Spirits tasting club Flaviar has started a EU-wide subscription service that helps members discover new liquor products through sample tasting packs sent to their homes.
A British-Slovenian startup, Flaviar is officially launching the service today after a few months in private beta and a soft-launch last May, labeling their new offering a ‘crowdtasting movement’ to add some flavor to it.
The service is basically a members-only club that delivers monthly tasting packs of 5 samples (whisky, rum, cognac, gin, vodka and whatnot) with 3 shots each, in various themes at a fraction of the full price and with advice from Flaviar curators.
The idea is to taste the drinks among friends.
Subscribers (connoisseurs, aficionados or newbies) thus no longer have to visit liquor stores for tasting sessions or take risks on buying bottles blindly.
Membership is free, but the tasting pack subscription service costs £24.99 ($39.5) per month, shipping included. Tasting boxes are only shipped within the European Union, we should note.
The company suggest to simply refill used bottles or use them as herbs and spices containers.
Interestingly, Flaviar founder and CEO Grisa Soba is a spirits producer himself: he has been making Absinthe Supreme, Fukoff Vodka (ha!) and Supreme Icon Sparkling wine since 2005.
Soba says Flaviar’s business model combines 3 global e-commerce trends: the rise of subscription commerce in a variety of verticals, the worldwide increase in private wine clubs and other private sale or niche marketplaces and the rising popularity of online grocery shopping.
Flaviar plans to sell full-size bottles and do time limited flash-sales with heavy discounts in the ‘near future’. The company is also plotting a US launch in 2013.
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