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Match Made Coffee Box Review + Coupon – February 2017

Andy
ByAndyMar 20, 2017 | 20 comments

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Match Made Coffee
5 overall rating
2 Ratings | 3 Reviews

Match Made Coffee is a subscription box delivering coffees and snack pairings from around the world!

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This box was sent to us at no cost to review. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is of the Deluxe, $29.99 a month, box.

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The Subscription Box: Match Made Coffee

The Cost: The Monthly Sampler is $15.99 a month + shipping for 2 coffees. The Deluxe Monthly is $29.99 a month + shipping for 3 coffees in a wooden box.

The Products: New craft coffees paired with snacks from across the world, delivered monthly

Ships to: U.S. and Canada

Check out the Coffee Subscription Box Directory and make sure to add Match Made Coffee to your subscription list or wishlist!

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Since this is the first time My Subscription Addiction received this subscription, Match Made Coffee included a welcome card with contact info. I thought this was a nice touch to welcome me as a subscriber.

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The included information card features an image of San Diego, California and feels like a postcard. Looks like I’m getting some coffee from the San Diego Coffee Company! I really like that they include a detailed description of each coffee so you know what to expect flavor-wise, and there’s also info on why the chose the snacks to accompany them.

For this review, I deployed the Aeropress method on all 3 coffees. I ground 18g of each bean, steeped in 95g of 190º water for 90 seconds, and added water to all except the espresso. I’ve provided links to each coffee on Amazon, which is the only place you can order San Diego Coffee Company coffees. As a preface, I received roughly 90g or 3.1oz of each coffee, which is less than the promised ¼ pound of each which is in line with their promised "about 2.5oz of coffee". The wording of the contents on their website read "Each box includes about a quarter pound of specialty coffees in 2 flavors..." and that the deluxe edition contains "more beans per coffee". At best, this wording is confusing, and I admit that I mistakenly interpreted that to mean 1/4 pound of 2 coffees, not 2-3 ounces. My apologies.  I’ve provided the value at ¼ pound as this was probably just an oversight. I'm updating the coffee values to reflect my mistake, so each coffee value will be shown at 3 ounces instead of 4. The snack values are based on bulk pricing, retail pricing is probably considerably more!

(Italics in the above paragraph are edits from the original review).

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Guatemala Antigua - Value $1.68 (buy  2lbs. for $18.00)

Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer - Value $0.64 (buy a box of 48 for $30.85)

The first coffee this month is a single-origin, 100% Arabica bean. I am normally very into coffees from Guatemala, but for me, there wasn’t a ton of flavor here. The beans are the least roasted of the 3 I received, but they are still pretty dark. There was a good bit of roasted flavor, but not much of the actual coffee flavor. This was still my favorite of the 3, and the caramel wafer cookie was amazing! I sipped the coffee after taking a bite of the treat and it really brought out some of the sweeter flavors hidden behind the roast. I don’t normally pair treats with coffee, so this was a new experience for me and I really enjoyed it!

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Organic French Roast - Value $2.25 (buy  2lbs. for $24.00)

Walker’s Shortbread - Value $0.65 (buy a pack of 24 for $15.68)

This is an OCIA certified organic French Roast coffee that is described as having a full-body, rich aroma, and bold flavor. It’s definitely French Roast as you can see from the darker beans, and it was very rich. This is not normally a roast I would seek out, but when paired with the shortbread, the flavor was really delicious! I like that they included an organic bean in this box too.  

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Espresso - Value $1.68 (buy  2lbs. for $18.00)

Raspberry Fig Bar - Value $0.58 (buy a 36 pack for $21.19)

The description of this espresso really piqued my interest: a blend of 6 of the world’s finest coffees, mimicking the best Italian espresso. On San Diego Coffee Company’s website, they claim it’s a blend of 5 of the world’s finest coffees. I am very curious what the coffees are and no one seems to be telling me! That said, this is a fine espresso. There is nothing to write home about here, it’s got a decent flavor, it’s a very dark roast, and it packs a wallop. The fig bar balances the flavor with the sweetness of raspberry and fig, and this was a perfect treat to start my day.

Verdict: This was an OK first box from Match Made Coffee. While it didn’t hit me with any particular coffee that I would seek out again, it did remind me that I need to step out of my comfort zone once in a while and see what else is out there. I do think I’ll try more sweets with coffee in the future! That said, I put the value for the contents of this box at $9.37 $7.48, and even with the reusable wooden box and the value of discovery, I think this falls a little quite short of the $29.99 (plus shipping!) asking price. I don’t particularly see the need for the wooden box outside of a fun unboxing experience, and I’m curious if I’ll be getting one every month and since I won't be receiving one every month, I hope that future installments contain higher quality coffees, as pointed out by the box owner in the comments of this review. I’m hoping the next Match Made coffee ups the value a bit, fixes the amount of coffee shipped, and really wows me with some new coffee!

What do you think of Match Made Coffee? Which pairing was your favorite?

Starting at $19.95
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Each month, you'll receive a curated pairing of freshly roasted international craft coffee along with perfectly flavor-paired gourmet cookies, delivered to your doorstep. Forget wine and cheese, indulge in (or gift) this unique coffee pairing experience and enjoy your match made in heaven.
Andy
Andy
Andy is a professional photographer and a vinyl record collector. He loves coffee, gin, craft beer, and playing disc golf. Getting mail is one of his favorite things and he buys a new record every week but tells his wife it's much less often.

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20 comments

Tara

If you were short-changed at the checkout, would you really not say anything and just let it slide? I don’t think most of us would! We wouldn’t just say, “Oh, I’ll let it slide this time, and maybe it won’t happen again.” Also, why is the cost of the box factored into this subscription? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’d rather pay less each month just for the coffee than paying for a box! I wish awful sub boxes would stop being glamorized.

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Marissa

San Diego! Woop Woop! That picture is from balboa park and the pond has fish and turtles. Love it! As for shorting you on coffee, yikes. I would not be as forgiving. Great review though!

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Andy

From that photo, San Diego looks really beautiful! I’m hoping Match Made sorts out the issues for their next installment for sure. I’m happy to give them the benefit of the doubt for this one, but it was kind of a bummer. Thanks for the kind words!

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Alex with MatchMadeCoffee

Wow, I wish that we got to this review earlier to address what seems to be a lot of concern around our box. I hope to clarify a few things:

First, the big complaint seems to be that Andy was under the impression he would receive more coffee. It says on our website and all of our listings that it is 3 packs of 2.5+ ounce packages, and not 3 quarter pound packages. Please, Andy, let us know where you got this information, as if it’s posted that way anywhere, we need to address it ASAP.

Secondly, the value seems to be what you guys are concerned a lot about. A ton of the value in the first box is the intricately crafted wooden box meant to store all future shipments (we ship in cardboard boxes afterwards, and are thus able to provide higher priced coffees in subsequent boxes as well). And, it seems that the wooden box was completely glazed over here.

We are an experience. It’s the quality of the box, it’s the pairing of the snacks with the coffees and not just the coffees themselves. It’s the indulgence. It’s the curation and exposure.

Although it’s disappointing that you feel the coffee quality wasn’t there, we most certainly provide more weight in coffee and in higher qualities than BeanBox and other coffee subscriptions, but in addition we provide the perfectly matched snacks and the fantastic wooden box to go along with it.

We nonetheless thank you for the review Andy, and will look to better communicate in the future.

Carrie

“I received roughly 90g or 3.1oz of each coffee, which is less than the promised ¼ pound of each. I’ve provided the value at ¼ pound as this was probably just an oversight.”

How is shorting you a full ounce per bag an oversight? You’re literally missing 25% of your promised coffee! The box is lovely, but this definitely feels sketchy :-/

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

It was a misunderstanding on MySubscriptionAddiction’s part, and we actually over-delivered on the promised amount of coffee, as we usually do for our customers. There’s a full description in some of the other comments but I wanted to respond to you individually. The whole idea is to provide an awesome box and curation and pairing experience, and then after you have the awesome and expensive wooden box that you get to have that same pricey experience and feel with your future deliveries, where we get to provide lots of extra value. It’s unfortunate that there was the misunderstanding about the quantity of coffee, and the intended point of our box not simply being the coffee.

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Andy

Hey Carrie! My thinking here was maybe they weighed the bag with the coffee and ended up with the incorrect number. Since this is the first time I’m receiving the subscription, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. My hope is that calling out the issue will help the subs owners fix problems for myself and other subscribers future boxes

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Peggy

Chill pill, peeps. yikes. This is a lovely looking box, but I agree, I hope to see the value come up in future shipments. However, some of the value may lie in the curation and discovery of new coffees, etc. Thanks for the review! 🙂

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

Thank you, Peggy. Our comments are slowly being released as they are manually screened, since we are new to MSA. There’s been a misunderstanding about what they thought was being delivered, and we still believe strongly that the value is there. If you’re curious and would like further explanations on what I mean, at this point in time one of our comments has been screened that explains a lot more, and we have more to follow.

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Andy

Thanks Peggy! I also hope future shipments will come up in value. I agree about the value of discovery and curation- it’s very difficult to put that into a dollar value.

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Stefanie

if one is not even receiving the specified amount of coffee that is supposed to be in each bag, that is sketchy. Period. Doesnt matter how “lovely looking” the box is-well to most of us anyway.

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

Thank you for responding, Stefanie. Andy and MySubscriptionAddiction somehow got information mixed up, as we actually over-delivered as we usually do with our customers. The review has been changed to reflect this, though it seems unfortunate that our box will still be viewed from the negative perspective. In one of the above comments I responded with a bit more of an explanation. We’re not simply a coffee subscription. The high quality box is the cornerstone of our first delivery to current customers, intended to provide a luxurious feel and experience, while still providing more coffee than sites like BeanBox, and to top it off we have specially curated snacks meant to bring out the best flavors of those particular coffees. In the near future we will be having our own coffees, and our own snack goods as well. We are continually building a better company, but we do recognize that it won’t be for everyone; but we still hope that you and other readers will at least consider us for yourselves or for gifts.

potboiler

I will definitely be looking forward to the next review. It started out interesting, but the value is too low. Especially when they aren’t sending the amount of coffee they promised.

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

Potboiler, thank you for your response. There was a mistake and MSA somehow got bad information. I would love to hear your thoughts now that it has been corrected (and our responses and descriptions in the comments above touch on where the value is, which we believe is still tremendous).

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Sharon

Let’s be honest… The value here sucks! It doesn’t “fall a little short” of the price… It falls WAY short! This is awful — stop sugar-coating bad boxes!

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

Thank you for your response, Sharon. It breaks our heart to hear that, especially since MSA somehow got incorrect information (we never posted anywhere promising the amounts Andy was looking for, and we have the amounts posted on our homepage and elsewhere in the correct quantities). I would love to hear your take on our value after you read the above comments (our comments are being delayed and manually screened since we’re new to MSA and they’re trying to prevent spam). We’re not intended to be purely a coffee subscription. But, anyways, if you make it back onto here and read through the lengthy comments, I’d love to hear if that sways your opinions one way or the other. Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

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Stefanie

Well thats disappointing. The value is substantially less than the cost of the box. I love coffee more than anything i would love to try a good coffee sub. This aint it.

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Alex with Match Made Coffee

Thank you for replying, Stefanie. I’m unsure of whether you are the same Stefanie that I responded to above or not, so I’ll just address this comment of yours as if it were separate.

First off, there was a misunderstanding on MSA and Andy’s part as to the coffee quantities, as we haven’t stated on our site or anywhere else that he would receive the weights he was expecting. This has since been addressed and edited on his review since then, which we definitely appreciate him taking the time to do.

However, value seems like it might still be a sticking point for you and a couple other commenters. The biggest value in our first box that Andy reviewed here is in the experience, the curation, and the wooden box. We want you to have this fantastic and luxuriously crafted box on the first shipment, intended to be a talking piece and to house all future shipments. That box alone costs about entire price of the box, yet we still have found hidden gem coffees and snacks at reasonable prices to offset that first major box cost.

I believe that Andy’s coffee was likely sitting in their office for a bit too long, as we shipped this a little more than a month ago, so it probably lost the flavor pop it usually would have. In follow up boxes, we do get to send higher cost coffees and snacks, since the large wooden box cost is no longer there. We are going to be shipping our very own coffees and homemade snacks by top level chefs and professional caterers and taste pairing professionals in the near future.

It’s unfortunate and slightly heartbreaking that our first negative review was on such a large stage, as we do get positive feedback on the curation, quality, and presentation from our subscribers. We hope that you’ll still consider us in the future for yourself or for gifts. I’m more than happy to answer any remaining questions you may have too.

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