For the past few years, I’ve been a subscriber to the unique coffee service Cometeer. If you’re unfamiliar, Cometeer’s claim to fame is that they distill top coffee roasts, flash freeze them as little pucks, and ship them on dry ice, allowing you to create a delicious cup of coffee just by melting and stirring. As much as I’ve enjoyed my experience with the service overall, one downside was that I was never 100% sure what coffees I’d be getting until I’d already paid and it was time to ship. Well, now that’s finally changed as Cometeer is currently offering customization options.
As a Cometeer subscriber, you can now browse and select the exact coffees you want included in your box. This option joins past steps forward such as roaster-specific boxes. Of course, the regular options (namely boxes based on roast level preferences) are also still available.
First, let’s talk about what’s good about this move — although, I’ll warn you, it’s pretty obvious. Yes, the upside of having customization options is, er, having the option to customize. In our case, this means finally being able to select interesting light roasts for me while also adding some darker roast options for my wife. Also, seeing as I’ve been a Cometeer member for a while, I love that I can now make sure I’m snapping up the latest and greatest roasts.
Now let’s talk about the downside: cost. While some of the available roasts retain the $16 per box (which works out to $2 per cup before shipping) pricing, most have at least a bit of a premium on them, coming in at $17.49 or more. In fact, there are even boxes currently costing $25 — although these are part of the Select Series. If you’re like me, this just means temptation to spend more. But, if you want to keep the cost down, you can still build a custom box that prices out the same or pretty close to the standard.
I also really like the custom box-building interface that Cometeer has created. By default, you can browse sections organized by roast level, viewing by roaster, origin, and flavor profile for each option. Going back to price, I also appreciate that it displays the price per cup on each listing so you don’t have to do the math. You can also use the Filter at the top to view all options from a given roaster, key into a certain flavor profile, and more. By the way, you can also add up to six boxes to your box versus the standard four-pack.
My first customized Cometeer box arrived today and, honestly, I’m pretty excited. Sure, I ended up spending more than I would have normally — but that was totally my decision and I’m pumped to try these “Select Series” roasts. All in all, this new feature has basically revitalized my love of Cometeer and I look forward to exploring more in the months ahead.