Aeropress, Chemex, Espresso Machine, Bean To Cup & Cold Brew | Chemex, French Press, Pour Over, Coffee Maker, Aeropress, Cold Brew, Percolator, Espresso Machine, Moka Pot & Refillable Pods |
| Subscription Model? | Yes | Yes |
| Website: |
All things considered, Trade Coffee has a couple of things going for it. There are more options in terms of the origins of the coffee, so you can pretty much taste the blends of different countries or regions, there are more tastes, and more brewing methods.
However, there are things which are good about Pact Coffee as well, as we’ll see in the review.
Pact Coffee Review
Pact Coffee is one of the first UK-based coffee subscriptions. Nowadays, it’s one of the more well-known coffee subscriptions and there are few reasons why that is.
Mainly it’s the actual coffees, which have received a lot of praise over the years. In fact, customer review ratings are mostly positive, the majority of them being five stars. But there is also the customer service experience and the extremely straightforward website experience that also have their positive effect.
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a company which have stellar customer review ratings, it really has. It’s impressive, and it’s speaks to the whole experience of this brand.
Anyways, you can’t really go wrong with the coffee and there’s so much to choose from.
There’s a quiz you take at the start and you answer a couple of questions. Based on that, you get three recommendations for coffee and you can tweak your frequency and quantity at the end. There are certain aspects of the quiz which are better than Trade Coffee’s quiz, which we’ll go over in the head-to-head.
Price-wise it’s alright considering it’s a subscription, but you do get a lot of discounts if you’re a first-time customer.
NOTE: Only ships to residents of the UK.
Here are the pros and cons with Pact Coffee:
PROS
- Amazing customer service
- Great quiz to setup subscription
- Coffee quality is impeccable
- Stellar shopping experience
CONS
- Less coffees from certain countries or regions
- Less brewing methods
- Less tastes
Trade Coffee Review
Trade Coffee offers a much fuller experience in terms of what they offer. They have an amazing selection of coffees all over the world, and they have more tastes and brewing methods for their coffee.
Now, if you’re not a big coffee drinker or you don’t know much about coffee, Trade Coffee has found a way to make the experience very easy for beginners. The quiz especially, askes all the right questions.
It may be a little bit much for someone that has some knowledge about different blends, what they like, what they don’t, but overall, it’s great if you’re new to this whole thing. It guides you with the selection and gives important information about everything.
By a “little bit much” I mean it can be frustrating for someone who understands what they want or their coffee preferences.
While certain aspects of the test are informative, others aren’t. Like the customize plan screen. There’s little to no information about the quantity of the bag, what it is, or any explanation whatsoever. There is however, quantity in terms of how many cups you can brew, but I think we can all agree a more informative answer into the coffee you have chosen or the quantity of it should be given.
Anyways, everything else about this brand is stellar. The customer service and the coffee quality alike.
NOTE: Trade Coffee only ships to the US.
Here are the pros and cons of Trade Coffee:
PROS
- A lot of different coffee origins
- Almost all brewing methods
- A lot of tastes to choose from
- Easy to setup for beginners
- Alright shopping experience
CONS
- Might be frustrating to set-up for coffee-heads
Pact VS Trade Coffee – Which Is The Better Option For You?
Unfortunately, because neither brand ships internationally at the time of writing, you might be limited with what you choose. As I stated before, Pact is UK-based, therefore, they only ship within the UK. On the other hand, Trade Coffee is US-based and they only ship within the US.
So, it may be just down to territorial limitations that you have to go with either one. However, for the purpose of clarity, we’ll still give a straight answer.
In our opinion and ours only, Trade Coffee seems to be the better coffee subscription service at the moment. Granted, this isn’t based on the quality of the coffee, but the whole experience. Meaning, you have more brewing options, more coffee from different countries, more tastes, and so on.
Based on pure quality of coffee though, it’s really hard to say. There are so many different coffees at both brands, some good, some not so good. So, it’s really hard to give a straight answer. And taste plays a bit of a role too.
The Verdict: The Superior Coffee Subscription
Both of these services are really good. It’s unfortunate, as I said, at the time of writing, both ship only to their base location and not internationally. It’s unfortunate for those that want to try a subscription which isn’t available at their location so they might be forced to go with their second choice.
Either way, we have a strong inclination that this will change in the future, but as of yet it hasn’t.
To end on a positive note, Trade Coffee is our overall best choice, but Pact Coffee is not that far off. In fact, there are some things that Pact does better than Trade Coffee and vice versa.
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