Best cocktail subscriptions and clubs

Best cocktail subscriptions at a glance

• Best for experimental cocktail explorers: Kocktail, from £29 monthly
• Best for bespoke spirits: Asterley Bros Cocktail Club, from £33.50 monthly
• Best for individual cocktail kits: Taste Cocktails, from £35
• Best cocktail subscription for DIY cocktails: The Microbarbox Cocktail Club, £32 monthly
• Best all-rounder cocktail subscription: The Cocktail Society, from £40
• Best cocktail subscription for personalisation: Muddlebox, from £24 a month

Best cocktail subscriptions to buy in 2023

Kocktail

• Available from Kocktail, from £29 a month

Best for experimental cocktail explorers

From the quirky illustrated box art to the individual Instagram-ready garnishes, Kocktail is a drinks subscription for cocktail aficionados. Each cocktail comes with an info card giving you a potted history of the drink along with a simple recipe to follow. The cocktails are made weekly, ensuring the fresh ingredients are at their best and ready to enjoy.

Choose your cocktail style from light and fresh, dark and sophisticated, or a mixture of both to get a taste of the whole selection. If your idea of heaven is light, fruity flavours and refreshing spirits such as a zesty paloma, light is the box for you. The darker selection is a collection of bitter-sweet classics, featuring bold spirit-forward drinks including the classic negroni. We recommend getting the best of both worlds so you can mix up the perfect cocktail to suit your mood. The mixture of old favourites and funky flavour combinations means you won’t get bored of these top-notch tipples.

Available from:
Kocktail, from £29 a month

Asterley Bros Cocktail Club

• Available from Asterley Bros, from £33.50 monthly

Best for bespoke spirits

Asterley Bros was founded in south London by two brothers with a passion for botanical spirits – making their own English vermouth, amaro and fernet, as well as a range of bespoke premixed cocktails in generous one-litre pouches, including a rhubarb negroni and fig martinez.

The Asterley Bros Cocktail Club highlights everything it does, combining unique aperitifs with premixed cocktails. The subscription is available in varied sizes, from the generously packed Classic box, containing 10 cocktail serves, four spirit samples and two snacks for £54.95 a month, to smaller Midi (£42.50) or Taster (£33.50) boxes.

Every box contains a seasonal premixed cocktail of the month, developed by creative director and bartender Joe Schofield. Our box contained an impressive pouch of premixed gooseberry negroni and we loved the pop art packaging. We enjoyed this seasonal twist on a classic, with gooseberry gin, lavender honey, housemade vermouth and Sipello aperitif. There was also an extra mini pouch of the Sipello to really try this unique fruity aperitif on its own, with a detailed card explaining what it is, how to use it, and lemon tonic included for a simple Sipello and tonic. The box also contains two salty snacks to go with your drinks, plus a sample of a unique amaro to try.

There was plenty to discover in the Asterley Bros box, with plenty of expertise behind everything included, for a real investment in totally unique cocktails and discovering new aperitifs.

Available from:
Asterley Bros, from £33.50 monthly

Taste Cocktails

• Available from Taste Cocktails (3 month subscription £85), Not on The High Street (kits from £35, 3-month cocktail subscription £99)

Best for individual cocktail kits

If you’re looking for an easy introduction into the world of cocktail-making, a Taste cocktail kit is a brilliant place to start. Taste gives you the choice to make your favourite tipple from scratch – expect old fashioneds, margaritas and gin brambles – with a one-off kit for £35 or mini kit for £22. Alternatively, ensure you have a steady supply of cocktails at hand with a three- or six-month cocktail subscription.

We received the Mojito Discovery Kit, which contained the key ingredients to make the classic cocktail, (except for fresh mint and lime), as well as funky variations such as the Bolivian mojito and mint julep. We also tried the Espresso Martini Mini Kit, which included 100ml Tovaritch vodka, coffee liqueur and hazelnut liqueur, should you wish to whip up a martini with a sweet and nutty twist. Both kits also included a step-by-step recipe card, where you can read up on the history of the drink and how to make them.

Taste’s range of easy-to-follow cocktail kits make for a fun night-in activity or makes a nifty one-off gift for a cocktail-loving friend.

Available from:
Taste Cocktails (3 month subscription £85)
Not on The High Street (kits from £35, 3-month cocktail subscription £99)

The Microbarbox Cocktail Club

• Available from Microbarbox, £32 a month

Best cocktail subscription for DIY cocktails

The Microbarbox Cocktail Club delivers a selection of miniature spirits and mixers to your door for £32 a month, giving you the inspiration to get shaking up some cocktails.

The box arrives in secure advent calendar-style packaging that opens up like a book, with all the miniatures laid out inside – a real treat to open. The theme of the box changes each month, with every other month focused on gin. Our box was the ‘Classic Cocktails’ edition, which meant we received seven mini bottles of a variety of spirits, from a cute mini Chambord to Chase vodka, pineapple rum and dry vermouth. There was also a clever inclusion of a squeezy bottle of sugar syrup, often required in cocktails but something we rarely go to the effort to make ourselves at home. We also loved the diagram-based cocktail menu that comes in the kit, with ideas for how to use all the samples in the kit, including a Bramble or a Chambord Daiquiri.

The selection of miniatures gives you plenty to experiment with over the month, offering a chance to try new drinks and combinations without committing to a whole bottle. The high-quality brands offer a little something for everyone. This is a fun way to get into cocktail making if you’ve got broad tastes, while the changing themes give you a chance to dive deeper into rum, gin or vodka each month.

Available from:
Microbarbox, £32 a month

The Cocktail Society

• Available from The Cocktail Society, from £40

Best all-rounder cocktail subscription

Some cocktail kits offer premixed cocktails, others offer tins, some are DIY kits to make your own creations. The Cocktail Society cocktail subscription offers all three in one.

There are two subscription options, monthly or quarterly, both £40 a box. Subscription includes a generous combination of 500ml ready-to-drink bottled cocktail, two canned cocktails and the base ingredients to make two servings of a cocktail of your own. For a bespoke customisable element, both the bottled cocktail and DIY cocktails can be chosen from a small selection, to make sure you’re receiving something you know you’ll enjoy.

Also included are three snacks and a mini magazine, filled with recipes and how-to guides to use the contents of your box. Subscribers also receive access to exclusive tastings, giveaways and a 10% discount at the online shop of cocktail kits and bottled cocktails, handy if you want to repurchase a bottle you receive in your box.

In our efficiently packed box, we received a stylish bottle of premade salted caramel espresso martini, a luxurious twist on a classic with sweet depth. Our canned cocktails were some of our favourites, including an East London Liqor Co vodka and rhubarb, and a Slingsby marmalade gin spritz. For our DIY cocktail we chose a Bee’s Knees and received two miniatures of Chase gin and two miniature pots of honey. All we needed to add was lemon juice and ice to shake it together for a refreshing end-of-the week tipple.

For a box packed with so many forms of cocktail treats, and consistent high quality across the varied elements of the subscription, this is an indulgent subscription well worth the money, either as a gift to yourself or someone else.

Available from:
The Cocktail Society, from £40

Muddlebox

• Available from Muddlebox, from £24 a month

Best cocktail subscription for personalisation

If you know what you like and what you don’t, the Muddlebox cocktail subscription offers a highly personalised delivery. Instead of sending all subscribers the same options, you tailor your box to what you prefer, choosing on sliding scales whether you enjoy long or short cocktails, fruity or creamy and sweet or sour. You can also highlight which spirits you prefer, to rule out cocktails based on spirits you won’t like. The kit then comes with everything you need to make cocktails – miniature spirits, mixers and even fresh fruit to garnish. Choose whether to receive enough for two or four drinks, and whether to arrive every week, fortnight or month.

After we chose our preferences for long, fruity and sweet cocktails, our kits arrived with a recipe card and everything we needed. There is a fair amount of packaging, but this the nature of protecting miniatures. Our kit was for a Singapore sling, with an impressive five miniature spirits, pineapple juice and a fresh lime. We also received ingredients for an ‘English Garden’, a wonderfully summery drink with elderflower liqueur, gin and apple juice. All you need to add is ice. We were impressed by the range of spirits we still managed to try, even after our specific preferences.

A great way to discover new flavours and cocktail recipes, while sticking to the overall style of drink you know you’ll like.

Available from:
Muddlebox, from £24 a month

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This page was last updated in August 2022. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.