Welcome to Unfiltered — a new monthly series where we take you behind the scenes at Green Coffee Collective. It’s our way of being more open about what we’re building, fixing, improving (and yes, occasionally messing up) as we grow this platform. Think of it as a longer-form update that distills a few hundred hours of work into something you can digest in a few minutes.
We’re doing something a bit unconventional with the Green Coffee Collective. There’s no playbook for a green coffee platform that supports both home and pro roasters with the level of transparency we’re aiming for. So we’re building as we go - and we want to bring you along for the ride.
This is about sharing the journey in real time: the wins, the lessons, the setbacks - all with the goal of supporting you better and building something that genuinely serves the roasting community.
Let’s get into what we’ve been working on recently.
The Referral Scheme: A Bit of a False Start
This one’s been a bit of a ride.
Last month, we launched a referral scheme - our thinking was simple: if you introduce someone to Green Coffee Collective, we’ll give both of you £15 credit. That feels like a win-win, right?
I debated whether to go with a percentage or fixed amount, but landed on £15 because it’s easier to understand and feels more generous on a first purchase. Especially for home roasters who might just need a little nudge to give us a go.
To be totally transparent - after packaging, fulfilment, and profit margin, it’s more like we’re giving away £10 worth of value. But that still felt like a good bet.
So far, it hasn’t taken off. In fact, the first and only successful referral was… someone referring themselves. Slightly cheeky, mostly funny.
But I still believe there’s something here. If you’ve ever been part of a tight-knit roasting community - on Reddit, WhatsApp, Facebook groups, Discord servers - you’ll know how word spreads. And when someone recommends a new supplier with an actual incentive, that matters. We’ll be refining the scheme over the coming months - tweaking how it works, how we talk about it, and who it’s aimed at.
If you’ve got ideas for how we could improve it shoot me an email hello@greencoffeecollective.com, or you’d like to give it a try, you can sign up here (you need to be an existing customer).
Subscriptions: What’s Working, What’s Not
We’ve made two big pushes on subscriptions recently - and learned a lot in the process.
1. Explorer Subscription
This one’s led by Saskia, and it’s designed to help roasters explore new coffees each month, with a unifying theme. You get three coffees (either 3 x 500g or 3 x 1kg), each with something in common - it could be process, varietal, or region.
The concept’s solid, but the execution has been a challenge.
To make this work, we’ve had to shift how we plan our sourcing. Saskia now gets early visibility of what’s coming in so she can earmark coffees ahead of release. That means subscribers often get access to lots before they hit the main site - or even instead of the main site. It’s a nice bonus.
But the flipside is it ties up stock in advance, and that impacts cash flow. We’re also trying to keep these coffees under £10/kg, which is no small task in the current market. But we think it’s worth it.
2. Staple Subscriptions
These are the regular go-to coffees - the ones you can depend on. And when we launched the option to subscribe, we didn’t expect the uptake to be quite so fast.
What we didn’t anticipate was how quickly things can unravel when:
- A coffee runs out
- The price changes significantly
- You’re locked into a subscription for a very specific SKU
What usually happened? I’d scramble behind the scenes to try to find a replacement. And in most cases, I just wore the cost difference - because it didn’t feel right to surprise you with a price jump, even when the market had shifted.
We’ve now redesigned this from the ground up.
Going forward, we’ll be offering more general origin-based subscriptions - starting with Brazil Natural, Colombian Washed, and East African Natural. Instead of being tied to one specific lot, you’re subscribing to a profile or style. That gives us more flexibility to keep things consistent, without being rigid.
You’ll get notified when a change is coming, and you’ll have full control - skip, pause, cancel - no awkward emails needed.
If you’re already subscribed, I’ll be reaching out in the coming weeks to help transition you to the new format.
Trade Credit for UK Roasters
This one’s been a long time coming.
We’ve started offering roasting equipment (like Aillios and Kaffelogic), and naturally, some of you have asked about finance options. Up until now, all we could offer were consumer-facing tools like Clearpay, Klarna and PayPal Pay in 3 - not ideal for business-level purchases.
We’ve now partnered with iwocaPay to offer credit for UK-based roasting businesses. That means you can choose to spread payments monthly - with terms designed for trade, not consumers.
I’ve known someone on the iwoca team from a previous life, and I trust the service will match up to what we want for our customers. You’ll find the option at checkout, and if you have any questions, I’m happy to chat it through.
Packaging & Deliveries: Small Things, Big Impact
We’re finally updating our boxes and labels.
Expect:
- Branded boxes - easier to identify if they go missing in a depot, and they just look better.
- A refreshed label layout - clearer and more aligned with our brand.
Our new concept sticker, small changes but a bit more "on brand"
We’ve also made the call to move away from DPD and over to DHL. There were just too many lost parcels and slow responses. DHL integrates better with our new order system, and we’re already seeing an improvement in tracking and delivery reliability.
So if your tracking emails or delivery experience looks a little different - that’s why. We hope it’s a better experience overall.
The State of a parcel that was returned to us from DPD and one of the reasons we're switching to DHL.
That’s a Wrap (For Now)
We’ll be doing more of these posts - not as polished marketing pieces, but as honest updates from a small team building something with purpose. The wins, the learnings, the challenges - all laid out as they are.
If you’ve got feedback, ideas, or just want to tell us what’s working or not working - we’re always listening.
Thanks for being here,
Dale
