Odds are, you’ve taken pills before; it’s a statistical certainty that some of you reading this took several this morning. Whenever you do, you’re at the mercy of the manufacturer: you’re trusting that they’ve put in the specific active ingredients in the dosage listed on the package. Alas, given the world we live in, that doesn’t always happen. Double-checking actual concentrations requires expensive lab equipment like gas chromatography. It turns out checking for counterfeit pills is easier than you’d think, thanks to a technique called Disintegration Fingerprinting.
The raw voltage signal from the sensor is stored as a “disintegration fingerprint” of particles detected per minute.
It’s delightfully simple: all you need is a clear plastic cup, a stir plate, and a handful of electronic components — namely, a microcontroller, a servo, and an IR line-following sensor. You’ve probably played with just such a sensor: the cheap ones that are a matched pair of LED and photodetector. It works like this: the plastic cup, filled with water, sits upon the stir plate. To start the device, you turn on the stir plate and actuate the servo to drop the pill in the water. The microcontroller then begins recording the signal from the photo-diode. As the pill breaks up and/or dissolves in the water, the swirling bits are going to reflect light from the IR LED. That reflectance signal over time is the Disintegration Fingerprint (DF), and it’s surprisingly effective at catching fakes according to the authors of the paper linked above. Out of 32 different drug products, the technique worked on 90% of them, and was even able to distinguish between generic and brand-name versions of the same drug.
Of course, you do need a known-good sample to generate a trustworthy fingerprint, and there’s that pesky 10% of products the technique doesn’t work on, but this seems like a great way to add some last-mile QA/QC to the drug distribution chain, particularly in low and middle-income countries where counterfeit drugs are a big problem.
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is tricky. The purple category is especially difficult, but try reading the clues out loud for help. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Summers in Florida are terrible, forcing people to get creative in order to stay cool without breaking the bank or overloading the electricity grid. Hyperspace Pirate took on the problem and came up with a clever mechanism that absorbs solar energy throughout the day and stores it as ice for use when cooling is required, bingo.
Three regular 100-watt solar panels are put on the back of a vehicle and simply plug into a normal charge controller connected to a 35-amp-hour lead-acid battery. Once the battery is fully charged, the microcontroller activates an inverter, which powers a miniature refrigerator compressor. That compressor sucks up around 80 to 100 watts and begins to draw heat from a 2-gallon water bucket coated in substantial insulation, as we’re talking one-inch foam panels and a lot of fiberglass wool here.
Portable Generator with 60W Solar Panel Included: with a big battery pack, ZeroKor 300W power stations Generator are powerful enough to charge…
Multiple Charging outlets for camping gear with SOS Flashlight: with 2* 300W Max AC outlets, 1* DC port (9V-12.6V/10A max ), 3* 5V/3A Max USB ports…
Multiple Charging Optional, Solar Panel 60W Included: ZeroKor portable power bank generator can be recharged by wall AC outlet, DC5521 Solar Panel…
Hours under the hot afternoon sun transform the entire bucket into a solid block of ice. The phase transition from liquid water to ice manages to store approximately 2.5 million joules of energy in that rather normal container. When the procedure is reversed, these numbers add up to adequate cooling capacity to provide around 700 watts of chilled air for an hour. On the cooling side, a pump circulates a 50-50 mix of water and ethylene glycol via twenty feet of copper tubing coiled deep inside the frozen block. That liquid sucks cold from the ice and drains to a standard automobile radiator with a little fan attached. Only a few watts are required to run the pump and fan, so the battery may continue to provide power even after sunset.
The insulation around the bucket is so strong that heat only leaks in at about 7 or 8 watts. Testing revealed that the ice remained frozen solid for several days, with almost no evidence of melting. The microcontroller’s voltage logging revealed that the compressor was kicking in at 12.9 volts and shutting out at 11.1 volts to keep the battery happy, while solar was still charging. The real-world trial put it through its paces inside the truck cab. Even on a warm day, circulating that refrigerated glycol significantly reduced the inside temperature over a few hours. The entire setup is slightly heavier than a basic battery pack, but it is still suitable for mobile use or small structures where grid ties do not seem like an option.
Scaling up becomes easy from here on out, since adding more solar panels and a larger water tank increases the output to several kW. Cabins and recreational vehicles were already an appropriate fit, both in terms of size and energy requirements. As an added plus, a whole house may use the system as an extra cooling source when it’s really hot outside without having to transfer any excess electricity back to the power company.
Water carries the load rather than all those chemical batteries. So the storage remains compact while the pricing remains affordable. One cubic metre of ice has roughly 93 kilowatt-hours of cooling power and weighs less than a stack of cells. The compressor runs on standard n-butane refrigerant that has been charged into a closed loop. It never interacts with the glycol side. Every last piece was built with off-the-shelf parts, some copper fabrication, and some custom code for monitoring. [Source]
Tallinn-based European ride-hailing player Bolt is teaming up with Nvidia ‘to build the AI foundation for scaling autonomous vehicles in Europe’.
Bolt says the new collaboration will combine its own extensive ride-hailing and car-sharing fleet data with Nvidia Omniverse libraries, Nvidia Cosmos world foundation models, Nvidia Alpamayo AV foundation models, and Nvidia AI infrastructure “to accelerate safe AV development for European roads”. The new AV platform will be deployed on the Nvidia Drive Hyperion computer and sensor architecture.
The news could mark a major boost to Europe’s autonomous vehicle and robotaxi ambitions. Today Bolt operates in more than 50 countries and 850 cities, and claims 200m customers.
“Real-world data is the most valuable asset in the race for safe autonomy,” said Jevgeni Kabanov, president and head of autonomous driving at Bolt. “By marrying Bolt’s operational scale with the Nvidia Hyperion Platform, Alpamayo foundation models, AI infrastructure, and open models and libraries, we are creating a European-led AV offering that ensures our continent remains at the forefront of mobility innovation while maintaining full control over our data and technology.”
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“Autonomous vehicles require a full-stack approach that unifies AI models, high-performance compute and a robust sensor architecture,” said Philippe van den Berge, EMEA vice-president of automotive at Nvidia, who said the new initiative would enable a scalable foundation for safe, high-performance autonomous mobility services designed for the “complexity and diversity” of European roads.
According to Bolt, the new collaboration will establish a life cycle for AI development – from data provision to common base models – enabling new mobility applications that will be safe, auditable and “uniquely European”, and said any processing of Bolt’s fleet data will ensure “strict compliance” with GDPR and EU cybersecurity standards.
“Globally, US firm Uber receives a lot of attention for its moves to engage with players across the autonomous mobility ecosystem,” said Forrester’s VP principal analyst Paul Miller. “But Bolt is also a strong player in the European market and, like Uber, the company has been working to build partnerships in anticipation of a future where at least some of its ride hailing vehicles have no driver.”
Miller cites Bolt’s existing partnership with Pony.ai, signed in 2025, which could see the Chinese provider’s autonomous robotaxis tested on European roads in late 2026.
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“It makes sense for Bolt to explore where and how [Nvidia’s] stack might support Bolt and Bolt’s partners,” said Miller. “It also makes sense for Nvidia to spread its bets, helping slot its hardware and software into as many autonomous mobility projects as possible.”
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Screen grabs from the Lamu app show various interactions with AI, including, from left, answering profile questions, receiving a “love score” and completed profile, and discussing date location options. (Lamu Images)
Ada Jin was suffering from dating app fatigue. She was tired of the constant swiping and the hook-up mentality that’s prevalent on many legacy platforms. She wanted a product that helped facilitate intentional dating and respected people’s time and effort.
So she turned to AI to help humans better connect.
Jin is the founder of Lamu, a Seattle-based digital matchmaking service that relies on artificial intelligence to learn about users and help facilitate conversations and meaningful dates between matches.
“What we’re trying to solve is helping people find the right person more efficiently,” Jin said, adding that unlike traditional human matchmaker services which can cost thousands of dollars, Lamu is “way, way, way more affordable.”
Lamu founder Ada Jin. (Photo courtesy of Ada Jin)
Lamu charges a $9.99 registration fee to get people into the matching pool, and to scare off fake or deceptive profiles.
Users start with an onboarding in which they answer questions presented by Lamu’s AI. Jin said they’ve tried to make it fun and interactive, allowing people to communicate with the AI, even by voice. The AI generates a “love score” and then searches for matches, revealing one or two per week to avoid the paralysis of too many choices. Initial revealed information between matches includes first name, age, city, occupation and some hobbies or interests.
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If the matches are mutually interested, the AI puts them in a group chat where the matchmaker serves as “wingman” to help things progress. Photos are only shared at this point so that users have the “full picture” before they choose to meet in person.
Jin thinks Seattle is the perfect place to build such a startup rather than the Bay Area where she previously worked as an engineer at Meta and TikTok. She says Lamu and AI could help penetrate the infamous “Seattle freeze” and loneliness in general.
While San Francisco has more founders and a more active investor base around consumer startups, Jin is invested in the Seattle region’s natural beauty and outdoor pursuits.
Since moving to the city last June, she’s been involved in Seattle’s startup community, which helped her meet her co-founder, Georgiy Lapin, a computer science student at the University of Washington.
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Lamu isn’t the only player turning to AI to fix a broken dating culture. The industry’s giants are also utilizing AI in a variety of ways to address some of the issues Jin described.
At its first-ever product keynote earlier this month, Tinder unveiled a number of features including “Chemistry,” an AI-powered personalization layer that uses a scan of a user’s camera roll and interactive Q&As to curate daily recommendations. “Are You Sure?” is another tool using context-aware AI to detect and blur inappropriate messages before they’re even seen. Meanwhile, Bumble recently launched its “Deception Detector,” which the company says has successfully blocked 95% of accounts identified as spam or scams.
As Lamu grows, Jin is betting that users are ready to trade endless swiping for a slower, more deliberate pace. Her goal isn’t to keep people on the platform, but to provide the one thing legacy apps often lack: a sense of direction.
“I really need more clarity,” Jin said, reflecting on the burnout that led her to build the app. “I’d rather just do it once and find the right person.”
Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Jack Conte created Patreon to try and earn extra from his YouTube videos. The musician-turned-businessman is now managing a platform with 3 million monthly active users, and has plenty to say to big corporations operating chatbots and other AI platforms. First and foremost, these AI companies should stop crying foul… Read Entire Article Source link
A new bill proposed in California “goes after big tech companies” writes Semafor. Supported by Y Combinator, Cory Doctorow , and the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, it’s called the “BASED” act — an acronym which stands for “Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms.”
As announced by San Francisco state representative Scott Wiener, the bill “will restore competition to the digital marketplace by prohibiting any digital platform with a market capitalization greater than $1 trillion and serving 100 million or more monthly users in the U.S., from favoring their own products and services on the platforms they operate.”
For years, giant digital platforms like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta have used their immense power to promote their own products and services while stifling competitors — a practice also known as self-preferencing. The result has been higher prices, diminished service, and fewer options for consumers, and less innovation across the technology ecosystem.
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Self-preferencing also locks startups and mid-sized companies out of the online marketplace unless they play by rules set by their competitors. As a new generation of AI-powered startups seeks to enter the marketplace, their success — and public access to the innovations they produce — depends on their ability to compete on an even playing field.
“Anticompetitive behavior is everywhere on the internet,” said Senator Wiener, “from rigged search results, to manipulative nudges boosting the ‘house’ product, to anti-discount policies that raise prices, to the dreaded green bubble that ‘breaks’ the group chat. When the world’s largest digital platforms rig the game to favor their own products and services, we all lose. By prohibiting these anticompetitive practices, the BASED Act will protect competition online, empower consumers and startups, and promote innovations to improve all our lives.” The announcement includes a quote from Teri Olle, VP of the nonprofit Economic Security California Action, saying the act would “safeguard merit-based market competition. This legislation stands for a simple principle: owning the stadium doesn’t mean that you get to rig the game.”
Some conduct prohibited by the proposed bill includes
Manipulating the order of search results to favor a provider’s products or services, irrespective of a merit-based process,
Using non-public data generated by third-party sellers — including sales volumes, pricing, and customer behavior — to develop competing products that are subsequently boosted above the third-party sellers’ product…
And the announcement also notes that “under the terms of the bill, providers could not prevent consumers from obtaining a portable copy of their own data or restrict voluntary data sharing (by consumers) with third parties.”
“This is exactly the kind of common-sense antitrust reform we need if we want the next generation of startups to have a fair shot rather than watching Big Tech pull up the ladder behind them.”
— Jeremy Stoppelman CEO and Co-Founder, Yelp
“California has led the way on privacy, and now it has a chance to lead on digital competition. SB 1074 would prohibit the self-preferencing tactics that dominant platforms use to box out competitors — the same tactics that make it harder for people to discover and switch to privacy-respecting alternatives like DuckDuckGo.”
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— Kamyl Bazbaz, Chief Communications and Policy Officer, DuckDuckGo
“When users can freely choose privacy-focused alternatives without artificial barriers, everyone benefits — from independent developers to everyday people who deserve control over their digital lives.”
— Raphael Auphan, Chief Operating Officer, Proton
“[The BASED act] is about stopping market corruption — the moment when a platform uses its control over the pipes to bury rivals, tax every transaction, and quietly swallow the open web. This bill restores something simple and very American: if you build something great, you should win or lose on the merits, not on whether a gatekeeper decides to rig the rules.”
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— Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the enshittification of digital platforms, it’s this: *someone* is going to regulate the way you use the internet. If governments don’t step in, that regulator will be a powerful *company*, a platform that structures markets to maximize its interests, at the expense of technology makers, technology users, buyers *and* sellers.”
The distinction between the models lies in their platforms. The AI+ versions use Intel’s latest Panther Lake platform and are powered by Core Ultra Series 3 chips. These configurations support higher performance, featuring two DDR5 memory slots. Read Entire Article Source link
An artist’s conception shows Portal Space Systems’ Starburst spacecraft at left and its larger Supernova platform in the distance at right, both outfitted with Paladin Space’s Triton payload for orbital debris tracking and removal. (Portal Space Systems Illustration)
Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems is partnering with an Australian venture called Paladin Space on a commercial service that would round up and dispose of potentially dangerous orbital debris.
The concept — known as Debris Removal as a Service, or DRAAS — is meant to address one of the most pernicious problems facing spacecraft operators: how to dodge tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that are zipping through Earth orbit.
Since its founding in 2021, Portal has been focusing on the development of maneuverable orbital vehicles that could rendezvous with other satellites, either for servicing or for disposal. Its flagship is the Supernova in-space mobility platform, which will be equipped with an innovative solar thermal propulsion system. There’ll also be a smaller version of the spacecraft, called Starburst. Starburst-1 is due for launch as early as this year, and Supernova is scheduled to make its debut in 2027.
Meanwhile, Paladin Space has been working on a reusable payload called Triton, which is designed to track and capture tumbling pieces of orbital debris that are less than 1 meter (3 feet) in size. That small-to-medium size category accounts for most of the debris that’s being tracked in orbit.
“Triton is built to remove dozens of those objects in a single mission, which fundamentally changes the cost structure of debris remediation and provides the greatest benefit to satellite operators,” Paladin CEO Harrison Box said today in a news release.
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A space debris hit to the space shuttle Endeavour’s radiator was found after one of its missions. The entry hole was about a quarter-inch wide, and the exit hole was twice as large. (USGS Photo / circa 2007)
The Portal-Paladin partnership calls for installing Triton hardware on Starburst spacecraft. Portal’s orbital platform would go out in search of space junk, and Paladin’s payload would grab the debris. When Triton’s trash bin is full, it would be dropped off for safe disposal while the spacecraft remains in orbit for continued servicing.
The companies are targeting an initial deployment in 2027, focusing on heavily trafficked bands of low Earth orbit. Future missions may take advantage of Supernova’s added capabilities to service a wider variety of orbits.
Other efforts to remove orbital debris are in the works: A Japanese company called Astroscale executed two orbital test missions (ELSA-d and ADRAS-J) and is now gearing up for follow-up demonstration missions (COSMIC, ADRAS-J2 and ELSA-M). A Swiss company called ClearSpace is working with the European Space Agency on an experimental mission that would take a defunct satellite out of orbit.
Portal CEO Jeff Thornburg said DRAAS will be much more than a one-off demonstration. “This is about making debris removal operational, not experimental,” he said. “Satellite data underpins communications, navigation, weather forecasting and national security. Maintaining that infrastructure requires active debris management. For the first time, we can do that as a repeatable service.”
Portal has already attracted millions of dollars in financial support from SpaceWERX, a division of the U.S. Space Force that focuses on bridging the gap between commercial technologies and military needs. Its partnership with Paladin targets a different market for in-space services. NASA has estimated that debris avoidance maneuvers cost U.S. satellite operators roughly $58 million annually.
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At least one potential customer is going public about its interest. Portal said Starlab Space, a joint venture that is working on a commercial space station, has signed a letter of intent to integrate the DRAAS service into future station operations. Starlab’s team includes Airbus, Voyager Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Mitsubishi and Palantir.
“Safety is the foundation of everything we’re building at Starlab,” said Brad Henderson, Starlab’s chief commercial officer. “We’re engineering a station designed to last for decades, one that must meet the highest standards of integrity to protect our crew and the science that will live aboard. Capabilities that reduce collision risk and limit the need for frequent collision avoidance maneuvers directly serve that mission.”
There are two main kinds of coffee subscription providers: roasters and retailers. Both roasters and multi-roaster retailers sell great coffee. This guide contains a mix of both.
Roasters are cafés and small-batch producers who buy raw beans from farmers all over the world and roast them to perfection. By buying from a roaster, you’re directly supporting the people who make your favorite coffees. The downside is you usually won’t have as broad a selection. Roasters usually sell only their own coffee, but that often means special blends and single origins are available from a roaster that you can’t get from a retailer. Your local roaster down the street may also have subscription offers, giving you the chance to buy local without leaving your house—and often catch a discount.
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Retailers or Multi-Roaster Subscriptions are coffee subscription providers who buy their beans from many different roasters, then ship bags of coffee to you. A multi-roaster retailer will often have a much broader selection of high-quality coffee available (from multiple brands) to ship to your doorstep—often selected and curated carefully by coffee experts. The downside on some subscriptions is that you’re not buying directly from a roaster, which means the coffee may not be as fresh. (That’s where this guide comes in. We can tell you how fresh they are, because we always test each one and take note of the roast dates on each coffee bag.)
Subscription Beans vs. Locally Roasted Beans
Look: If you live in a big city with great coffee—and let’s be clear, nearly every midsize city in the United States has at least a couple of excellent roasters—the best way to try fresh roasts and new beans, and learn about them, is to … go to your local roaster. Look up your local coffee roasters or visit your favorite coffee shop and ask where they get their beans. Buy the beans. Talk to people. It’s fun, if you like talking to people.
Heck, this is also true when you’re traveling. The best coffee you can find is often the cup you drink when you’re on the road, in a new place, tasting something new. Even if you don’t live on the road, it’s fun to explore different shops when you do travel.
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But the wonder of the internet is that you’re not limited to only the best of what’s local. Subscriptions allow you to take the temperature of the most interesting roasters from all over the country, without going anywhere in particular. Heard about that one roaster in Delaware or North Carolina making crazy coffee with co-ferments and natural fermentation? A roaster in Guatemala highlighting beans from their neighbors? Let them surprise you. Are you new to the world of premium coffee, and you’d like some help from the curators at Trade Coffee or Podium Coffee Club to learn what you like?
This is why you might take a subscription. The world is at your door—even the world you’ve never even visited. I’m also lazy enough to order subscriptions from roasters a 15-minute drive away, but this is between you and your local ecologist.
But also, sometimes it’s homesickness for what used to be local. One of the best, most interesting, and kinda attitudinal roasters I know in this country is a tiny spot in South Jersey called Royal Mile. They used to be my favorite local coffee shop, when I lived in Philly and would drive to Jersey to get the coffee. Now they aren’t local at all, because I moved. But through the magic of the internet and the US Postal Service, I can still get their truly wild, surprising, mad-scientist single-origin bags anytime I want. What a privilege.
How We Test Coffee Subscriptions
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To test these subscriptions, we try a variety of beans from each service, both our own picks and any curated options. We brewed each bag in different ways to see which beans were best suited to which brewing method. Over subscriptions he tested, Scott Gilbertson covered the spectrum of grinds with espresso, moka pot, French press, pour over, and Turkish or cowboy coffee. Matthew Korfhage wanders through espresso, AeroPress, drip, cold brew, pour-over, and a wealth of somewhat unclassifiable devices.
It’s worth doing the same if you have access to different brewing methods, especially if you opt for a subscription that offers a lot of variety. A roast that makes a great shot of espresso does not necessarily make the best pour-over coffee, and vice versa. Some roasters, like the excellent Equator Coffee, offer one subscription specifically for espresso, one for decaf, and another for light single-origin roasts that lend themselves to drip and pour-over. It can also be rewarding to take notes on your favorites. Some of these services offer a way to do this on the site, which is handy, though a paper notebook works well enough. If you’d like some more pointers on brewing, be sure to read our guide to brewing better coffee at home.
Are Coffee Subscriptions Worth It?
A delivery coffee subscription service often does offer discounts on shipping or the base cost of each bag, as compared to buying single bags for delivery. But usually, subscriptions will be premium beans, so it won’t be as cheap as the less-fresh, often preground coffee from your grocery store.
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But if you’re the sort who likes to try the best freshly roasted single-origin Ethiopian or Guatamalan beans from roasters all over the country? This is where coffee subscriptions shine. You’re also often getting the best speciality bags a roaster has to offer, or a curated selection from a certified Q-grader—meaning you’re a lot more likely to find new roasts and origins you wouldn’t have come across on your own.
But a coffee subscription gives me access to beans from all over the country and world. It’s a mix of ease and adventure, and a chance to be a barista at my own home multiroaster café. I enjoy that I can get fresh-roasted beans from a coffee farm in Guatemala who roasts their own impossibly fresh beans onsite, alongside world-famous beans from other farmers right down the road—or taking a world tour each month with beans from my favorite globe-hopping roaster, Atlas Coffee Club.
But for others, a coffee subscription is just a way to get a steady drip of their favorite bag from their favorite roaster, guaranteed to arrive every week or every two weeks. Simple convenience is its own form of worth it.
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How Does WIRED Select Coffee Subscriptions to be Reviewed?
There’s a lot of good coffee out there. And I am never not trying coffee—drip, espresso, cold brew, I’m consistently drinking it and testing out new roasters. I’ve been writing about coffee for 15 years on both coasts, and I’ve always been on the lookout for new and exciting growers, roasters, and beans.
Coffee can be subjective, of course, and everyone has their preferences. I include my personal favorite roasters among this list, rotate in new discoveries I figure readers might be interested in, and also solicit favorites from other very… wired… WIRED reviewers with different palates. But when deciding what subscriptions to include in our small, curated list, I also ask: What does this subscription offer that others don’t? I’m often looking for coffee subscriptions that best serve particular types of drinkers—a new service, a new delivery method, a clever way to cater to what you (whoever you may be) really want at your doorstep each week.
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Often, a unique or uniquely useful or just kinda cool subscription model or roaster will be the first I’m in line to test. Other times, I get sent a sample bag of beans and it sends me over a moon. Always feel free to send a note about a particularly terrific roaster or subscription, at [email protected].
How Have Tariffs Affected Coffee Prices?
Ain’t gonna lie. Tariffs don’t help coffee prices. Pretty much all coffee roasted and sold in the United States is imported. If it costs more to bring into the Unites States, it will eventually cost more to buy.
This is one of many factors that affected coffee prices throughout last year, including extreme weather in Brazil and Vietnam, increasing demand, and relatively flat supply. All of these factors, including tariffs, have contributed to coffee prices rising drastically since the beginning of 2025. By fall 2025, commodity coffee bean prices were 40 percent higher than the same time the previous year. In late 2025, fully a quarter of our dozen top-pick coffee subscriptions raised prices by a buck or two a bag.
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This year has been kinder. While still up considerably since 2024, coffee commodity prices seem to have stabilized a bit after a small bipartisan delegation of lawmakers introduced a bill that would specifically exempt coffee from tariffs. In November 2025, most of the largest coffee tariffs were rolled back by presidential decree. The Supreme Court then rolled back all tariffs in February, and nixed a presidential attempt to unilaterally instate another round of 10 percent tariffs, raising the specter of tariff refunds.
But lingering effects remain, and it’s not clear coffee prices have gone back down after last year’s hikes. This is true especially because many roasters absorbed higher costs for a number of months before hiking consumer prices. The best I can say is that none of my top coffee subscription picks raised prices in 2026.
Subscriptions can absorb high coffee commodity prices in part by selecting which beans get sent. In many cases, subscriptions are able to charge less than the individual bags you see at the supermarket, because of guaranteed sales (kinda the same way subscribing to a magazine costs less than buying at the newsstand.)
There are so many coffee subscriptions out there, and honestly, a lot of them are very good coffee. Some are even amazing coffee. This list would need to be three times as long to capture every one of them at the least. I have way more subscriptions I’ve loved than I have space to talk about them, so here I’ve gathered some past picks that we here at WIRED like; some of these provide very specific services too. Have a favorite we haven’t tried? Send an email to [email protected]
Gento Coffee for $48 for two bags: Gento is part of a new and welcome trend: growers who roast their own coffee and ship directly from the source. In Guatemala, Gento takes this a step further, roasting beans from other local growers that rank among the most esteemed bean farms in the world. But in this case, the beans might only travel down the road to be roasted. The single-origin subscription is really the play, here. Alongside roasts from Gento’s own beans from the Prentice family farm, you might find roasts from esteemed Guatemalan growers like Genaro Juarez and Patrona Perez. If those names don’t mean anything to you yet, they will after you try them.
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Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
Camber Coffee for $20+ per 12-ounce bag: Bellingham, Washington, roaster Camber Coffee slipped under the radar for me for maybe too long—but amid its 10-year anniversary celebrations, I finally remedied this. Camber makes distinguished, aromatic, balanced single-origin coffees and a truly chocolatey espresso blend called Big Joy that lives up to its name: it’s like a fudge brownie in espresso form. Subscriptions net you 10 percent off list price on each bag.
Sunday Coffee Project for $27 per box ($45 for two): Portland’s Sunday Coffee Project is a roaster without a café, a fun art project, and a home to some of the most distinctive, funky, fruity, interesting coffee I know in this country. This could be a yeast-fermented Thai light roast that tastes a whole lot like Sangria, or an Ethiopian so floral you’ll swear you got invited to a spring wedding. Plus, your coffee comes in a little art box, designed to look like a coffee-themed children’s cereal complete with games on the back and a little cartoon character on the front: maybe a sheep lifting weights or a snake playing tennis. It’s a wee roaster, and they’ve dialed back their offerings from weekly new roasts to monthly new roasts. But if you like light and adventurous coffee, a box from Sunday Coffee Project may be your favorite thing you get in the mail that month.
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Courtesy of Trucup
Trücup for $17 per 12-ounce bag: Are you sensitive to the acids in coffee, but you love coffee? Trücup makes unique, low-acid coffee through what it calls a natural steam process, which makes it a great option for caffeine lovers with sensitive stomachs or those who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease or heartburn. (Standard disclaimer: If you’ve been diagnosed with GERD, talk to your physician before you try any coffee.) Either way, even those with well-fortified stomachs may want to take note. WIRED Reviewer Scott Gilbertson loves this coffee for a more mellow cup in the afternoon or evening.
Grounds and Hounds for $19: We’ve recommended this as a top pick in the past, for its mix of feel-good donations to animal shelters and excellent roasts. Grounds and Hounds offers small-batch roasted blends and single-origin beans, with 20 percent of its profits going to benefit animal shelters. The brand has some of WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson’s personal favorite coffees, especially the dark roasts. (Try the Snow Day Winter Roast when it’s available.) Subscriptions are mostly recurring, individual-bag subscriptions.
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Wonderstate Coffee for $19 to $21 per 10.5 ounce bag: Wisconsin’s Wonderstate, previously named Kickapoo, is quite possibly the nation’s first fully solar-powered roaster—and has a long and vocal commitment to providing higher pay to farmers. It’s also a quite excellent roaster. The most recent batch of single origins I tried had a tendency toward light, subtle, mild-mannered, and lightly tannic brews—a cosmopolitan palate that’s also Midwestern-polite.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
French Truck Coffee for $18 to $22 a bag: French Truck Coffee got its start in New Orleans and now has a dozen of its signature yellow storefronts scattered around town. WIRED operations manager Scott Gilbertson is a fan of the Big River blend, which has a deep, rich, and very robust flavor profile that’s especially well-suited to pour-over brewing. In fact, French Truck has some of the most detailed brewing instructions around.
Birds & Beans Coffee for $18+ a bag: Like birds? Clear-cut coffee farms can be hard on them. But Birds & Beans is a coffee roaster devoted to making sure its coffee is grown in Smithsonian-certified, bird-friendly farms with tree cover that helps birds thrive. The dark roasts in particular are delicious and genuinely dark: Scarlet Tanager is a favorite of WIRED operations manager Scott Gilbertson.
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Stone Creek Coffee for $40 (two bags): Milwaukee-based Stone Creek Coffee delivers its fresh, flavorful coffee in big 1-pound bags, with a variety of blends and single-origin options available. The Cream City blend in particular is a delightful medium roast with some warmer flavor notes like chocolate and brown sugar rounded out by some fruity flavors, according to former WIRED coffee writer Jaina Grey, giving the coffee an almost cacao nib flavor. Add a little milk and it’s almost like drinking hot cocoa. A monthly subscription delivers two bags a shipment.
Grit Coffee for $17+ a bag: From its roastery in Charlottesville, Virginia, Grit Coffee roasts up excellent blends, including an excellent, roasty, chocolatey Side Hustle blend with a subtle high note of acidity to balance it out. But what really differentiates Grit from other roasters is grit. The roaster makes long-term, often 10-year commitments to its coffee farmers.
Photograph: Jaina Grey; Getty Images
Lady Falcon for $49 (two bags): Lady Falcon Coffee Club may draw you in with the art nouveau-style bags. But the luscious, velvety coffee within is what will keep you coming back, according to former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey. Each coffee blend is thoughtfully mixed to heighten the flavors present in the contributing coffees, and the flavor notes are spot-on.
Angels’ Cup for $28 a bag: Angels’ Cup is more like a distance-learning coffee school than a box subscription service, and the Black Box subscription is like a blind coffee tasting from afar. You will learn what you actually like and dislike about coffee, along with some education through the app, roaster’s notes, and notes from fellow tasters.
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Mistobox for $20+ a bag: With more than 500 different coffees from 50-plus roasters, Mistobox makes a good gift subscription, especially if you don’t know what kind of coffee to get someone. Somewhere in those 500 choices, your coffee fanatic should find something that will make them happy. One of the most compelling and surprising offerings: Misto lets you choose the most you’re willing to pay per shipment, and your offerings will change accordingly. Delivery frequency can also be customized down to the day. But as it appears they’re in the process of transferring to a new back end, we’ll give them a moment before assessing the new website and ordering system.
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