Subscription Service Showdown! High West Saloon Society vs Jim Beam Barreled & Boxed
Note: this was originally posted on r/bourbon in November 2022
Background
Living in the nation’s capital is a give and take. On one hand lies taxation without congressional representation, on the other are wonderfully lax liquor laws that allow distilleries to ship directly to your door! A growing number of distilleries are offering membership/subscription programs, and I wanted to take a moment (ok bear with me it'll be a bit longer than a moment) to compare my experiences with two of them: Jim Beam’s Barreled & Boxed and High West’s Saloon Society.
My typical format for whiskey reviews is to put them head to head, so I wanted to compare these two services across a few categories:
The Nose... Transparency (how open is the distillery about what you’re getting and for what price)
The Palate... Value! (pricing, what’s included, benefits over traditional hunting)
The Finish... Peripheral Benefits (customer service, presentation... the lingering impression stuff)
Nose (Transparency)
Barreled & Boxed: I’m going to TRY to be succinct because it’s going to be very clear which one of these services excels here. Jim Beam posts all of their releases to date on their site. You can view them prior to the release launching/selling out, so you know exactly what you’re going into and at what cost. I know my Winter shipment will cost $290 and I see exactly what is coming in it (Bookers and Knob Creek 18 - cool!). You can easily browse past releases and make an educated decision on if this is a worthwhile service.
Saloon Society: Sigh, and here we have the opposite. Saloon Society’s page lists vague info such as “2 bottles of limited release per shipment, and 4 bottles total.” If you scroll further down, you see that they consider limited releases to be: Midwinter’s Night Dram, High Country American Single Malt, Rendezvous Rye, and Campfire. So no Bourye? What about the Midwinter’s Night Dram Encore? Or the new Prisoner’s Share? Well, I emailed High West to ask specifically about the latter, and their support said that it was Utah only. Then a few days later a marketing blast went out saying Saloon Society members would be getting one bottle (not the two listed above). I guess I’m supposed to just wait and see what the receipt says?
Palate (Value)
Barreled & Boxed: Jim Beam notes on the B&B site that each shipment will cost between $150 and $300 (pre-tax, shipping included). I’ve been a member for the last two releases and they have run me $270 and $215 respectively, and the upcoming winter release is pegged at $290. As noted above, each quarterly shipment includes two unique bottles and cover a wide range of Beam products, some of which are easier to find than others. I generally have not had too much trouble finding Bookers batches in the past, but not having to hunt for items such as Little Book, the new Knob Creek 18, or the awesome, new Jacob’s Well is really nice. That said, some option to opt out or skip the occasional month or bottle would be nice. I did not want to pay the $80 MSRP for the new, 2 year Colonel Beam release. This is a bit of a nit to pick though, I’m not naive enough to think ANY subscription box now or in the future is going to be without its duds.
Saloon Society: According to their site, each shipment will run you $240-$300 (including shipping/tax). The last release (my first) just snuck under that threshold at $293. It included two bottles of Dram, a Double Rye and a Bourbon. I mean obviously getting two bottles of Midwinter’s Night Dram at MSRP is ideal, and I don't think High West has any illusions about the other “limited releases” providing a similar allure for the club. But the big finger on the scale of this subscription is that they hoist a bottle of each of their regular releases, such Double Rye and their Bourbon, on you with each quarter. I do not need 8 bottles of these a year, I simply do not make enough cocktails.
Finish (Peripheral Benefits)
Barreled & Boxed: Let’s start with the presentation, because it’s clear Beam put a ton of thought in how these shipments get rolled out. Each box comes with custom labeled packaging delicately wrapping each bottle, on top of which sits a large “ok it’s cool but what I am going to do with this” picture and note from the distillery. The releases all come with QR codes you can scan for more information. Beyond the wonderful packaging, each release comes with an RSVP link to join a virtual tasting with Freddie Noe(regretfully I am 0-fer on being able to attend these so far). As part of your membership you also get two complimentary tour tickets if you ever visit the distillery. I also want to say that their customer service has been excellent, one of my shipments got lost and they immediately put another in the mail for me. I have a friend who’s bottle of Little Book came with an issue to the box it’s held in, and they sent him another bottle.
Saloon Society: Saloon Society’s packaging is… teal colored cardboard. However on the face they do list a larger number of other benefits, such as 10% off all core whiskeys and barrel aged cocktails online, or food/drink/merch at High West’s Saloon in Utah. They also list “priority access to all future releases.” Sounds pretty awesome, but thus far this has meant just one email offering access to Rendezvous Rye… no access to MWND Encore or Prisoner’s Share. That said, customer support here has also been very responsive and helpful (the above mentioned Prisoner’s Share confusion notwithstanding). They have been very receptive to my feedback to date, and hopefully it will lead to some improvements!
Overall
Ok if you’ve read this far you probably deserve a medal, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Barreled and Boxed has really expanded my appreciation for Jim Beam generally. It’s evident they put a ton of thought and care into this service, and while they dont always hit 100% of the releases, you feel like you’re getting a true peak behind the curtain of what’s new and exciting there. It’s made a consistent customer out of me.
By comparison, it’s hard not to feel like Constellation Brands is trading on Midwinter’s Night Dram for a bit of an underbaked cash grab. I am probably going to ride out the next release to see if any changes are made, but if not my subscription has a 1/1/2023 expiration date.
