Sure, making cold brew at home is easy enough, but sometimes even “easy enough” is still too much effort. That’s why a cold-brew subscription can be a serious game-changer. Even if you’re not a year-round iced coffee drinker, a cold-brew subscription is one of the most versatile options for making high-quality coffee at home with absolutely no equipment. Yes, even if you’re a person who likes to drink fancy flavored lattes or plain hot coffee once in a while, you can still be in a non-monogamous relationship with a cold-brew subscription plan.
Here’s the thing: I am a coffee snob. I have a coffee subscription through Trade that allows me to constantly try beans from new roasters, and I own a menagerie of grinders, electric kettles, and various coffee-making apparatuses for making espresso, pour-over, and everything in between. So I’m not here to sell you on some watered-down, one-note coffee concentrate that might taste good to your parents but wouldn’t pass muster in a craft coffee shop.
All of the options on this list have well-balanced flavor profiles, often use single-origin beans or a special cold-brew blend, and will show up at your door pretty much ready to drink. You might need to add a splash of milk or a bit of sweetener if that’s your thing, but you won’t have to calibrate a grinder or break out a scale that can measure less than a gram. No matter what kind of coffee drinker you are, I’m convinced you’ll find a new favorite coffee here. Let’s get into it.
If variety is the spice of your life: Trade Coffee
If trying new things is what gets you out of bed in the morning, Trade Coffee is the best coffee subscription service for you, period. I’ve been a fan of their whole bean options for years, but now they also have a collection of ready-to-drink coffees to choose from. I’m partial to Parlor Coffee’s Cold Brew on Tap, a 3-quart box of coffee with a built-in tap that can live in your fridge, making it all too easy to grab a second (or third) cup of coffee. If you need a single-serving option in order to exercise self-control, there’s also a complex Nitro cold brew in a can from Caffe Vita, and a smooth, classic cold brew as well as a honey oat latte from Joe Coffee.
For serious coffee connoisseurs: Kloo Coffee
Kloo is the best premade coffee concentrate I’ve ever tried, period. Everything about the experience of preparing and drinking Kloo’s coffee feels a little luxurious, from opening the temperature-controlled box and seeing stunning glass bottles that wouldn’t look out of place at a high-end parfumerie to actually taking your first sip. Kloo roasts their beans in-house, then brews small-batch concentrates that are aged before shipping, so they arrive at your door when the coffee is at its prime. Kloo has four different single-origin options from Columbia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. All of them can be used to make cold brew, hot coffee, and creamy lattes. My personal favorite is the fruit-forward Columbia with notes of almond, maple syrup, and blackberry—but I highly recommend ordering a tasting set so you can try them all.
If you like to adjust your caffeine levels: Explorer Cold Brew
Explorer’s cold-brew concentrate comes in a few different caffeine levels, and while I’m normally a “death before decaf” person, it turns out that “The Seeker”—a super smooth half-caf blend—is the most responsible choice I can possibly make when I decide that 5 PM coffee is a good idea. Explorer’s cold-brew concentrate comes in four different caffeine levels, ranging from “The Dreamer” (99.9% caffeine-free) to “The Maverick” (150mg of caffeine per serving). If you’re more of a chai person, they make four different chai concentrates too: honey, dirty spice, chamomile spice, and honey. All of their options come in 32-ounce bottles of concentrate, and a few are also available in single-serve, ready-to-drink cans.
If you want to keep things simple: La Colombe
La Colombe’s cold brew was my first coffee love, and even though my tastes have veered in a more complex direction in recent years, I still have a soft spot for their draft lattes and slightly-smoky, nicely balanced cold brew. If you want a straightforward cold-brew solution for your home, you can buy theirs in either a 1-gallon box with a tap or a 32-ounce bottle. For fans of their canned draft lattes, you can subscribe to those too.
Bonus Materials:
If you like your cold brew sweetened, simple syrup is a nonnegotiable. And, like cold brew itself, it’s pretty simple to make at home! But what if you didn’t have to? That’s where Proper Syrups come in. I’ve tried a bunch of premade simple syrups and am usually not convinced that it’s better than making my own. Proper Syrup changed that. They come in sleek bottles that you’ll want to display on your counter, and have absolutely no artificial flavors or ingredients. And guess what! You can subscribe to these, too, so you’ll never run out of your favorite cold brew or your favorite liquid sweetener. Proper’s vanilla syrup is my favorite, but I’ve also gotten emotionally attached to making strawberry pistachio lattes with a combination of Kloo’s coffee concentrate, Proper’s strawberry syrup, and Tache’s unsweetened barista blend pistachio milk.
