From where I sit, Starbucks Via Instant is the competition. It's a notch above the urns of Folgers Freeze-Dried in the grocery store, but like all things Starbucks, still too bitter to really enjoy on its own.
Okay, so I'm not a coffee snob. I'll brew at home in the morning with water at the right temperature, but I'll use pre-ground beans from a vacuum pack. Sure, freshly roasted tastes way better, but as long as I can avoid the bitterness from over-extraction, I'm generally happy with what ends up in my mug.
Because it doesn't need sugar.
That was a revelation to me: that properly brewed coffee does taste pretty damn good on its own, maybe with a bit of milk to smooth out the rough edges.
But the point is, I have no shortage of coffee options at home: aeropress, coffee press, pour-over, good old drip machine. And when I travel, I would struggle mightily to care less about my coffee.
That all said, I would spend $20 for a sample pack to try while backpacking -- especially if it's truly epic coffee. Bringing milk along on the trail is... difficult at best, and it would be a nice little luxury to start the day with a cup of something genuinely tasty.
But starting off with a subscription, for a product I've never sampled? Unlikely.
Maybe I'm not the target market, and I could be drastically underestimating the number of coffee snobs in the world, but I suspect that this company struggle with the current offering.
From where I sit, Starbucks Via Instant is the competition. It's a notch above the urns of Folgers Freeze-Dried in the grocery store, but like all things Starbucks, still too bitter to really enjoy on its own.
Okay, so I'm not a coffee snob. I'll brew at home in the morning with water at the right temperature, but I'll use pre-ground beans from a vacuum pack. Sure, freshly roasted tastes way better, but as long as I can avoid the bitterness from over-extraction, I'm generally happy with what ends up in my mug.
Because it doesn't need sugar.
That was a revelation to me: that properly brewed coffee does taste pretty damn good on its own, maybe with a bit of milk to smooth out the rough edges.
But the point is, I have no shortage of coffee options at home: aeropress, coffee press, pour-over, good old drip machine. And when I travel, I would struggle mightily to care less about my coffee.
That all said, I would spend $20 for a sample pack to try while backpacking -- especially if it's truly epic coffee. Bringing milk along on the trail is... difficult at best, and it would be a nice little luxury to start the day with a cup of something genuinely tasty.
But starting off with a subscription, for a product I've never sampled? Unlikely.
Maybe I'm not the target market, and I could be drastically underestimating the number of coffee snobs in the world, but I suspect that this company struggle with the current offering.