Blue Coffee Box | Meet The Maker

What sparked your decision to start up your box and how did you get started?

Early in 2017, I was discussing university student debt with Harvey, my son. Harvey decided to start a business to pay his way through university instead of taking loans. I agreed to partner with him, as I have a lot of experience.

In the UK around 65% of us still drink instant coffee. In Europe, it’s 2% and the USA, it’s 7%. But why do we spend so much money buying real coffee in Costa and Starbucks? Because we prefer good coffee!

The ground coffee stocked in supermarkets is old and stale (there are no “roasted on” dates). And most coffee is over-roasted (i.e. burnt) so that cheap beans can be mixed together and the taste masked by over-roasting. Adverts point us to “dark” or “continental” roasts - that’s the burnt stuff. We use milk and sugar to cover the bitter taste.

Real coffees taste as varied as wine. They have hints of flavours from fruit and floral to chocolate and nuts. Different countries produce totally different coffees and it takes a specialist roaster to bring out the real flavour. It’s like comparing restaurant food to a microwave meal.

A few years ago in the USA, I read an article about a coffee company that had been on Shark Tank. Their coffee subscription style was not available over here and it was a little frustrating. We used that as the model and Blue Coffee Box was born.

Blue Coffee Box brings that all together in a letterbox-friendly box.

Describe your box in three words?

World coffee journey.

Where did your box name come from?

With the tens of thousands of coffee shops in the world, it was the only version of a coffee name that wasn't taken. And we like the colour blue. And it comes in a box!

Are you a creator or curator?

Curator.

How many people are involved with producing your subscription box?

At the moment, we have just 5 people in the business with 2 more arriving in July.

Which subscription boxes do you subscribe to?

I don't subscribe to any. Is that bad?

Name a celebrity subscriber you’d love to have as a customer?

David Beckham.

If you could put anything in your box, with money or scarcity no object, what would it be?

I'm not sure how to answer that as we just sell coffee!

What do you love about uOpen?

It gives a wider audience the opportunity to experience the world of speciality coffee and discover what they've been missing.