Affiliate Disclosure

Cherrybook is a specialty coffee discovery and comparison site. When you click a “Buy on [roaster]” button on a coffee page and then purchase from that roaster, in some cases we earn a small commission on the sale. This disclosure explains how those relationships work, which links are affiliate, and why our rankings and editorial opinions stay independent of that commercial arrangement.

Which links are affiliate

Every outbound link to a roaster’s site from a coffee or roaster page on Cherrybook is potentially an affiliate link. Whether we actually earn a commission depends on whether the roaster runs a program and whether you complete a purchase within their tracking window. The disclosure language below the “Buy on [roaster]” button on each coffee page calls this out in context.

Cherrybook is never the seller. You transact directly with the roaster, at the price the roaster sets, under the roaster’s terms. We don’t touch your payment information, handle shipping, or process refunds.

What we earn

Typical specialty-coffee affiliate programs pay between 5% and 10% of the bag price when a click results in a completed purchase within a defined tracking window (usually 24 hours to 30 days). That is the scale of commission we might receive. We don’t charge you anything — the commission is paid by the roaster out of their own margin.

What commercial relationships do NOT affect

This is the most important part of this page, so we’re explicit about it.

Whether a roaster runs an affiliate program — or how much we earn when they do — does not influence any of the following:

• Northscore. Our 0–100 quality metric is computed from independent signals (third-party cupping scores, sensory profiles, community sentiment, accolades). The algorithm does not read affiliate status.
• Rankings and sort orders. Browse, search, comparison, and matchup pages order coffees by the metric you choose (Northscore, price, date). There is no paid placement, and there never will be.
• Editorial verdicts. When Cherry writes about a coffee, a roaster, or a comparison, she says what she actually thinks. If we recommend a coffee, it’s because we think it’s good on the merits — not because it pays better.
• Whether a roaster is listed. Cherrybook catalogs specialty roasters regardless of affiliate relationship. A roaster can appear on the site, score highly on Northscore, and be featured editorially whether or not they share any revenue with us.

If that ever changes — for example, if we introduce any clearly-labeled sponsored placement in the future — we will update this page and mark any affected surface so the commercial relationship is visible alongside it.

Why we do it this way

Affiliate commissions let Cherrybook exist without asking roasters to pay for listings or users to pay for access. The trade-off is that we have a small financial interest in you clicking through and buying. We think that’s acceptable only if our recommendations are independent of which roasters pay best, which is why the Northscore methodology is published and auditable. See About Cherrybook for how the score is computed.

Regulatory context

This disclosure is required by the Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides. Any material connection between Cherrybook and a roaster — including an affiliate commission — must be disclosed “clearly and conspicuously” on any page where we recommend or link to that roaster’s product. The per-coffee disclosure on every product page, and this dedicated page, are how we meet that bar.

Questions

If something on Cherrybook doesn’t read straight to you — a ranking that seems weird given your knowledge of the roasters involved, an editorial verdict that feels promotional, a disclosure that’s unclear — tell us at hello@cherrybookcoffee.com. We take that kind of signal seriously; the whole point of the site is to stay trustworthy to readers.

Related: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy