The 16 Best Alcohol Subscription Boxes for Trying New Things—And Stocking Up on Old Favorites
Explore distilleries, wineries, and breweries (many of them independently owned) all through a cardboard box.
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There was once a plethora of ways to get alcohol. And we don't use a (maybe-a-little-pretentious) word like "plethora" lightly. There were liquor stores. Grocery stores. Drive-through liquor stores that also sold groceries. Gifts from your boss, gifts because you were the boss, gifts among family, and gifts among friends. There were restaurants and bars, and bars at restaurants. But the alcohol landscape was abruptly disrupted when we plunged into international crisis, and we learned other ways to get a drink. One entails getting bottles of alcohol delivered to our front doors, whether from neighborhood stores or online liquor shops. Another is what you're looking at right now: alcohol subscription boxes.
For those of you who jumped on board when the subscription box craze took off, you won't be shocked to learn that those boxes can come bearing a selection of spirits, wine, and beer, too. It's only smart to sign up for one in addition to the sock subscription, the meal subscription, and the shaving supply subscription you already have coming to your front door. A subscription box can be a more reliable means of stocking up on whatever you want than your usual method, and you're guaranteed a specially curated drinking experience, oftentimes with membership exclusives.
Speaking of curation, the following alcohol subscription boxes cover vast territory, offering premium bottles to fit many preferences, be they vague or idiosyncratic or basic. So decide what you want—hard liquor, wine, or craft beer—and sign up for one of the following. For those who can't keep their home bars stocked with syrups, liqueurs, and garnishes for the life of them, we have three cocktail-making subscription box options, too. Go to a bar when it's safe, but drink with style at home when it's not.
Flaviar
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From $25 per month, flaviar.com
Flaviar's model is simple: It sends you samples of rare, unsung spirits, in addition to one full bottle, per quarter. If you enjoy what you try, you can purchase bottles. It's a tool for spirit discovery as much as it is a tool for drinking, and it's for this reason that Flaviar can get away with saying it models itself after a speakeasy. If you can find the speakeasy—a.k.a. get a subscription—then you're rewarded with an exclusive drinking experience.
Mash & Grape
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From $69 per month, mashandgrape.com
At its core, Mash & Grape is an online liquor store with very deep shelves. You'll stumble on something you've never tried—let alone heard of—here, whether that's lemongrass shochu or rare mezcal. But it also offers monthly clubs for six main spirit categories: whiskey in general, scotch, bourbon, tequila, gin, and rum. With a club, each month you'll receive a curated bottle that you'd never discover on your own. (The club is marketed as a gifting option, but don't let that throw you; this is a gift for yourself.)
Caskers
From $147 per quarter, caskers.com
Caskers is for whiskey drinkers. Specifically, for whiskey drinkers who know—know the up and coming distilleries, know the rarest age statements everyone's hunting, know the innovations from the gimmicks. It offers two whiskey subscriptions, one that sticks to American whiskey and the other that focuses on world whiskey, and both of which send out two bottles per shipment plus grant access to member exclusives. Drink where the wind takes you.
Taster's Club
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From $59 per month, tastersclub.com
Taster's Club is ideal for anyone who's only a bourbon guy. Or only a tequila guy. Or only a rum guy. It offers 11 different club options, each specializing in a different spirit, and each giving you background information like distillery history and tasting notes with every bottle. You'll learn a lot about the stuff you love to drink. There's also a Stock the Bar club, which gets you a monthly mix of everything.
Firstleaf
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$90 per shipment, firstleaf.com
If you can't pass up a personality quiz, you'll like First Leaf. It susses out your wine tastes through a series of questions and then sends you a curated selection of six bottles from vineyards around the world, many of them award winners. After each box, you rate the wines, which ensures the next box will be even more suited to your tastes.
Naked Wines
Prices vary, nakedwines.com
You've invested in mutual funds. You've got your Robinhood account attuned to the hottest stocks. With Naked Wines, you can pour money into independent winemakers, too—for a healthy, diversified portfolio, of course. Naked's goal is to connect wine drinkers directly with winemakers, getting you good prices on exceptional varietals for wine box shipments and ensuring your money acts like that on an angel investor for the indie brands making a go of it.
Winc
From $39 per month, winc.com
Winc wines are all about the packaging. The bottles you select from its catalog—you can get three or more per month in every box—feature new-age, art-heavy, trendy labels. That doesn't mean they're bad; you get what you pay for, and here you're paying less. It just means your wine collection is going to look hip as hell.
VineBox
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From $79 per quarter, getvinebox.com
VineBox is another alcohol subscription that values taste testing. Its wines are shipped to you in single-serve vials; there are nine samples in each shipment, along with literature on each. You'll also get credits towards purchasing full bottles. VineBox stays away from the biggest wineries to focus on the so-called little guys, and it curates each box for the season, almost like a sommelier urging you to expand your palate.
The Original Craft Beer Club
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$45 per shipment, craftbeerclub.com
The Craft Beer Club isn't stingy. Each month, it will send you 12 new craft beers from around the county. Emphasis is put on variety (i.e. styles of beer you've never been able to order at the bar) and quality (i.e. breweries that use innovative brewing practices). Each shipment of 12 will include either four varieties of beer with three bottles of each from two distilleries, so you can pass 'em around.
Beer Drop
From $39 per month, beerdrop.com
Fill your fridge with art from Beer Drop. And by art, we mean the ridiculous creativity employed to package craft beer cans these days. Beer Drop sources from independent American breweries—the list on its website goes on for days—to ship you two cans of five different beers a month. There's a level of customization as well, as you can preselect your preferred styles (hoppy, Belgian, malty, etc.) or simply stick with the cans with the highest ratings.
Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club
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From $32 per month, beermonthclub.com
Not only does the Beer of the Month Club cull through thousands of microbrews to find the best, but it also lets you tailor your subscription. A hops-only kind of drinker? Then get the Hop-Heads Beer Club. Looking to drink beyond the 50 states? Sign up for the International Beer Club. There are also clubs for American microbrews, a mix of American and international beers, and rare beers.
American Cocktail Club
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From $33 per month, cratejoy.com
Every month, American Cocktail Club sends you a box with all the ingredients you'll need to craft four servings of a featured cocktail—with or without the alcohol, depending on if you want it. Whether you choose to make one drink per week, really perfecting the build over time, or down all four with your partner on a Friday night is up to you. Just know you won't be stuck drinking tequila with flat club soda and a squirt of months-old lemon juice.
Shaker & Spoon
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From $40 per month, cratejoy.com
Each of Shaker & Spoon's cocktail boxes centers on a theme: Negronis, for example, or vermouth. Then, you're sent all the cocktail ingredients (except booze) you'll need to make four cocktails from three recipes—12 drinks total. You'll familiarize yourself with ingredients through the variety, and get comfortable with all those bar tools your rarely touch now.
Curious Elixirs
From $29 per month, curiouselixirs.com
Ending on a paradoxical note, we're suggesting a subscription to Curious Elixirs, which makes non-alcoholic cocktails. Not exactly what you were looking for, but you'd be forgiven for being intrigued. The elixirs come in four bottled flavors inspired by classic cocktails—you'll get a variety in each shipment—and are all exceedingly delicious (Curious No. 2, a cross between a pineapple margarita and Dark 'n Stormy, in particular). And if you happened to add a little alcohol to yours, well, no one's the wiser.
Virtue Cider
From $90 per shipment, vinoshipper.com
Cider can get a bad rap and that's because a lot of ciders are...well, bad. But there are others, like the ones in Virtue Cider's subscription boxes, that are small batch and made with good base ingredients—no added sugars or other weird flavors you might see in your run-of-the-mill cider. The farm these ciders are made on also use solar power for the fermentation process, if an all around sustainable sourcing is something you're looking for.
Sake Club
From $99 every three months, tippsysake.com
The most fun part about subscription boxes is the ability to taste different stuff that you might never have picked out yourself. This sake subscription is basically a crash course in the drink. The shipments come every three months with six sample bottles in each. Each bottle comes with its own info card, which gives you the flavor notes, serving temperature, and pairing suggestions. It's basically a sake tour, but from the comfort of wherever you are.
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