Frequently Asked Questions

Why the name Moustache Coffee Club?

I was poking fun at all the pretentious moustache wearing baristas who acted like they were the guardians of all coffee knowledge in the universe. The elitist attitude to coffee really bugged the hell out of me. I know that everyone can experience amazing coffee at home, it just takes quality fresh beans and some simple equipment. Being rude to your customers with the whole "you aren't worthy"attitude just gives specialty coffee a bad name.

I decided to start a company that was upfront about coffee and didn't speak down or condescend to our customers. So we jokingly referred to the company as the "Moustache Coffee Club" and the name kind of stuck.

We take care of the amazing coffee and the moustaches, leaving you to just brew your daily cup and enjoy.

Why do you spell it Moustache and not Mustache Coffee Club

We think it's funnier and honestly that's a good enough reason for me.

It also confuses people and they start pronouncing it Moo-stache, like we are some sort of bovine 'tache wearers. We aren't, but that's funny too.

What are single-origin coffee beans and why should I care?

Single-origin coffee is coffee from a small geographical area, usually a particular farm or small group of farms. It is significant because the characteristics of the region, the soil, the altitude and the processing (similar to what wine lovers call terroir) all heavily influence the final flavor of the beans.

Because the coffee all comes from a small area and usually one farmer, the quality of the coffee can be controlled to a much higher degree, which makes it taste a lot better, and much more unique. Lots from different farms will produce very different (and very delicious) cups of coffee. Those differences get even more pronounced as you expand to different regions and countries.

The opposite of single-origin coffee is a blend, which is just a mix of different beans from all over. A lot of coffee companies prefer blends for consistency - they'll taste the same no matter what's in season or how old the green coffee is. You trade the unique flavors of a fresh-crop from a single farm for the general, "brown" flavor that you can sell year-round. In some cases, blends also allow folks to cheap out and use lower quality coffee, mixing in just enough high quality beans to cover up the off-flavors. (If it's not obvious by now - we don't love blends.)

You charge $24 for a bag of coffee - is that expensive, or a deal?

Our coffee is very competitive with other specialty roasters, especially considering we include shipping. We also ship the best coffees on this amazing earth, so keep that in mind when comparing our single-origin beans to Folgers or Starbucks blends.

You may see other roasters with similar coffees, perhaps even from the same origin, selling for $25+ without shipping. It begs the question - how can we afford to ship the same quality for less?

Simple.

1. We don't want to rip you off for coffee - we want you to drink it.

2. As a subscription, we roast to order and have almost zero waste. Roasted coffee doesn't sit in our cafe or the grocery store going stale, so we don't have to account for much loss in our margin.

3. We've created a very efficient online shopping experience that doesn't need a large staff to support it, so we can spend more of our money and energy getting you the highest quality coffee.

4. We don't have an incredibly expensive storefront designed by a fancy architect in San Francisco with a bunch of people sitting around using our wifi, posting well-lit Instagrams, costing us money. We are 100% focused on shipping you premium coffee every week - that's it.

When does my shipment of coffee get roasted and sent out?

We roast early in the morning on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, shipping out on the same day. In the continental US, 99% of our shipments arrive 3 days later at the peak of freshness, ready to enjoy.

You can always see and edit when your next shipment is roasting by checking out the schedule tool in your account.

What delivery service do you use? FedEx, USPS, UPS, Messenger pigeon?

We utilize the trusty dusty USPS to ship to customers in the US. We know the worst thing possible is for you to expect your beans and not get them - we'd hate to leave you hanging. Over the 8 years we've been shipping fresh-roasted coffee, the USPS has the best coverage and reliability for our needs.

Unfortunately, although we have tried, it turns out we can't control the weather or freak accidents, so on occasion, our shipments take slightly longer to get to you. You can track your latest shipments from your account panel. If it consistently takes longer than 3 days for your coffee to arrive and you're in the US - there is probably something up (an active forwarding in the system, or an error in your address), so you should talk to your local post office to get that sorted!

Do you ship to APO/FPO/DPO?

We sure do. Just make sure to enter your address correctly and you are good to go. Your city should be one of APO, FPO or DPO and your state should be one of AA, AE or AP depending on your situation.

Because you are probably sitting on a moving ship half-way around the world we can't offer the same shipping timelines that we give to our US based customers. We normally see delivery time of about 7 days for APO, and seeing as we ship the same day we roast, your coffee will still be pretty fresh.

Do you ship to Alaska?

Yes of course. We don't make the same timing guarantees about our shipping to the lower 48 but delivery times are usually very similar (i.e. under 3 days)

Can I give a membership as a gift?

Of course you can! Click the shiny gifts button above and get gifting. Your favorite coffee-lover will thank you every time they brew.

I want to buy a gift for somebody. Should I buy the gift and claim it myself?

Please don't do this. You technically can purchase a gift and then assign it to your own account, but the site isn't really built for this and it leads to confusion.

Gifts act as credit on the recipient's account. Once the credit is used up the site will give them the option to add a payment method to their account if they'd like to continue service. If you claim a gift with the account you used to purchase the gift, the card you paid for the gift with is already on your account - so the subscription will continue on. If this is what you want, great! But if not, read on.

If you want to pay for a fixed amount of time, just purchase a gift and insert the receivers email address and all will be good with the world. They will receive an email with your note and a link to claim their gift. This link will help them create their own account, put in their best shipping address, and set up their preferences. Then they will be able to manage their shipments through their own account - and the subscription will end when the gift credit is used up.

But I really really want to put in the shipping address myself, the recipient doesn't know how to use email/is not to be trusted on the internets!

OK, if you really really have to input somebody else's shipping address and can't go through the normal gift flow, we suggest you create the gift as per usual and send it to an email you control. Then create a new account for the recipient and use this to claim the gift (make sure to log out of your own account first). But do so at your own risk, this is not the recommended way to go about gifting - and you'll be responsible for any accounts you create!

Referring a Friend

We love when you spread the word about Moustache Coffee Club! Word of mouth is a huge way we meet new members, so we're happy to sweeten the deal for everybody involved! When you refer a friend to us - send them your unique link and they'll receive $10 off their first order. Plus, we'll give you a $10 credit when they buy their first bag. It's a win-win!

Copy the unique link associated with your account, and get sharing!

How do you recommend I brew my coffee?

However makes you happy, champ!

No, but seriously, our coffees do well across a variety of brewing methods, including espresso. Here at the roastery we're especially partial to the Chemex for larger brews and the Aeropress for personal cups, but we have members brewing on pretty much anything under the sun.

We always recommend starting around a 16:1 ratio of water to ground coffee when dialing in your brew. (If you don't have a scale, use a little more than 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per cup of water and adjust to taste from there.)

Our coffees tend to taste their best on the higher end of extraction - so if you're setting specific brew temperatures on your machine, we recommend 200F+. For those brewing lo-fi - we usually just wait ~30 seconds post-boil to start our pour overs.

How should I grind my coffee?

We ship all our coffees whole bean to preserve their freshness in transit - a quality burr grinder is the definitely recommended to get the most out of your brews. We recommend grinding just before brewing for best results.

We're proud to be sourcing high-quality, high-altitude coffees, which are generally denser than lower-altitude beans. Paired with our Nordic roasting style, this means our coffees are going to be on the harder end of the bean spectrum, and some under-powered grinders (notably the Breville Barista Express) may not perform optimally.

Here at MCC, we recommend Baratza grinders. They offer a range of models to suit different brewing methods, and are fantastic for support and replacement parts. We even offer a few models for sale on the site, which you can check out here.

Can I make espresso with your coffee?

Sure you can. Our coffees brew wonderfully in espresso applications - producing very bright and sweet shots full of origin character. We have members brewing manual espresso, as well as folks loading MCC beans into the hopper of their superautomatics.

That being said, we know that dialing in a new coffee to pull the perfect shot can take time, and it can also eat up a lot of coffee. To help out, we do offer a dedicated espresso subscription. Unlike our normal plan that introduces a new coffee every week, the espresso plan remains more consistent, selecting the same coffee for several shipments in a row. This allows you to spend less time & beans dialing in shots, and more time enjoying them to the fullest.

Just drop us an email and we can get you switched over to an espresso plan. And maybe attach a few sweet latte art pics while you're at it - show us what you've got!

Do you guys offer Decaf?

YUP. We offer the highest-quality sugarcane and water processed decaf coffees we can find. Being totally straight-up: good decaf coffees are rare, so when we find one, we typically stock up and share it with the club for at least a few months before switching to a new lot.

You can update your preferences to receive decaf via your account panel.

Can I get Moustache for my office?

For sure. We drink MCC brews at work and it makes us way happier and productive - the same will probably be the same for your office too!

Moustache Coffee Club is brewing in office kitchens all over the US. Our client list includes everyone from executives at a big 3 automaker and world-renowned Hollywood studios to small non-profit offices and family-owned businesses. We have several plans for different sized offices, but we can also customize a plan to fit whatever needs you have.

Be the hero your coworkers need, and sign up for one of our workplace coffee plans today.

What is your billing cycle? I like to know when to expect payments to be charged.

You can always see when your next shipment is scheduled in your account panel. We charge for shipments after our weekly production deadlines - (Sunday at 6PM ET, Monday at 6PM ET and Thursday at 6PM ET) at which point your beans are being weighed out and prepped to roast.

Since we roast to-order and are moving a lot of beans in a short amount of time, we're pretty strict on these deadlines. We cannot cancel orders once production has started, and we cannot add extra orders once production has started.

When I am billed- what shows up on my credit card bill? Is there a moustache emoji?

Believe us, we tried. It shows up as “Moustache Coffee Club.” or for certain charges as "BishBashBox"- which is just the name of the platform our site is built on.

Can I skip a shipment if I'm going to be out of town?

Of course! We would hate for you to have a nice vacation and arrive home to stale beans. You can skip a delivery or two via your account dashboard. For longer pauses, or other complex schedule-related questions - just drop us a note and we'll get you fixed up.

As always, make sure you make any changes before our production deadlines (it's very hard to un-roast coffee - so we can't cancel shipments once they're in production).

How does my coffee get selected?

Here at the Moustache Coffee Club we've developed a complex artificial intelligence to help us select your coffee every week. From your point of view it works really simply. You receive coffee and then rate it. The more coffees you rate the more we know about your preferences and the better your coffee selections get. Our coffee selection AI looks at all of your previous ratings and other customers who are like you and uses that to predict the coffee you will like.

It works pretty well, and even if you don't rate the coffees you'll be matched with the roaster's preference. You'll get some pretty awesome coffees either way - so you can't really go wrong!

What is this "Classic Profile"?

Most of our coffees have focused on brighter fruitier coffees. The Classic Profile is a more traditional flavor profile that is focused on flavors of Chocolate, Caramel with a lower acidity. If thats something that appeals to you, you can opt in to receive Classic Profile coffees on the preferences page .

If you'd like to try one out, you can head over to the choose your coffees page and add one to your shipment queue.

As with our Decaf shipments, selecting Classic Profiles only may restrict the variety of your coffee. We don't have 52 different classic profiles per year so you may see some repeat coffees.

How do I cancel my membership?

Relax - we hate to see you go, but we've made canceling easy.

No hidden phone number with wonky business hours that you have to call and sit on hold.

No "cancel" button on the site that's actually a bunch of confusing discount offers, forms to fill, and pop-ups to distract you.

Just send us an email, or reply to any of the emails we send to you, and ask us to cancel your subscription. That's it.

The moment you send us that email, you've canceled your subscription. We process them all manually in the hopes that you'll include feedback for us - so it may take a bit to hear back if you email at 3AM - but you won't be charged after you request cancellation. (We always clear out our inbox before we start roasting the week's new coffee for our members).

Is email really the easiest way to manage cancellations?

The easiest? Probably not - we spend a lot of time answering emails that we could be spending drinking coffee, or mini-golfing. But processing cancelations manually has a few benefits for us and our membership:

The first is the big one: it lets us offer a free trial. Whenever you offer something for free on the internet, people are going to try and game the system - we're talking sign up for hundreds of shipments, use goofy fake names for the same address, or other shenanigans that could put us out of business if left unchecked. Having a real person read the cancellation email and process it helps us keep tabs and intercept sketchy behaviour.

The second reason is that it creates an indisputable cancellation record (it acts as a weak form of non-repudiation, for you distributed system nerds out there). We both have a record of exactly when you canceled, and doing this by email means you don't need to trust our webservers to record the cancellation event. This can help resolve any disputes quickly, should they arise.

Lastly, we're an online-only business, so we have limited opportunities to interact with our customers. Making the cancellation process an email is an easy way to introduce a human touch-point, and hopefully learn about peoples' experience. If you do cancel - we'd love to hear why, especially if there's a specific problem. You won't be talking to some random customer support contractor at a megaplex in Nevada - you'll be talking to the roaster, the production team members, and the web developer. Any feedback will really help us improve the club.

Why do you need my credit card for the free trial?

Fair question - here's the simple answer:

We need to make sure you're a real, actual person.

We're very happy to send our coffee to potential club members because we think most people will really love it, join the club, and brew with us for years to come.

We aren't so happy to send our coffee to hundreds of undeliverable addresses in the Maldives, or a whole high school's football team as part of a weird, moustache-related practical joke. (Both real examples, by the way).

Requiring a credit card helps us cut out these shenanigans, and gives us a way to verify an address and location for folks actually interested in trying out the club.

We won't charge your card for the trial, but we may do a pre-authorization, which us verifying that the card is valid & checking its location. It might show up as a pending $1 charge depending on your card provider, but it'll be automatically reversed like what happens at most gas stations.

What happens when the free trial is over?

You'll be able to see and edit your shipment schedule as soon as you sign up for the trial, so there won't be any surprises about when your trial ships, and when your next coffee is scheduled to ship after the trial.

Still - we'll email you a reminder on the day your trial ends as a heads up.

We do this mostly to give new members a chance to adjust their schedule if they need more or less (usually more) coffee headed their way - but it's a good email to reply to if you really want to part ways.

I just want a free bag of beans, should I sign up for your free trial?

If you're not interested in a subscription, please don't sign up for our trial. The trial exists so that people interested in our service can try our coffee first, not because we get our kicks spending money on postage.

If you just want free beans, and aren't considering a subscription - the resulting bad coffee karma will haunt you for the rest of your life.

How do I contact support?

You can contact support by clicking the "contact" link in the footer (it will open your default email client) or by copying the address contact@moustachecoffeeclub.com .