The world is constantly changing and especially during the past two years, many things have gotten a lot more complex and expensive. As a small independent company, we try to keep our prices as constant as possible to avoid upsetting our customers and yet, we’re also not immune to inflation and fluctuating prices for raw materials.

That is why, a few weeks ago we started a review of our pricing model to adjust to a few significant changes that will come into effect in in 2022. 

The main driver for this review is a change to our shipping partner’s pricing structure. For 85% of our shipments, we work with Postnl, the Dutch postal service. They offer a product called Packet Tracked, which offers tracked delivery for small packages under 2kg, which we have been using for almost three years now and that has allowed us to offer very competitive shipping rates for our coffee boxes.

Until now, they grouped all European countries into one zone and the remainder into another zone. This meant that for zone 1, it didn’t matter if you lived in Portugal or Russia, the price was the same. Equally, whether you lived in Brazil or Japan, we’d pay the same price. Starting in 2022, they will move to a new structure, which will also apply to us.

Going forward, there will be a separate per item price per country plus a per kg cost that is weight-based. Tthis adds both more complexity and flexibility to our shipping system, and means that we will, henceforth, be able to offer more competitive shipping rates to many countries and only charge our customers for the exact weight of their basket.

The old structure allowed us to offer an all-in price for our European customers while customers in non-EU countries paid a 10,95 EUR surcharge. In light of the new structure of Postnl and our ongoing drive to offer more unique products, coffee boxes and accessories, the old structure no longer fits our needs.

Therefore, we have decided to split our shipping costs from the base price of our boxes and charge shipping separately. This not only allows us to be more transparent, it also means that customers can now add as many items to their order (with a weight limit of 2kg) and get charged shipping only once.

With global inflation rates and the rising cost of specialty coffee in mind, we’ve also decided to implement a small increase to the base prices of our boxes. 

We always positioned our coffee subscription as a unique marketing tool for our roasters that allows them to showcase their finest coffees to a global audience of coffee lovers who, in turn, get unparalleled access to the most exquisite coffees we can find. Yet, while many roasters are indeed willing and able to sell their coffees to us at a discount, many are not. And we fully appreciate that. That is also why, over time, we have been increasing our per kg budget to allow for more roasters to join our family of partners.

We have no interest in being a budget subscription that offers the finest coffees at the lowest possible price. This practice does more damage than good and is also not a realistic way to run a business.

The Coffeevine is far more than a coffee dealer from the internet. We tell stories, we spend time visiting our partners, we create unique experiences and we go above and beyond to offer the best possible customer service so our subscribers know they’re in good hands. And, we want to work with best coffees that we can afford to buy.

This comes at a cost. Our last price increase is as far back as 2019 and so far, we’ve absorbed all of the increases in raw material, transportation and labour costs.

Therefore, starting with the January 2022 box, we will handle the following base prices for our boxes, which will henceforth be listed without shipping costs. Please note, that these changes will not affect existing subscribers as we are not able to manually adjust existing subscriptions. 

The prices include VAT based on the current VAT rates for coffee for all EU member states. If you live outside of the EU or you are an EU-based business with a valid VAT number, you do not pay VAT. 

Our shipping costs do not include VAT. You can find a complete overview of our future shipping costs as set by PostNL below.

Furthermore, starting this month, we will no longer ship any B2C packages via DHL Parcel. All shipments will be sent via Postnl, except B2B orders and shipments going to our global collectives. For these, we will continue working with DHL and UPS.

We’re also introducing some stricter rules on subscription suspensions to keep our subscriber community more active and engaged. Over the years, we noticed that some customers purchased a subscription and then paused it immediately for a period of longer than 6 months. This will no longer be allowed. Any subscription that is suspended within 24 hours of purchase will be manually cancelled along with the corresponding order. Any subscriptions that are paused for longer than 3 months will also be cancelled. 

Customers who wish with to order a box every now and then or who just want to try our service out are, therefore, advised to buy a one-off box.

In 2022, we will continue to offer more delicious limited edition Coffeevine boxes and work with an even bigger pool of roasters, many of which haven’t been featured before. We will also expand our online shop offering to provide our customers with access to a wide range of carefully selected coffee brewing equipment and other cool items such as our first line of Coffeevine merchandise.

And, probably most importantly of all, we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary with a party next year. Without your ongoing support for our project we wouldn’t be here. Thank you. 

I hope that you will understand our need to make the said adjustments as a means to continue operating our little business and that we will always strive to offer you the best experience out there. That is my promise.

If you have any questions about these changes, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Yours truly,

Alex and The Caffeevine team