Crema.co just launched a new online marketplace lets coffee fans find rare roasts that otherwise wouldn’t be so easy to come by.
The Seattle startup tracks the origins of every bag it sells, telling the stories of the mom and pop shops where the coffee is roasted, as well as the farmers who grow the beans in some distant corner of the world.
Crema first got rolling in March with a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised $25,000 from 350 backers. From there, it raised another $150,000 from angel investors and launched a beta with more than 300 users three months ago. On Thursday, the service officially went live.
The startup aggregates the selection, and then lets shoppers subscribe to receive a different roast from their “brewlist” at whatever frequency they choose. That can be every five days, once a month, or somewhere in between.
There’s no subscription or shipping fees. Instead, users pay for whatever coffee they receive. The beans ship directly from the roaster and Crema takes a cut for facilitating the transaction.
Crema founder and CEO Tyler Tate says the company puts a lot of emphasis on freshness, with the goal of getting each bag to the customer no more than three days after it was roasted. The company also spends a lot of time curating a unique selection of micro-roasters you won’t find in grocery stores.
Most 12 oz bags cost about $15, which is on par with these kinds of fancier coffees. For comparison, a 16 oz bag of Starbucks coffee costs $11.95 on its website.
“Coffee is a community, not a commodity,” Tate said in a press release announcing the launch. “We invite everyone to share it with us.”
