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Up North Coffee Subscription Review: Exploring New Flavors

Up North Coffee is a Minnesota-based roasting company that specializes in delicious and sustainable coffee that best represents the North.


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When you subscribe to a coffee subscription service, you’re not just subscribing to tasty beans sourced from some of the best regions in the world. You’re also subscribing to the coffee roaster itself.

It’s always interesting to see the variety of coffee roasters out there and how they represent their communities and hometown roasteries. Up North Coffee is one that proudly represents its Minnesota home through blends, brand design, and sustainability.

Up North Coffee: Company History/Overview

The company of Up North Coffee actually started as a hobby in 2019, when it was simply just a small-batch roaster for those close to home in Minnesota. Four years later and Up North Coffee has truly grown to achieve its mission of producing some of the best coffee in the north and showcasing what makes Minnesota beautiful through it.

They also strive to make sure that all of their delicious coffee beans are ethically sourced and traded at a fair price for the farmers. By using sustainable sourcing, packaging, and business practices, Up North Coffee lessens its impact on the environment to furthermore display its care for the natural beauty of Minnesota.

Up North Coffee Subscription Review

Packaging-of-Up-North-Coffee-in-a-shipping-box-scaled
Up North Coffee Subscription
Our rating:

Discover the rich and aromatic flavors of Up North Coffee. Our small-batch, hand-roasted beans will transport you to the heart of the wilderness with every sip.

Check Price
Packaging-of-Up-North-Coffee-in-a-shipping-box-scaled

The box that I received from Up North Coffee to review included one 12-ounce bag of one of their most popular coffees: Lake Lover. The bag itself had a beautiful, simplistic, and aesthetic design that already seemed to capture that “up north” feeling.

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Lake Lover

Up North Coffee’s Lake Lover is a vibrant medium roast blend of Ethiopian and Colombian beans. This coffee was designed to illustrate one of the most important parts of being in the north: long trips to the lake.

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Lake Lover is washed processed and described as having a smooth flavor with an unrefined rustic aroma. Up North suggests brewing this coffee on a French Press, which is exactly what I decided to do for my own brewing.

I noticed that the aroma of this coffee was rather toasty, nutty, and warm, providing a great invitation to the cup. The taste was smooth and toasted with a nutty base and slightly acidic finish. Overall, this cup of coffee was a very delicious medium roast brew.

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Up North Coffee: Subscription Options

Packaging-of-Up-North-Coffee-in-a-shipping-box-scaled
Up North Coffee Subscription
Our rating:

Discover the rich and aromatic flavors of Up North Coffee. Our small-batch, hand-roasted beans will transport you to the heart of the wilderness with every sip.

Check Price

There are actually two different ways that you can subscribe to Up North Coffee. The Explorer’s Subscription is an option that lets you explore a variety of surprise coffees from Up North Coffee’s head roaster who picks out a new single origin from around the world each month.

This can be delivered in either one or two 12-ounce bags at a frequency of anywhere between one to four weeks and the shipping is included. The other subscription option they have is a Single Blend Subscription. This means you can pick your favorite coffee out of any available on their website and subscribe to it. One of their most popular ones actually seems to be the Lake Lover blend!

Through this subscription, you’ll save 15% on the bags of coffee but shipping won’t be included. The same delivery frequency options are also available with this subscription, but the coffees can come in either 12-ounce bags or 5-pound bags. Whichever option you settle on, you get your coffee sent whole bean or pre-ground!

Up North Coffee: Roasting

When it comes to sourcing their beans, Up North Coffee takes extra care to select only the best ones and makes sure that the coffee farmers producing them are fairly paid. They do this by working with importers who build direct trade relationships with farming families.

Once the beans are ethically sourced, Up North Coffee then roasts them fresh to order just before the bags are shipped out to customers.

Up North Coffee: Pricing

Prices for Up North Coffee depend on what you’re subscribing to. So, at the time of writing, if you choose to get the Explorer’s Subscription, it would be priced at $18 for one 12-ounce bag. It’s important to note that this price also includes shipping.

If you were to subscribe to any coffee of your choosing, the blends (such as the Lake Lover coffee that I received) would be priced at $11.05 per 12-ounce bag and the single-origins would be priced at $11.90 per 12-ounce bag. These prices don’t include shipping but they are discounted by 15% from the original amount since they work with a subscribe and save program.

What Makes Up North Coffee Unique

Up North Coffee is different from many other coffee roasting companies because it’s a smaller-scale roaster that uses a rigorous bean selection process to source only the best-tasting coffee. They do this ethically by complying to fair trade procedures and ensuring that the coffee farmers they work with are fairly compensated for their products.

Moreover, Up North Coffee focuses on creating products that are both strong representations of their Minnesota hometown and environmentally friendly through sustainable packaging and business practices. As they’ll tell you, they “like to keep [their] brand fun, with blends and branding that pay homage to [their] Minnesota roots.”

How to Cancel Up North Coffee

To make any changes to your Up North Coffee subscription, no matter which option you picked, all you have to do is log into your account on their website. From there, you can modify your subscription at any time, update your information, and even cancel your subscription if you find that you no longer want to receive deliveries.

Packaging-of-Up-North-Coffee-in-a-shipping-box-scaled
Up North Coffee Subscription
Our rating:

Discover the rich and aromatic flavors of Up North Coffee. Our small-batch, hand-roasted beans will transport you to the heart of the wilderness with every sip.

Check Price

Up North Coffee: Final Thoughts

Overall, Up North Coffee is a nice, simple, and sustainable coffee roasting brand that represents everything amazing about Minnesota and the Great Up North. All of their beans are ethically sourced, fairly traded, and sustainably packaged. As much as they love to show off their beloved roasting state, they also love to keep it looking beautiful by lessening their environmental impact every step of the way.

From their brand and bag designs to their blend creations, Up North Coffee works hard to create delicious and amazing coffee without losing where they came from. Happy Caffeinating!

Happy Caffeinating!

Up North Coffee Subscription Review: Exploring New Flavors
Up North Coffee Subscription Review

An in-depth Up North Coffee subscription review of their most popular blend that illustrates just a taste of beautiful Minnesota.

Editor's Rating:
4.9
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