Islands Chocolate

To ensure quality standards, the coffee industry is one that has a professional grading system for all its produce. Operated by qualified individuals who sit at the stages of farming, exporting and roasting, coffee is scored out of 100 - the higher the score, the better the coffee's taste, aroma, consistency, aftertaste and various other attributes. By definition, 'speciality coffees' are those that score at least 80 out of 100; anything less, we call it 'commodity coffee'. As the scoring suggests, speciality coffee can therefore be seen as the best 20% of coffees, and as common sense may think, the higher the score, generally the more expensive a coffee is to purchase through the supply chain and by consumers.

Great, speciality coffee it is! Well, yes and no. Unfortunately as there is this definitive line between the two coffee types, many known coffee brands, roasters and other subscription services prefer to only offer coffees that score 80-83 out of 100 - you know, just high enough for them to be able to use 'speciality coffee' in all their marketing, but low enough for their coffees to be cheaper and make more profit margin. If you can't beat them, join them, right? No, we strive to do much better than that. For us, transparency into pricing and quality is key, which is why all our subscriptions have slightly differing prices, with this relative to the quality of coffee they will include.

If you know you love coffee and are wanting to brew better coffees at home yet find yourself not knowing which coffees are worth buying or even where to start; or perhaps you are already be well-versed in the beverage type and know a GUSTATORY speciality coffee subscription is exactly what you need, everyone is welcome. Known industry-wide for our leading coffee curations, GUSTATORY are trusted by our large community and subscribers, and we've even many baristas and roasters who are subscribers themselves too... you're in fine company.

Well, "coffee is the single most consumed product in developed nations that is produced by developing nations". That is what we believe and whilst it is a beverage for us to all enjoy, it should be our privilege to consciously consider which coffee we're consuming. GUSTATORY exists to widen the conversation that speciality coffee is so much more than regular commodity coffee.

1  Being sustainable is about more than just the planet. It's also about the caring people involved earning enough profit to survive. With all developing nations' coffee farmers an embedded part of their communities, whether they're individual or part of co-operatives, lives and families depend on the export. Fair and ethical purchasing should be a minimum.

2  ...Yet, unfair shareholder-pleasing coffee supply purchasing made by multinational cafe chains and lower-grade roasters drives a global ethics and sustainability problem. Developing nations' coffee farmers wish to responsibly operate to survive. As one example, Fairtrade's Minimum Price guarantees $1.40 per pound to be received by producers, yet many coffee roasters or multinational cafe chains don't even pay this. In comparison, the best of speciality coffee roasters go further, optionally paying upward of $4.00-5.00 per pound.

Why? Fourfold, with forest fires, droughts and other catastrophes increasingly occurring in farming regions, the higher payments provide much needed security (example: Forest Fires, Brazil); in ethical fairness to producers, for coffee farms to produce higher quality, better tasting coffees, and also help contribute to a more sustainable future.

3  Not all roasters or coffee subscriptions are equal. Enjoy better. Whilst multinational cafe chain and lower grade roasters will no doubt continue to serve their coffees with an abundance of sugars to mask their true quality and taste, discover UK's, Europe's and USA's much better speciality roasters. Besides, to enjoy better tasting, true value, ethically sourced speciality coffees, their consumer prices aren't even any higher, simply fairly priced for all. For casual coffee drinkers, coffee connoisseurs and everyone in between, also enjoy 43% average savings on RRP (2023). One subscription, many discoveries.

Learn more about our Sustainability Mission in really trying to make a difference.

In 2023 we proudly delivered 43% savings on average on subscribing to like for like products direct from each roaster and other services. We fully believe in transparency with everything we do and for GUSTATORY's coffee subscription service's cost saving and performances throughout the last year, learn more in our latest Annual Review (2023).

In addition to our subscription performances, brewing at home also naturally comes with direct cost savings versus takeout coffees. How much can you save by having a coffee subscription?

Yes, all of our UK and international coffee subscription's featuring roasters' coffees are roasted fresh to order and shipped to us toward the end of every month ahead of the next turn of the month dispatch period. In fact, this is why we only have one dispatch date within the month, to help ensure all our roasters' dispatches arrive to us as close to one another as possible, for their coffees to be as fresh as possible for you. For our featured roasters located within the UK, their roast dates will be close to our organised dispatch period, some the a few days before, and for our European roasters, theirs will be roasted a few days earlier to cater for international shipping. All our roasters roast our coffees on a specific schedule tailored for our dates.

Please note: an important factor to consider is that good coffee shouldn't be consumed immediately after being roasted to enjoy it's peak flavours. Many of the best coffee roasters openly publish comments on their bags such as 'best after 8 days' or 'best enjoyed after 10 days', and we too encourage this. This is called 'coffee rest period'. Such a period of time exists because a by-product of coffee roasting is CO2, in which this gas can make brewing difficult. For more info, please read our article on the coffee rest period within our Journal & School.

With this in mind, for all the regular features of a roaster geographically distant from us, our careful organisation and planned logistics caters for this time period, ensuring that the recommended length of coffee rest period passes during shipping and that the coffees you receive will be well within their recommended brewing time. Whether our curated special guest coffee roaster is located in London, Edinburgh, Budapest or Copenhagen, even New York or California, your delivered coffee will be ready to be enjoyed.

We understand that if you're just getting started on learning more about brewing better coffees that it may seem common sensical to think that coffee roasted yesterday will taste better than coffees roasted a week earlier. Wowever, we assure you that that isn't a professional recommendation and is an opinion shared by many of the best roasters.

All GUSTATORY coffee subscriptions are fulfilled by us, located in UK, in which we consolidate and manage all our subscriber's packages in-house to ensure package quality, variety and organisation. If you subscribe to multiple subscriptions, all your coffees and/or Islands hot chocolate, (un)ordinary oat m*lk or Pamban chai will be consolidated into the same delivery.

All UK deliveries are sent via Royal Mail with 99% of deliveries arriving within 48 hours, many even 24 hours (postcode depending) - you're also able to enter a designated Safeplace during checkout to aid deliverability. International shipping to Europe starts from £7.00, Rest of World: £10.00. For our international susbcribers, custom fees may apply at the time of import to your destination country, but many countries do have customs-free value thresholds on parcels sent from UK (for example, Australia / USA) and our subscriptions may easily fall under these. Please do check with your local customs.

All coffee box subscriptions are dispatched across several days within our dispatch periods, with these taking place from each month's turn of the month. Due to how each month's days and dates change, our dispatch period typically starts anytime from 28th - 2nd, whichever best fits to a 4 week cycle. We have this consistent dispatch period to ensure coffee freshness from all our UK and international coffee roasters. Subscribing at some point in the middle of the month will mean you'll be automatically allocated to the next dispatch period, but rest assured, we have your subscription - welcome!

All UK deliveries are sent via 48 hours postal service, with many subscribers receiving theirs the next day (postcodes may vary). For international shipping, all parcels are sent by expedited tracked methods, however, timeframes do vary per destination country.

Recycled packaging? Absolutely, but we've also considered more than just that. Read more about our humble packaging, it's an important consideraation for us.

Once you've decided on a favourite subscription, simply add your choice to your checkout cart. After selecting the number of bags you wish to receive, feel free to also mix and match with additional other coffee subscriptions to create a bespoke coffee delivery. Once you've proceeded through checkout, next login to your Account to tailor your subscription to your personal preferences, be it flavour notes or processing preferences - if you've none, that's also totally okay, we've many that have everything open for the utmost of variety!

Whether you only like classic chocolatey coffees, or perhaps, you're a fruity, funky natural coffee kind of drinker, even if you've no preferences at all, personalise your subscription from within your Account to ensure you're receiving coffees that you like.