The Best Whole Bean Coffee Subscription

April 19, 2021|Russell Volz|Beans And Roasting

The best whole bean coffee subscription is the one with the best beans and is also flexible to your changing needs. That’s what we do. Our approach is to KISS; 1 bean and 4 roasts. For the smoothest and most flavorful whole bean coffee that you’re likely to find anywhere, That’s all you need.

Super Smooth Single Source Coffee Beans

I detest burnt and bitter industrial coffee, but I love super smooth coffee, where you can actually taste the subtle notes of chocolate, nut, or citrus. I’ve tasted coffee from all over the world. In my experience, I’ve found that the smoothest (non-bitter) coffee comes from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica.

Our single source beans are all hand picked, fresh mountain water washed, and sun dried by this region’s small, independent, farmers. Costa Rica’s farming and ecological standards are one of the highest in the world, making America’s farming standards pale by comparison. Over half of the country’s economy revolves around Eco Tourism. So, they take healthy food growing very seriously

All that to say, you’d be hard pressed to find a higher quality coffee bean anywhere. That is why 100% of our coffee beans are sourced from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. Unlike our competitors, we don’t see the need to offer coffee from 31 different countries. One great bean from one great single source is good enough for us and you.

Only 4 Coffee Roasts

Why is it that most coffee companies insist on offering a dozen different roasts. Coffee clubs galore offer Vienna roast (oooohhhh sounds exotic doesn’t it?), French Roast, Italian Roast, etc., etc., etc. Each roast is supposed to give you a different taste. They don’t. What they give you are different shades of “burnt”.

In reality, there are only 4 roasts; Light, Medium, Dark, and BURNT! Obviously, I don’t burn my beans. You may be asking me, “But Russell everyone else burns their beans. Why don’t you?” I hate to tell you this, but you’d be asking the wrong question. The question isn’t why don’t I burn my beans, but more importantly, “Why does everyone else burn their beans?”

Large industrial coffee companies burn the snot out of their beans because they don’t want you to know that they buy cheap inferior beans. And they think that you’re too stupid to tell the difference. They’re wrong. You’re smarter than that.

Low-n-Slow Coffee Roasting

For industrial coffee companies, time is money. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Time is time and money is money. Green coffee beans have oils in them. It’s those oils that contain all the bioflavonoids, antioxidants, caffeine, and flavor. If you roast your bean hot-n-fast, then you loose those awesome oils.

For me, time is my friend. That’s why I roast low-n-slow, just like your Great-Grandmother did. For me, it’s all about roasting to the perfect color; golden (often called white coffee); medium brown; and barely dark. Notice you didn’t see black or burnt. Only an idiot would burn the snot out of a perfectly good coffee bean.

I want you to be able to taste the flavor that God put into those precious and glorious beans. Great coffee should have a front-end taste, a middle taste, and a finish taste. Gee… kind of sound like wine tasting, doesn’t it?

Freshest Coffee Beans

Here’s another reason most online coffee companies offer coffee subscriptions or coffee clubs. Most industrial coffee companies keep a large inventory of roasted coffee and they’re looking for marketing systems like coffee subscriptions or coffee clubs in order to get rid of their old inventory.

Here’s a truth that few companies will tell you. All roasted coffee starts going stale, thus bitter, within 30 days of roasting and no amount of space age packaging can change that fact. Therefore, the fresher the roasted bean the better the coffee taste. So, your ONLY solution is super fresh coffee. That’s why we roast and ship early every Tuesday morning.

The only inventory that we keep is our raw, un-roasted, Costa Rican coffee beans.

How To Keep Your Coffee Fresh

We offer free shipping with all orders of 3 bags or more. If fresh coffee is what you want, then why order more than 3 bags at a time. I don’t know, but some people like ordering 4, 5, 6, or more bags at a time. Well, crap! That leaves a big problem. How do you make that last bag as good and fresh as the first?

I’ve struggled with this question for years. Finally a customer of ours came up with a partial solution, of which I perfected. Here is a LINK to an article that I wrote after months of experimentation on how to make that last bag almost as fresh tasting as the first. It’s not perfect, but most people can’t tell the difference between the first bag and the last bag.

Whole Bean Coffee Subscription

The whole purpose of a coffee subscription is make sure that you don’t run out of coffee. That means the process of creating a subscription should be easy. Additionally, changing that subscription shouldn’t be a PIA.

Unfortunately, nearly all coffee subscriptions offer you so many bean and roasting options that it takes forever to choose. That’s nuts. Most people couldn’t tell the difference between an Ethiopian coffee from a Nicaraguan coffee. As my Mama said, “KISS”. That’s why we only offer 1 bean and 4 roasts (Dark, Medium, White, and Decaf). Period. End of story.

Our whole bean coffee subscription is easy to create and easy to change. If you want 2 Dark and 1 Medium this week but next week you want 1 Medium and 2 Decaf, then we can do that. And if you come up with something the website can’t do, then just call me. I’ll actually answer the dang phone! Yep, no “Customer Support” team around here. It’s just Alisha and I (Russell). You need something, we do it!

Best Whole Bean Decaf Coffee

I’ll admit, I wasn’t a big fan of decaf coffee. I have never found a decaf coffee that wasn’t burned to hell and back. Why? Because the big industrial coffee companies and even the small local roasters knew that these poor decaf beans had been put through the wringer with a variety of chemicals and processes that left the resulting decaf beans look and taste nasty.

I figured if I was going to sell decaf coffee, then by God I was going to make a decaf that even I liked. Frankly, it wasn’t near as hard as I expected. I only buy Costa Rican, Swiss Water Processed beans. That means taking the caffeine out of the beans with nothing more than 100% mountain water.

OK, good start, right? Now for the roasting. Nearly all of my competitors burn the snot out of their decaf beans. Why? Because they were starting with crappy beans to begin with. Not me. I had great decaf beans. So, why not try a medium roast. Unheard of! No one does a decaf bean with a medium roast. Well I did and it was magnificent. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between my regular medium roast and my decaf medium roast. Pretty cool huh? I’m even tempting some of you big bad boys out there to give my decaf a try, aren’t I?

The Lake City Coffee

Russell & Alisha in Costa Rica

Alisha and I started Lake City Coffee in 2015 because we couldn’t find decent whole bean coffee anywhere. To this day, we taste test over 20 different beans each year from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica, just to pick one bean. Then we purchase a year’s worth of beans at a time.

Sadly, our competition generally doesn’t taste test any of the beans that they purchase. Oh, a few of our competition will taste test several beans, but not like us. We want the best beans that money can buy.

Look you have two ways to buy coffee from us.

Order Coffee Online When You Want
Whole Bean Coffee Subscription

Lastly, we’re here for you. This whole business is about making coffee easier and better for you, thus lowering your stress. Providing to you the best coffee beans is only the start. We’re also on a mission to teach our customers how to brew the smoothest most flavorful cup of coffee known to mankind. Yep, that’s a tall order, but we’re up for it. We’re not trying to be the next Charbucks. All we want is an opportunity to be your personal coffee roaster.