Liquor Delivery Services: A Comparative Review

If you’re like me, you might sometimes realize only shortly before the start of a cocktail party that you are missing some critical ingredients.  You don’t have time to run out and stock up; you need a liquor delivery service.  But where do you find one?

Well, there’s an app for that – actually, at least three of them.  Drizly, Minibar, and Delivery.com all offer liquor delivery services in D.C. and many other cities. With New Year’s Eve coming up, I thought others might benefit from a comparative test drive.  (If you’re going out rather than hosting and still need plans, check out our recent round-up post covering cocktail-themed events.)

So I tried out all three services.  They are built on the same concept.  Each service has a network of local liquor stores (some of which participate in multiple networks).  When you place your order with the desired store, they dispatch an employee to your delivery address.  On arrival, a person of age must sign to take delivery.

I was pleased with the service provided by all three.  But there are important differences – read on to see which best suits your needs.  I also offer referral codes that will provide you and me with discounts on our next orders.

(Jump to these for Drizly, Minibar, or Delivery.com if you want to skip the discussion.)

Drizly

I began with Drizly, which has the largest liquor delivery network in D.C. (i.e., more liquor stores, including my local store) and also covers more cities (69) than Minibar (41) or Delivery.com (16).

Navigating the app is straightforward.  The opening screen offers a search bar if you are looking for something specific and four categories for browsing:  beer, wine, liquor, and extras.  If you browse to one of these categories, you are greeted with some popular selections and an opportunity to refine further:

I knew I wanted green Chartreuse, so I entered “chartreuse” in the search bar.  The results showed me multiple options, including yellow and green Chartreuse and both the regular and VEP versions of each.  A holiday splurge on VEP was tempting, but I recalled that I needed to order from three separate services.  So I stuck with the original plan and tapped on regular old green Chartreuse.  I was then greeted with a choice between two vendors.  The screen gave me the name of each store, the price it was charging, and the minimum order amount.  I chose the cheaper of the two.  Then I was  prompted to select the quantity I desired and to indicate whether the order was a gift:

Next it was time to select a delivery time and check out.  This particular store was offering “Now” delivery as well as scheduled delivery during 1-hour time slots throughout the day, as late as 10 to 11 p.m., as far out as two days later.  (Note that these options vary widely by store.  Some stores will only deliver at the end of the day, at least on some days.)  I selected “Now” because, in my mind, the typical scenario in which I would be using a delivery app is when I am tight on time already.  I wanted to see how quickly the order could realistically arrive.

Once you set a delivery window, a final checkout screen appears.  It offers options to enter a promo code and set a tip for the delivery person, and, once the order is placed, an opportunity to receive notifications about the status of the order:

Delivery was fast.  I placed the order at 1:29 p.m. on December 23 – a busy Saturday before Christmas in the District – and the Chartreuse was at my door at 2:03 p.m., I mere 34 minutes later.  It’s doubtful I could have gotten out to the liquor store and back to my house as quickly.

Overall I was very pleased with Drizly.  In any assessment of a delivery service, most of the points are going to be won or lost based on the speed and accuracy of the delivery, and my Drizly delivery checked this box.  Also significant to me was the size of the liquor-store network, which expands the list of available products, provides for price-comparison shopping, and makes it more likely that you can support your local liquor store in your purchase (alas, in this instance, my store was not offering green Chartreuse).  Final Grade: A

Sign up at the Drizly website using this link for $5 off our next orders.

Minibar

Minibar was next.   The initial screen is similar to Drizly in that it offers a search bar and categories for browsing.  In Minibar’s case, the categories are Wine, Beer, Liquor, and Mixers.  In between these elements there is a bar showing the store selection.  Tap here and you are offered the opportunity to select a preferred store; for me, three choices came up (though one was closed).  Returning to the main screen, if you tap on the “Liquor” category, you are presented with a list of popular liquors along with an opportunity to refine, either by selecting a particular spirit from a scrolling list near the top of the screen or through the “filter” icon:

But again, I knew what I wanted – E.H. Taylor bourbon – and so I entered “Taylor” in the search bar.  The second item in the list is what I was looking for, so I tapped it, after which a product screen appeared with some information about the bourbon and an opportunity to specify the desired quantity.

Note also on this screen that the bourbon was eligible for free delivery through ShopRunner and provides an opportunity to sign in.  If you haven’t used ShopRunner – I hadn’t – it is a service that describes itself as “similar to” Amazon Prime in that it provides free 2-day shipping, but it does so from a range of retailers, and it apparently also entitles you to free delivery from some sellers through Minibar.  (I’m not reviewing ShopRunner here, and I haven’t used it, but I note that membership is free for American Express and MasterCard cardholders; more information at shoprunner.com.)

I skipped this process and added the bourbon to my cart, which brought up the cart screen, which provides an opportunity to confirm the vendor and quantity and another chance to sign in to ShopRunner:

Now it was time to begin the checkout process.  When you tap “Proceed to checkout,” a checkout screen pops up.  It shows a map of the delivery address and offers an opportunity to provide notes to the delivery person, specify whether the order is a gift, enter payment information, and change the delivery time.

The default setting for delivery is “ASAP,” which is what I wanted, but I tapped to look at the options.  In this case, I could set delivery for as late as 11:45 p.m. as well as on future dates as far as two weeks in advance (although I didn’t try out hypothetical alternative delivery times, and options presumably vary by store).  Going back to the checkout screen, I scrolled further down, revealing options to enter a promo code and set a tip for the delivery person.  Note that I did not see an option for receiving notifications about the order:

As with Drizly, delivery was fast.  I placed this order right after my Drizly order, at 1:36 p.m. on December 23.  And a bottle of E.H. Taylor bourbon was at my door at 2:12 – just 36 minutes later.

I concluded that Minibar performed just as well as Drizly.  Just like my Drizly order, the Minibar delivery was fast and accurate – with just a negligible difference in speed between the two.  Unlike Drizly, Minibar did not seem to offer any obvious means of receiving notifications about the delivery.  But this was not really an issue.  I received a text when the Drizly delivery person had arrived, but at essentially the same time my doorbell was ringing, making the notification superfluous in that instance.

Minibar seemed to offer more flexibility in future scheduling.  But for my needs this advantage isn’t relevant because I’m likely to use liquor delivery services only when time is of the essence.  For ShopRunner members, Minibar may offer a real price edge by knocking off the $5 delivery charge.  But I don’t know how many people will be able to take advantage so I didn’t give it much weight.

Finally, I note that Minibar’s website offers a party-planning tool that helps you gauge how much alcohol you need.  It also offers a bartender booking service in some cities.  (These services sound useful, but I didn’t deem them relevant to this review and did not explore further.)  Ultimately I give Drizly a slight edge because of its larger network.  Final Grade: A-

Sign up at the Minibar website and use promo code GW014676 for $10 off our next orders.

Delivery.com

Finally, I also placed an order with Delivery.com.  It bears noting at the outset a difference between Delivery.com and the other liquor delivery services reviewed here.  Delivery.com offers delivery of a range of items, including groceries, food (from restaurants), and laundry.  It also offers a frequent-flier program of sorts, in which you receive 20 points for each $1 you spend.  The value of the points varies based on how many you accumulate.  But a useful metric is the $5 coupon for 5,000 points, which equates to $5 off for every $250 spent.

The opening screen, like Drizly and Minibar, offers a search bar and categories (here Wine, Liquor, and Beer) for browsing.  But on Delivery.com, you need not click through to browse the categories.  Instead, there is a scrolling list of popular options.  In practice this isn’t likely to save you much time unless you just happen to want something near the front of the list because you cannot refine further from the home page (but you jump to a screen where you can refine your search by tapping “See all”).  There is also an opportunity to set your desired store here.  In my case, there were only two options:

I stuck with the default store, which had the deeper inventory.  Then I turned to my search.  I was looking for Capitoline Rose Vermouth, that D.C.-area creation that I enjoyed earlier this year at Mola.  (See my Instagram post on their vermouth and tonic here.)  But Delivery.com didn’t have it.  I checked the other apps – Minibar didn’t have it either, but Drizly did.

I struck out on my next idea too – Cynar – which Delivery.com had, but only in the 70-proof variety (Drizly and Minibar both had the traditional strength, but not the 70-proof version).  Unwittingly, I had illustrated to myself the limitations of Delivery.com’s inventory.  I had also established that even Drizly does not have everything.  The lesson is that you may need to rely on different liquor delivery apps for different products.  And don’t feel surprised if you can’t get the rarer stuff through any of them.

I thought about what else I might need and settled on St.-Germain, which I was going to need for a batch of drinks at an upcoming family dinner.  This time Delivery.com was ready to help.  After I entered the liqueur into the search bar and tapped on the desired result, a product page appeared.  Here I was able to select a size and quantity and add the product to my “Bag.”

After tapping “Add to Bag,” I was taken to the “Your Bag” screen, which sums up the order details including the store providing the service, the contents of the Bag, and the total cost and Delivery.com points, along with an opportunity to designate a tip amount.  Then, after tapping “Go to Checkout,” the final screen appeared.  Here I could set a delivery time (I chose “ASAP,” the default), request notifications, designate whether the purchase was a gift, and provide payment information:

Once again, delivery was fast – the fastest yet.  I placed the order after my Minibar order, at 1:46 p.m. on December 23, and had St.-Germain at my door at 2:06 – just 20 minutes later.

In evaluating the experience, I thought Delivery.com came in third place because of the issues I had ordering.  The delivery was significantly faster than the Drizly and Minibar deliveries, true.  But everyone delivered within about half an hour.  That made it difficult to put too much weight on any differences, especially after only one attempt.

But there are some important compensating features that might make Delivery.com a better fit for some.  It’s liquor library might not be as deep.  But the range of products it offers – not just liquor delivery, but also food, meals, and laundry – is much broader.  Thus, it has the potential to make the app a one-stop-shopping service for some.  And if you use it often enough, you could probably accumulate points and corresponding discounts (which improve in value, albeit somewhat marginally, the higher you go).  Final Grade: B+

Sign up at the Delivery.com website using this link for $7 off our next orders.

There you have it.  I hope this review was helpful.  The experience was certainly helpful for me.  Now I have a tested liquor delivery back-up plan for when I’m planning to entertain and realize late that I’m short a key ingredient (or, let’s face it, for when I see a new cocktail recipe I really want to try but need something and am too lazy to run out).  I would love to hear about your experience with these services – good or bad.  Leave comments below or email me at me@capitalcocktails.com.  Thanks for reading!