Over the past few years, I’ve really gotten into specialty coffee. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still drink a super dark roast K-cup — but it’s fascinating to explore all types of other roasts and discover all that coffee can be. That’s why I’ve also been a fan of specialty coffee services that bring new and interesting roasts directly to my attention. Well, that’s exactly what Nectarous has to offer.
In the interest of transparency, I was introduced to Nectarous via an email sent to me by founder Scott Velicer — the subject of which was probably the best I’ve ever received: “Want to try our new coffee service for free?” As that implies, I was provided a credit to try any coffee I wanted. Nevertheless, after that initial free bag, I did end up purchasing another mostly on my own (it turns out I had a bit of credit left, which effectively covered the shipping on my second order). Since writing this post, I’ve now also ordered a third bag, which I paid full price for.
Anyway, Nectarous is an SMS-based coffee service. To get started, you’ll just provide your mobile phone number, opt-in, and set up your account by adding your payment info. That way, when you do want to order one of their featured roasts, you’ll just need to respond to the text and your bag will be claimed.
Each drop text (which arrives weekly, in my experience) includes some details about the coffee, such as the roaster, origin, and notes. Nectarous also shares a bit on what makes the roast special and why you’ll love it. Of course, the texts conclude with the price per bag and shipping.
From there, if you want to purchase, all you need to do is respond with how many bags you want. Assuming your profile is properly set up, once you send this order text, you should get confirmation within a few seconds.
When I got my first text from Nectarous, I immediately noticed a similarity to Fellow Drops. While emailing with Scott, he acknowledged this, but noted that being a smaller service (for now) allows them to be a bit more nimble and offer roasts that are extremely limited. In any case, I do love the SMS ordering system overall as it does make the whole process insanely easy.
Another aspect of Nectarous’s text that I appreciate is the brew guides. However, since I’m still pretty much a novice, I will say that this is one area where I wish there was more info. While I understand that it doesn’t make sense to give a specific grinding setting like Fellow does, it would still be cool if this were fleshed out a bit more, even if that meant clicking away to a webpage or something.
Oh, so what coffees did I get and how were they? My first was an Idido from The Well Coffee House while the other is an Indian coffee from the roaster Verve. I’ve really enjoyed both — although my Verve one just got here so I’ve only been able to try it once so far. Also, looking at their Instagram for a peek at upcoming releases, I can already tell that I’m probably going to want to order another bag soon.
What’s great about Nectarous and other options is that they are completely free to sign up for and there’s no obligation whatsoever to buy any of the coffees presented to you. Instead, you just get the chance to hear about exciting new roasts and have the chance to purchase them should you so choose. Obviously, if you’re a fiend like me, this can lead to a ton of temptation — so just be sure to keep yourself in check if you need to stick to a budget.
By the way, if you’d like to check out Nectarous, it turns out that you can get a $10 credit when you sign up using my referral link (and I’ll get $10 too). You can use that link to autofill the code or enter “TGOHK6” when signing up.