Leon Roast Rewards review: is it worth it?

The Leon coffee subscription costs less than rival Pret

Leon’s launched its own coffee subscription service, similar to Pret’s, but at a lower price of £25 per month. Here’s how it works, what you get and whether we reckon it’s worth it. 

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How the Leon subscription works

You get up to five drinks per day for £25 a month, which you’ll pay on the same day every month. But you can’t just get them in one go – you’ll need to leave an hour gap between each order. The subscription also gives you 20% off food.

Annoyingly (and unlike the Pret subscription), you’re limited to just tea and coffee, including iced coffees, but you can’t get smoothies or sodas. 

To get the drinks included in your subscription, you must order through the Leon app when logged into your account  — you can’t use the kiosks in-store to order. 

How to sign up for the Leon subscription

You need to be 18 or over and live in England to get the subscription. You just need to go to the Leon website and select “sign up” and fill in your details.

You’ll get a confirmation email, which means that your subscription has begun. If you sign up mid-month, you’ll only pay for the remaining days, with the renewal on the 1st of each month. 

What you can get with the Leon subscription

5 drinks per day

You can get five “barista-made” drinks of any size, such as a latte (usually £4.09), a matcha marshmallow latte (£3.99) or a hot chocolate (£4.09). You get milk alternatives and syrups included, too.

The fact you can’t get smoothies or sodas is a bit disappointing as the Pret subscription includes barista-made lemonades (though it’s an extra £5 per month, compared to Leon). 

You’re also not supposed to share the account details with anyone else — Leon’s not shared how it’ll identify you as someone that’s sharing, but threatens an investigation and cancellation of your subscription for doing so.

Discounted food

You also get a 20% discount on Leon food that you purchase through the app. This doesn’t include meal deals. 

Excluded restaurants 

These restaurants are excluded — these include a lot of London train stations, which makes it difficult to pick up a coffee en-route to work.

• London Bridge (concourse) 
• Eurotunnel
• Stansted (airside and landside)
• Heathrow
• Euston station
• Kings Cross
• Cheshire Oaks
• Strensham (north & south)
• Norton Canes
• Northampton
• Rownhams
• Clacket East
• Clacket West
• Watford Gap
• Chester, Magor
• Sedgemoor
• Liverpool Street Station
• Paddington Station
• Victoria Station (Concourse Level)
• Leeds Skelton Lake Services
• Leeds Station
• ASDA House
• George House
• Cobham Services
• Beaconsfield Services

How much does it cost?

The Leon subscription costs £25 per month. This makes it £5 cheaper than the Pret one. 

How much could you save?

Say you were to get a latte on every weekday, you’d end up spending £81.80 on drinks over four weeks. So if you bought the subscription, you’d save £56.80 a month.

If you only got one three days each week, you’d spend £49.08 per month, which would still save you £24.08 with the subscription.

To break even, you’d need to get at least seven lattes in a month, or eight americanos. 

Should you get the Leon subscription?

If you grab at least six brews a month from coffee shops, this is a decent offer, if you commit to getting them all from Leon. 

Five coffees a day is generous, but be realistic and don’t try and force yourself to drink the maximum to get your money’s worth. 

However, there are a fair few Leon stores that aren’t included — mainly stations and services. This might rule out the offer for a lot of people, especially if you’re travelling into London for work in the morning.

And if your nearest Leon is further than another coffee shop chain, how likely do you think it is that you’ll go the distance for a free one? You’ll want to take convenience into consideration.

And as for whether this’ll save you any money — Leon knows what it’s doing by offering you 20% off food. You’re much more likely to grab your lunch or a croissant to go with your “free” coffee, so be mindful of spending more than you would normally.

How does it compare to Club Pret?

The Pret subscription costs £5 more at £30 per month, but you can get its barista-made lemonades included too (which cost £4.20 each usually). You can also get a new drink every 30 minutes rather than every hour. For more, see our review of Club Pret.

Leon vs Pret: the key details

	Pret	Leon
Price	£30	£25
Drinks	5 barista made drinks each day	5 teas or coffees each day
Most expensive drink included	£4.20 (Cooler Lemonades)	£4.09 (latte, cappuccino, flat white or hot chocolate)
Sodas or lemonades	Included	Not included
Discount	20% off	20% off
Coffees to break-even	8	7
Time between drinks	30 minutes	1 hour

How easy is it to cancel?

You can pause your subscription or cancel it in your Leon app, whenever you want. To do either of these you need to select the “Manage Subscription” button in the app and follow the instructions.  If you cancel, you’ll get a proportionate refund for the remaining time in the month.

If you pause your subscription, you can then start it again in the same section of the app.

Is there a free trial?

There aren’t currently any free trials of the Leon subscription at the moment, but no doubt there will be one soon enough.