Since its founding in 2012, Onyx Coffee Lab has been a highly regarded name within the specialty coffee industry.
Having won all sorts of awards and competitions, their flagship offerings give newer coffee drinkers an approachable point of entry while still rewarding even the most seasoned coffee palate. Whether you’re drawn to bright, fruity, complex light roasts or perfectly balanced dark roasts with a syrupy body, they have a well-crafted staple for every preference. They also provide detailed information about the farms they source from, including processing methods, elevation, and more.
So if you’ve been a fan of Onyx for a while, you already know that they provide some of the best roasts that specialty coffee has to offer. However, their selections are limited to their core and/or seasonal offerings.
What if you want a little more variety? How and where do you find roasters that provide the same consistency in quality and dedication to the craft? And how do you expand your selection of quality roasters without ending up with a bunch of coffees that don’t actually align with your taste preferences?
If you’ve been asking yourself these questions, I’ve taken the time to put together a list of multi-roaster coffee subscriptions that offer more variety without sacrificing quality. So let’s take a look at each one to figure out which option is best for you.
At a Glance
| Best For | Customization Level | # of Coffees and Roasters | Pricing | |
| Trade Coffee | Getting top variety & personalization | High | 500+ coffees from 55+ roasters | $16.99–$21.99 per bag |
| Bean Box | Expanding your palate | Moderate | 650+ coffees from 60+ roasters | $19.50–$21.50 per bag + shipping |
| Mistobox | Customizing your delivery schedule | Moderate | 600+ coffees from 60+ roasters | $20.00–$28.00 per bag |
| Angel’s Cup | Developing your tasting skills | Low | 200+ coffees from 150+ roasters | $27.50/box + shipping |
| Podium Coffee Club | Trying the best of the best coffees | Low | One curated coffee per month, dozens of roasters | $24.50–$29.50 per month + shipping |
Overall Best Onyx Coffee Alternative: Trade Coffee
If your main priority is personalization and variety, Trade Coffee is a no-brainer.
With Trade, each coffee is matched specifically to your taste. To start you off, they ask you to take a short but comprehensive quiz to get an idea of your taste preferences. This includes things like how you make and drink your coffee at home, roast level, and your go-to taste profile (you can even fine-tune the specific tasting notes). Trade then uses your answers to build a taste profile and match you with coffees from their roaster network. It’s worth noting that while other subscriptions offer similar quizzes, this was one of the first I found that actually takes how you make your coffee into account.
Not only that, but the subscription gets smarter the longer you use it. You can rate each bag after tasting it so that Trade’s recommendations become more specific over time, fine-tuning the algorithm and falling more and more in line with your tastes. But if your first bag misses the mark, they’ll replace it for free anyway.
This is also one of the only coffee subscriptions I’ve come across that not only offers the choice between whole bean and ground coffee and roasts them to order, but they also grind the coffee specifically for your brew type. That can be a huge game-changer for people who don’t have their own grinder at home and can’t get the best out of their coffee with a default grind size.
The only trade-off (no pun intended) is that as your subscription gets smarter over time, it might unwittingly limit the variety you receive as a result. So while you can technically specify how much variety you want, there’s a higher potential that your roaster pool might shrink as your taste preferences get more specific. You can also order curated collections to experience this broader selection, but the personalization Trade is known for specializes in narrowing things down.
Pros
- Coffees are matched specifically to your taste
- Most comprehensive quiz that takes more nuance into account
- Coffee ground specific to your brew type
- Flexible delivery scheduling
- Massive coffee library (over 500 coffees on the site at any given time)
Cons
- Built around your taste profile, not necessarily roaster diversity
- You won’t get as much out of it if you don’t actively feed the algorithm (rate coffees, give feedback, etc.)
Best for Expanding Your Palate: Bean Box
If you’re not all that particular about which coffees you try, Bean Box takes the cake for an expansive selection and a very guided approach to coffee discovery — incidentally making it a great beginner-friendly subscription.
The flavor categories they offer are fairly broad. There’s the Curator’s Choice (a rotation of coffees selected by their coffee curator), a rotating single origin collection, or a manual selection of roast level/type. You can also select whether you’d like whole bean or freshly ground. And because these all act as stand-alone categories, you’re pretty much guaranteed to receive a wide variety of coffees no matter which one you choose.
All of Bean Box’s coffees are roasted fresh to order and delivered anywhere from every 2 to 6 weeks. Per bag, it also happens to be the most budget-friendly option — though it’s also the only one that doesn’t include free shipping, unless you select their annual plan.
Pros
- Great starting point to expand your palate
- Selection includes over 650 coffees, so plenty of variety
- Budget-friendly
Cons
- Default grind size for ground coffee
- Oversimplification of categories means less personalization
- No free shipping
Best for Simplicity: Mistobox
Mistobox also makes it very easy to get started, but they offer enough customization that the coffees delivered to you can be selected more intentionally. They partner with around 60 roasters (with a good balance between both well-known and up-and-coming providers) that have been evaluated for factors like quality, sustainability, and reputation.
When starting a subscription, the first thing you do is take a short quiz about some of your preferences, like roast level, preferred type, and whether you’d like whole bean or ground. You can even set the max price you’re willing to pay per bag.
What I like most about Mistobox is that it’s easy to adjust an already ongoing subscription. If you want to experiment with different roast levels, you can simply update your Coffee Profile. If there’s a particular coffee you already really enjoyed or want to try, you can add it to your Brew Queue to guarantee that it will be the next coffee they send.
I also like that the delivery frequency can be set far more specifically than you find with other subscriptions. If you’re trying to minimize stale or wasted coffee and you know exactly how much coffee you go through within a given time frame, Mistobox makes it easier to get fresh coffee delivered exactly when you need it.
Pros
- Far more control over your delivery schedule
- Broad selection of roasters
- Ability to queue old favorites or coffees you’re curious to try
Cons
- Default grind size for ground coffee
- Personalization is limited to roast level and type
Best Roaster Variety: Angel’s Cup
Angel’s Cup operates differently from most other coffee subscriptions in that their goal isn’t just to send you great coffees… it’s to provide the opportunity for what they call comparative tastings.
The idea is to push you outside your comfort zone and develop your palate by sending you blind tasting flights. While they provide cards for each coffee that indicate the roaster, origin, and tasting notes, part of the magic is tasting it yourself first, without your opinion being influenced by what it’s “supposed” to taste like. This allows you to try four different coffees with every delivery (each 1oz sample is enough for a 16oz cup of coffee). The downside to that is if you’re the type to drink a cup of coffee every single morning, you may find yourself running out before the end of the week.
That said, you don’t have to do the blind tasting flights. You can also just start by taking a short quiz to specify your preferred roast profile, grind type, and delivery frequency.
Angel’s Cup also samples thousands of coffees from roasters of all sizes every year and selects only the best that each roaster has to offer. Last year alone, they worked with over 200 roasters — that’s a much larger pool than other coffee subscription services typically offer, so there’s certain to be no lack of variety.
The roast profile is only split into two options: light/medium roast and dark roast. If you select light/medium roast, your coffees will rotate weekly, but if you select dark, they only rotate once a month. That means the variety of coffees you receive is essentially determined by what type of roast you enjoy.
Pros
- Great way to develop your tasting palate
- Largest rotating selection of roasters
- Multiple coffee samples per delivery
Cons
- Coffee variety limited to your preferred roast profile
- Similar to other subscriptions in price for a much smaller amount of coffee
Best High Quality Coffee: Podium Coffee Club
Podium Coffee Club operates by putting quality above all else. They only source coffees from the absolute best roasters from the country; every single roaster they work with has literally stood on the podium at a major U.S. coffee competition (think U.S. Coffee Championships, Good Food Awards, Golden Bean, etc.). While the coffees being sourced aren’t necessarily the exact coffees that won these roasters their competitions, they’ve all been roasted by a select group that currently represent the highest tier of specialty coffee.
The only caveat is that this subscription model is severely limited when it comes to customization. There are only two options: Gold or Platinum; the only real difference between the two (besides the $5 price difference) is that the Platinum option includes the rarest and most high-quality coffees possible, from the top 1% of all coffees.
Other than that, the only thing you can change is the size of the bag you receive each month. All coffees are shipped within 24 hours of roasting to maximize freshness, but they only roast between the 5th and 10th of each month, so you can’t necessarily control your delivery schedule. Also, if you don’t have a grinder at home, you’re out of luck — they only ship whole beans.
All in all, though, this is the most unique, high-quality option you’ll find if limited variety and/or personalization aren’t deal-breakers for you.
Pros
- Incredibly high-quality
- All coffees are sourced from the best of the best
- Maximum freshness guaranteed
Cons
- Limited to a smaller pool of roasters
- Virtually no customization
- Inflexible delivery cadence
Finding the Best Onyx Coffee Subscription Alternatives
If you love Onyx but are looking for more roasters with the same quality and consistency, Trade stands out as the next best subscription. Coffees are matched specifically to your taste rather than being picked by someone else, and the ability to customize your subscription all the way down to the specific brewing methods you use at home more reliably ensures that you get to taste the flavors of each coffee exactly as the roaster intended.
If you’re not worried about variety or hyperpersonalized coffee picks, Podium Coffee Club is another solid option. Since the only coffees offered are from award-winning roasters that have won major U.S. roasting competitions, you already know that you’re getting some of the most unique, high-quality coffees in the world, roasted by the best of the best.
If this guide helped you decide on your next coffee subscription, be sure to check out some of our other resources about brewing tools and tips for your coffee at home!
