This New Coffee Service Really Gets Around
Smells like Berlin. (Almost.) Photo by Madison Cuthbertson.
We’ve heard this story before: Woman travels the world. Falls in love. Seeks to recreate that feeling again back home.
In this case, art director Lynette Lee had a deep affection for the finely crafted coffee of Europe. Along with her partner and fellow coffee nerd (and Box Kite veteran) Andrew Ho, the two devised a plan for giving coffee lovers in the U.S. a taste of java abroad.
The pair launched Collected Coffee, a brand new subscription company that works solely with top-of-the-heap international roasters like Maruyama (Tokyo, Japan), Koppi (Helsingborg, Sweden), and La Cabra (Aarhus, Denmark). Somehow, the company has figured out a way to curate different international monthly offerings from the best roasters in the world without subscribers having to experience the pain or annoyance of pricey shipping or custom snafus.
What first arrived in my mailbox was a batch of Finca La Fortuna, a Colombian microlot from The Barn, one of my favorite cafes in Berlin. (It was at that little Australian-run coffee shop that I learned what a flat white was, drank my first cortado, and whiled away many a dark and dreary German winter afternoon.) Besides the wonderfully fragrant bag of whole beans (250 grams), subscribers will find a card with a description of bean origins, information about the roasters, and a neat recipe chart with instructions for creating the ultimate at-home cup.
The founders bill it as "your passport" to the best coffee found all over the world. And you can taste the difference.
BUY IT
Cater to your caffeine addiction with Collected Coffee. Subscriptions are $23 per month.
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