We Tried the Cometeer Coffee Advent Calendar: Review 2026

We’ve not given a lot of thought to instant coffee, or coffees that strive to be quick and easy. We’re big fans of homebrewing, and relishing in the daily ceremony of it as part of our morning ritual. We’re not Keurig people, we find Nespresso to be tastier but just as wasteful, and I gave up most bulk instant coffee after I moved to China in 2010.

That said, we’re not really anti-instant-coffee.

We stock up pretty regularly on the instant options from our favorite coffee roasters (they’re kinda like Starbucks VIA but with the quality dial cranked up a bit). And they’re great! They’re helpful to have handy for camping and traveling, though I will admit that they can’t quite match the quality of homebrewed coffee.

Instant coffee is just not as good as the real deal. Or so I thought, until Cometeer — and its seasonal offering, an Advent Calendar — came on our radar.

The Cometeer Advent Calendar

Coffee advent calendars have been cropping up on the market more and more, and we’re pretty into them. It’s a fairly new-to-us tradition that adds an extra layer of fun to the season (though we did veer off course with the Moonstruck Chocolate Advent Calendar a few years back).

Onyx Coffee has had its own Advent Calendar available for going on 7 years (here’s our full review of the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar), and other roasteries are following suit, including Kaffebox, Brandywine, Neon Coffee Roasters, and now — Cometeer.

Cometeer’s coffee experts hand-select 24 days’ worth of specialty coffee for each recipient. The company promises not only a mix of beans, but also a mix of roasters, as well as several “extremely limited” offerings, single origin coffees, and even holiday roasts.

It costs $99 for 24 cups, and we recommend ordering yours by November 25 so you can partake from December 1.

» Learn more: Awesome Christmas gifts for coffee nerds

Unboxing

Our shipment only took three days to make it from the company’s warehouse in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to our front porch in Northwest Indiana.

It came in a big box on dry ice and surrounded by Temperpacks, which are described as “sustainable insulated packaging solutions for cold chain shipments for the perishable food.” 

We’ve never ordered meal boxes like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh, but it’s pretty much how I picture it. It felt wasteful but the items are all recyclable, which is a positive.

Our 24-day Comeeteer Advent Calendar journey

The team at Cometeer gave us a sneak peek of their Advent Calendar ahead of the Christmas season, so we’re here to give you a close up of our experience.

We’ll keep updating this as we go!

Day	Roaster	Coffee	Roast Level	LKCS Star Rating
1	Intelligentsia	Black Cat Espresso	Medium	3
2	Bird Rock Roasters	Midnight Surf	Dark	4
3	Onyx Coffee Roasters	Long Miles Lunar Station	Light	5
4	Gravity Wave	Cosmos	Dark	2.5
5	Black & White	The Original	Light	5
6	Counter Culture	Fast Forward	Medium	2.5
7	Frozen Gold	Banko Gotiti	Medium	3
8	George Howell	Inza Ignacio	Light	4
9	Square Mile	Red Brick	Medium	3.5
10	Klatch Coffee	Crazy Goat Blend	Dark	2
11	House Plant	Get Roasted	Dark	2.5
12	Go Get ‘Em Tiger	Monte Frio	Light	4
13	Equator	Mocha Java	Dark	2
14	Oh no!	We forgot to write it down	Our bad	Oops
15	Birch Coffee	Peru Regional Select	Medium	4
16	Gravity Wave	Ripple Roast	Medium	2.5
17	Red Bay Coffee	Brazilian Cake Lady	Medium	4.5
18	House Plant	Bean There, Done That	Medium	3
19	Equator	Roma State Natural	Medium	4
20	Frozen Gold	Yabitu Koba	Light	3.5
21	George Howell	El Meson	Light	4
22	Stellar Series	Gesha Village Estate	Light	3.5
23	Stellar Series	Sebastian Ramirez Geisha	Light	5
24	Stellar Series	Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha	Light	4.5

We’ve come to the end of Cometeer’s instant coffee advent calendar and we must say — we’re impressed! There were a few absolute stand outs (the Stellar Series’ Sebastian Ramirez Geisha and Black and White’s The Original were exceptional). We enjoyed trying coffee in a new format from some old of our old favorites — like Onyx, Go Get ‘Em Tiger — as well as the chance to discover some new roasters (we had never had Black and White, James Hoffman’s Square Mile or George Howell before).

» Learn more: The best books about coffee we’ve found (including a couple by James Hoffman)

We were surprised by the number of medium and dark roast coffees, which ended up accounting for more than half of the pods. (We forgot to write down one day!)

We tried:

• 9 medium coffees
• 5 dark coffees
• 9 light coffees

Our average rating for the coffees came to 3.5. Decent!

The brand’s bespoke Stellar Series didn’t disappoint, and were an awesome end to a fun 24-day coffee experience.

The pros of the Cometeer Advent Calendar

Nice mix of roasters in addition to different types of coffee

One of our gripes about the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar is that it’s limited to a single roaster. While Onyx is fantastic, a single-roaster subscription is a bit boring for those who enjoy exploring different coffee roasters (like me).

So that’s one big perk of the Cometeer Advent Calendar. Its subscription features multiple roasters, so not only does it give us a chance to try some of our favorites in a new format, it also introduces us to new businesses to fall in love with.

It’s one of the reasons we have loved our Trade subscription so much, too — it’s exciting for coffee lovers who like variety.

It tastes really (really) good

Hats off to whoever figured out how to use the liquid nitrogen to preserve the high-quality taste of freshly brewed coffee so effectively in these tiny little coffee pucks. 

My coffee palette and tasting abilities are by no means impressive. That said, I can usually tell the difference when it comes to coffee quality. In a blind taste test, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell a Cometeer coffee apart from a specialty pour-over.

I’m truly impressed, and also, as a self-proclaimed “low-key coffee snob,” a lil’ bit embarrassed. 🙈

So fast and convenient to make

It really doesn’t get much easier than “open and add hot water.”

The cons of the Cometeer Advent Calendar

Price

This is a specialty coffee product and priced as such. At the $99 price point, you’re getting 24 single-servings of coffee for about $4.13 a piece. That’s higher than the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar ($2.63 per cup of coffee) or the cost of our Trade coffee subscription, ($1.44 per cup).

That’s a lot for drip coffee, and higher than other coffee advent calendars on the market at a price-per-cup comparison. I’d say the difference comes down to ease of brewing, quality preservation, and flavor consistency. With Cometeer, you can brew a barista-quality cup in under a minute, with no grinding, dosing, or complicated equipment required (an upgrade during such a busy season).

Only 6-8 ounces of coffee per day

If you’re used to drinking coffee with a partner or having more than one cup in a day, the Cometeer Advent Calendar will fall short. Each puck of coffee concentrate is designed to yield between 6 and 8 ounces of brewed coffee, which amounts to a single serving.

Despite their best efforts, it still feels wasteful

Coffee production already has a significant environmental impact. While Cometeer uses recyclable materials and prioritizes sustainability, the production and shipping processes — particularly the need for rapid freezing and shipping — contribute to a larger carbon footprint compared to traditional brewing methods. 

What is Cometeer?

A college student longing for good coffee while studying abroad in Spain founded Cometeer in 2015 (s/o study abroad). He had started experimenting with freezing coffee in ice trays, and wanted to improve this method. He joined up with specialty coffee experts and MIT engineers to create a process for flash-freezing espresso using liquid nitrogen and blocks of dry ice.

The product feels otherworldly, and people have taken notice. Cometeer was named one of TIME Magazine’s best inventions in 2022, has raised over $100M from investors, and even has a *joint* 😉 venture with actors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

It works with a variety of coffee roasters, including my YouTube crush James Hoffman’s roastery, as well as other popular third-wave roasters like Counter Culture and Intelligentsia.

How Cometeer works

There’s no “Cometeer coffee shop.” Instead, you can head to their website and order a curated box, a box you customize/build, or its Advent Calendar for the 2025 Christmas season.

You’ll receive mail-order frozen coffee pods delivered to your door in an insulated box with dry ice. They’ve got to keep these pods frozen!

To make your coffee, you simply dump out the individually-packaged frozen coffee puck into your cup (ideally into a super cool double-walled coffee mug).

Then add 6-8 ounces of hot water. You can measure the water volume with your typical kitchen scale (we love the Hario Pour Over scale). Voila!

You can also make an iced coffee or latte if you let the pod thaw overnight in the fridge.

Is the Cometeer Advent Calendar worth it?

If you’re considering purchasing an instant coffee advent calendar and want to step up the quality, look to the Cometeer Advent Calendar. It’s a great gift for coffee enthusiasts who enjoy experimenting with coffee. It would also be an awesome gift for anyone in a stage of life where convenience reigns supreme — like those with littles or demanding jobs.

It is a 24 days of coffee advent calendar that is hassle free and high quality — which can be especially helpful during an even busier-than-usual time of year like the holidays.

If you appreciate great coffee and desire quick-punch variety, we think this could be the perfect excuse to finally give Cometeer a shot.