Do You Get Pickier About Coffee Over Time?
The more coffee people rate, the less often they say they love it.
That may sound like bad news, but we think it’s the opposite.
- First ratings are generous. People rate 40% of their first five coffees "I loved it."
- Later ratings are tougher. By their eleventh to fifteenth coffee, that falls to 30%, and low ratings more than double, from 10% to 23%.
- It is most people, not everyone. About 6 in 10 rate lower later on. About 3 in 10 rate higher.
- Why it matters: a low rating is where your taste profile learns the most.
The numbers
We looked at people who rated at least 15 coffees in the Siip app between June 1 and October 10, 2026, and compared their first five ratings in that period with their eleventh to fifteenth.
| First five coffees | Coffees 11 to 15 | |
|---|---|---|
| Loved it | 40% | 30% |
| OK or not for me | 10% | 23% |
Of those people, 59% gave lower ratings later on, 33% gave higher ratings, and the rest stayed level.
The same pattern shows up across everyone. People with a single rating love 45% of what they rate. People with twenty or more love 26%.
Why it happens
Two things are going on, and we cannot fully separate them.
You start with your favorites. The first coffee most people rate is one they already drink and like. Nobody opens a new app to log a coffee they could not finish. So the first few ratings are a list of known winners.
Then you start exploring. After the favorites come the new bags, the gift from a friend, the one the cafe had on special. Some of those miss. That is what trying new things looks like.
There is probably a third effect too: tasting more coffees gives you more to compare against. A cup that would have been "loved it" in week one is "liked it" once you have had a better one.
Why a low rating is worth more
A taste profile built only from coffees you love knows half the story. It cannot tell the difference between "this person likes fruity coffee" and "this person likes coffee."
The first coffee you rate "not for me" draws the first edge. If it was a dark roast with smoky notes, your next recommendations move away from that. Two or three low ratings narrow things down faster than ten high ones.
So if your recent ratings are lower than your first ones, nothing went wrong. You stopped rating only your favorites.
It also works the other way around. When the coffees are picked from your ratings, as they are in the Siip subscription, people like more of them over time: 62% of the coffees in a subscriber’s first box get “I liked it” or “I loved it,” and 86% by the fourth. More on that in why subscribers rate each box higher.
What to do with it
- Rate the misses. They are the most useful ratings you make.
- Say why, if you can. "Too bitter" or "too sour" in the note helps you spot your own pattern later.
- Expect some misses when you explore. Loving 3 in 10 new coffees is normal.
How we measured
- Source. Ratings in the Siip app, June 1 to October 10, 2026, from people with at least 15 ratings in that period.
- Order. "First five" means the first five in that period. For people who joined earlier, those are not their first ratings ever.
- What counts as loved and low. Siip has four answers. "Loved it" means the top one, "I loved it." "Low" means the bottom two, "It was OK" and "Not for me."
