If the last bean ends up in the grinder on Monday morning, the coffee subscription was set too late. If the next delivery arrives when your pantry is still full, however, you are unnecessarily tying up your budget and space. To easily calculate your coffee subscription delivery interval, above all, you need to know your actual consumption and plan it with a small reserve. This takes a few minutes and prevents a lot of everyday stress.
The same basic rule applies to households, home office days, and small offices: Don't order based on a feeling, but calculate based on cups, grams, and package size. This way, your Italian coffee remains freshly available without you having to constantly reorder.
Why the right delivery interval makes such a big difference
A coffee subscription is supposed to save you work. For that, the delivery quantity must match the rhythm. With an interval that is too short, packages pile up. While whole beans retain their aroma well with proper storage, a manageable supply is better than an overflowing shelf. With an interval that is too long, spontaneous emergency purchases are imminent, where the selection, price, and favorite variety often are not right.
Consumption also changes faster than many think. Two additional home office days, guests over the holidays, or a new team member in the office directly affect the coffee supply. A sensibly calculated subscription is therefore not a fixed decision forever, but a practical plan that you adjust as needed.
Easily calculate the coffee subscription delivery interval: the formula
You only need four pieces of information: How many people drink coffee, how many coffees each person drinks on average per day, how much coffee is in each portion, and how large is your supply in the subscription? From this, the range in days is calculated.
Range in days = total coffee quantity in grams ÷ daily consumption in grams
For beans or ground coffee, you can calculate with 8 to 10 grams as a starting value for an espresso. For Café Crème, Lungo, or larger drinks, the consumption is often higher, depending on the machine and recipe. Don't take the ideal value from the user manual, but observe your actual consumption for a week. This provides the most useful basis.
With capsules and pods, it is even easier: Count the portions in the box and divide them by the cups drunk daily. If you drink different varieties, it is best to calculate each variety separately. A decaffeinated coffee for the evening should not distort the supply of your morning espresso.
Example for coffee beans at home
In a household, two people drink five espressos together daily. You use 9 grams of beans per espresso. The daily consumption is therefore 45 grams. Your subscription includes four 1 kg bags, a total of 4,000 grams.
4,000 grams divided by 45 grams results in around 89 days of range. However, a delivery interval of 90 days would be tight, because consumption peaks, a wrongly set grind, or a weekend with guests are not included. Therefore, plan a reserve of about one week and set the delivery to around 80 days in this case.
If you mainly drink Café Crème with 12 grams per serving, the same daily consumption rises to 60 grams. The four kilograms then last about 67 more days. This shows: Not the number of cups alone decides, but also the drink and the dosage.
Example for capsules and pods
You have 100 capsules of your favorite variety and drink two on weekdays, one capsule per day on the weekend. Instead of calculating complicatedly, you take the weekend average: 12 capsules per week, so around 1.7 per day. The package lasts approximately 58 days.
With a reserve of seven to ten days, an interval of 49 to 50 days fits. The same calculation works for pods. Just make sure whether guests or colleagues regularly drink along. Then the average is quickly higher than expected.
Don't plan until the last portion
The reserve is not a luxury, but part of a reliable plan. For private households, seven days are usually sensible. For a small office with daily coffee consumption, it may be ten to fourteen days, because outages are more noticeable there and consumption is less precisely predictable.
Also consider the delivery. Baristacoffeeshop usually delivers within Switzerland in 2 to 3 business days. Nevertheless, a weekend, a holiday, or a short-term demand peak can shift the process. Those who plan with a reserve do not have to look at the package status when the coffee machine already demands a refill.
Which delivery intervals are typically suitable?
An interval of 30 days is well suited for smaller quantities, single households, or everyone who likes to try different Italian varieties. At 60 days, the supply is larger, but the order remains manageable. 90 days are especially suitable for heavy drinkers, families, or offices that can store several kilograms of beans or larger boxes of capsules.
It is not crucial which interval is chosen most often. What matters is when your supply, including the reserve, would be used up. If your calculation results in 46 days, a 45- or 50-day rhythm is better than an arbitrarily chosen monthly rhythm.
The order value can also play a role. If you benefit from free delivery from 70 CHF, a slightly larger package with a longer interval can make sense. But this is only worth it if you can store the coffee dry, cool, and protected from light, and if you actually consume the quantity.
For offices: Calculate consumption per working day instead of per month
In the office, the monthly calculation is often inaccurate because holidays, vacations, and presence days vary. Better calculate with working days. A team of six people drinks on average two coffees each per office day. At 9 grams per espresso, that is 108 grams daily. Three kilograms of beans last calculatedly just under 28 working days.
If the office is occupied five days a week, that corresponds to about five and a half weeks. With a reserve of five working days, the next delivery should arrive after around four and a half weeks. For teams with frequent guests or meetings, a higher value is sensible. A quick look at the consumption after the first delivery cycle shows whether the assumption is correct.
For larger orders or mixed needs - such as beans for the portafilter machine, capsules for meeting rooms, and pods for individual workstations - a separate calculation per product is worth it. Otherwise, one variety is gone too early, while the other remains unused.
Three typical calculation errors
The most common error is to only count the people and not the drinks. One person with two espressos needs significantly less than someone who drinks a double espresso in the morning and a large Café Crème in the afternoon. The second error is to exclude weekends and home office. Especially there, private coffee consumption often increases.
Thirdly, the supply is calculated down to zero. This only works if every delivery arrives exactly at the calculated time and no one drinks more coffee than planned. Both are unrealistic in everyday life. A simple reserve makes your subscription significantly more relaxed.
Targeted readjustment after the first cycle
Note briefly the delivery date and the day on which you opened the last unopened bag or the last full package during the first subscription. From this, you immediately recognize whether your interval fits. If there was still a lot of supply left, extend it. If you had to buy more before the delivery, shorten it or increase the quantity.
You do not have to recalculate everything. Often, an adjustment of one week is sufficient. Especially with a new machine, a switch from capsules to beans, or a different roast, however, a fresh calculation is worth it, because portion size and drinking habits can change.
A well-set coffee subscription is hardly noticeable: Your favorite coffee is there when you need it, the supply remains manageable, and you can simply enjoy the first espresso of the day.