About The Curious Drinker

The Curious Drinker sells spirits by subscription, cocktail kits with everything but the ice, and ready-mixed cocktails in cans — in alcoholic and alcohol-free versions — and a discount code is genuinely useful on something that recurs every month.

Three ways to buy

The subscription is the core: you choose a direction — gin or rum, spirits alone or with mixers and snacks — and a delivery arrives on the frequency you set, with member pricing and the option to swap, skip or cancel. The cocktail and discovery boxes are one-off purchases built around a single drink or spirit, containing the spirit, mixers, garnishes and instructions, so a Hugo Spritz turns up as a kit rather than a shopping list. The canned range is ready-to-drink classics, and each is offered with and without alcohol.

Whether a subscription suits you

The honest question is how much you actually drink. A spirits subscription makes sense if you were buying bottles anyway and want variety rather than the same gin forever; it makes much less sense as a way to try drinking more. A monthly bottle arriving whether or not you want it is how a shelf fills up, so use the skip function and note the renewal date at sign-up. The introductory offer is almost always better than the standing rate — check what you will pay from the second delivery onwards before committing.

The alcohol-free half of the range

Alcohol-free versions are not simply the drink without the spirit; they are formulated separately to keep the bitterness and length that alcohol normally provides. They are worth taking seriously if you are driving, pregnant, on medication that does not mix with alcohol, or simply drinking less. In the UK "alcohol-free" and "low alcohol" mean different things, and a low-alcohol drink still contains some. If you are avoiding alcohol entirely for medical or personal reasons, read the figure on the can rather than the word on the front.

Proving your age at the door

Only over-eighteens may buy alcohol, the site asks you to confirm your age, and couriers can require identification on the doorstep — a delivery that cannot be handed to an adult goes back to the depot. Glass ships as fragile goods, so allow time before a party rather than ordering on the Friday. Paste the code into the basket before paying and check the figure moves; welcome offers are for new members only. The usual advice applies — NHS guidance is no more than fourteen units a week, spread out, with drink-free days.