Food and drink expert Natasha Heard takes a detailed look at Flaviar – a new way to discover premium spirits.
Flaviar is a premium spirits discovery service, delivering monthly tasting packs consisting of samples of fine spirits, in addition to offering a selection of full-sized bottles for members to purchase.
A spirits tasting club for the modern age, the company offers a subscription service that helps enthusiasts discover the best new superior liquor products from all over the world through sample tasting packs meant for friends to share.
Every month, Flaviar members receive a hand picked sample pack of five high-end flavours, like Whisky, Rum, Cognac, Gin, Vodka or Tequila, selected by experts and industry professionals.
Three friends and spirits enthusiasts, including an experienced spirits marketer, a web developer and an e-commerce CEO, founded Flaviar in 2012. They used to meet up regularly for fine spirits tastings, which gradually led to the idea of alcoholic tasting packs that would enable everyone to do the same.
Discovering flavour, the Flaviar way
The basic premise behind Flaviar is for the service to serve as an exploration and discovery tool, enabling customers to try out a variety of fine spirits while organizing tasting parties for their friends.
Because the company understands fine spirits can often be overwhelming, the service is specially curated and designed for even the most novice drinkers to benefit from its huge knowledge database, while enjoying the discovery process of learning about new spirits.
The service is an easy way to find out what tastes good and discover new tipples, whatever one’s preferences. Flaviar is also an elegant solution to the old age problem of being confused or embarrassed, because of uncertainty over what to order at the bar or social event. By enabling customers to sample the spirits before buying them, Flaviar helps enthusiasts make more informed decisions.
With Flaviar’s monthly Tasting Packs, drinkers can try anything they want before they buy from a company that has something for nearly everyone in the premium spirits category.
Every pack has an overriding theme such as “Schnapps of the Alps” or “Whisky’s Big in Japan” and consists of five carefully selected 45-millilitre samples. A lot of these superior and sometimes, quite exclusive liquors would be next to impossible to find in a single store.
Each Flaviar spirits tasting set comes accompanied with tasting notes and what the service calls a “SmartAss Corner”, striking just the right balance between professional, educational and fun.
The idea is for friends to share amongst themselves and discover new favourites. The company says one tasting pack should be enough for three, or even for up to four people to taste and compare. Tasting spirits helps drinkers to broaden their horizons, while providing a defensible excuse to hang out with friends.
Flaviar members, who wish to purchase full bottles, after tasting something they really enjoyed, can find them in Flaviar Deals at special prices. Flaviar also makes an excellent gift for friends or family, due to its enormous selection of high-end, premium spirits delivered in quirky, unique, yet quite beautiful packaging.
Now there’s an App for that
The biggest news from the service lately is the introduction of its new Flaviar App (iOS), a go-to resource for fine spirits. With a database of more than 15,000 different brands of top-shelf liquor to choose from, the app provides all the essential information, as well as full product reviews and ratings at a glance.
The app also enables making purchases directly from the app and makes the dream of having drinks delivered to one’s doorstep a reality.
A very interesting innovation within the app is something called the Flavour Spiral, a modern take on tasting notes. Spirit lovers, master distillers, blenders and connoisseurs have all contributed their knowledge and expertise.
The Flavour Spiral is a way to taste what’s inside the bottle, before actually trying it, representing a digest of opinions from across the fine spirits community, combined into a single, visually appealing image.
A quick, clear and appealing way to understand a drink’s flavour DNA, the Spiral was a way for the company to simplify and avoid the drudgery of the traditional tasting notes. In the process, they’ve created an attractive and visually attractive visualization of every drink’s nine most prominent flavours.
Also contained within the app is the Home Bar, an interactive way to keep track of and order spirits. Members can fill their virtual MyBar cabinets with the most wanted, tasted or preferred spirits. This is a simple, but effective way to bookmark favourites at home and purchase full bottles later.
