Robb Vices is a monthly subscription service that delivers a collection of “storied treasures.” The subscription costs $89.95 per month, and each box comes with incredible products and experiences that have been curated for your enjoyment.
The box is huge! It is the size of a padded laptop shipping box.
DEAL: Save $120 on an annual subscription! Use this link to get the deal.
Father’s Day Deal: save 10% on all subscriptions with code DAD10!
Even the padding in the box is exquisite! All of the luxury goods arrive cradled in a custom foam insert topped with a layer of soft fabric.
It all has a very high-end feel to it, and unboxing everything from the custom case makes you feel a bit like a secret agent selecting your gear.
The story of the premium products is told through a giant, novella-sized booklet with multi-page featurettes on each selection. It’s kicked off with a short note from Daniel Curtis, Founder of Robb Vices. In this month’s box, he waxes about the role of the gentleman in modern society.
The styling of the booklet is very sleek and elegant. Along with features corresponding to the brands in the box, this month also had an interview with actor Kyle MacLachlan.
Everything in my June 2017 Robb Vices box!
Big Picture Farm Farmstead Goat Milk Caramels in Sea Salt & Vanilla ($10): These little beauties have become very popular lately, and for good reason. The goat’s milk creates a lovely, smooth texture while adding its signature tangy flavor. The Sea Salt & Vanilla is Big Picture’s original, and still best-selling, variety.
Big Picture Farm started making caramel on the stove-top for weekend farmers’ markets and took off from there.
Caramels are one of the few candies (along with licorice, perhaps) that are not unusual to find in a man’s study or stash drawer.
Tommy John $50 Gift Card: A gentleman’s undergarments set the tone for his entire wardrobe – comfortable undergarments provide a base of confidence for everything a man does.
Tommy John provides ultimate comfort by combining soft, breathable fabrics with supportive tailoring.
The box includes a code for $50 to spend in the Tommy John online store.
Dardimans Crispy Blood Orange Slices ($1.99): Thin slices of whole, fresh blood oranges slow air-dried maximum flavor and color retention.
Dardimans Crispy Mandarin Slices ($1.99): Similarly prepared mandarin oranges. Both products contain only fruit, dried till chewy and crisp. Ideal for garnishing drinks or topping ice cream.
The booklet reveals that the idea for the stunning slices was inspired by traditional preservation techniques used by the owner’s Armenian grandparents.
Highspire Whiskey ($45): A 100% rye whiskey made in Kentucky. Highspire has the spicy and cuttingly flavorful notes you’d expect in a good rye For those unfamiliar with rye whiskey, the difference in taste is analogous to the notable difference between pumpernickel and regular wheat bread.
Highspire uses a flash-aging process to achieve in mere months what previously took years to do. The aging process pairs old wine barrels with oak staves for an accelerated mellowing of the young liquor.
The whiskey revives the traditional practice of using 100% rye (Ryman Rye, now planted on 400 acres, across 15 states) instead of blending in corn or other grains.
The brand takes its name from a 19th century Pennsylvania rye distillery that closed during Prohibition.
The bottle top is coated in blue wax, reminiscent of the technique used on Maker’s Mark bottles.
Our box contained a bottle of two great beverages from Q Drinks.
Q Drinks Spectacular Ginger Ale ($2): A perfect pairing for whiskey (or rye), Q Drinks Spectacular Ginger Ale has a nice bite and crisp flavor. The Jack & Ginger (and variants thereof) remains my favorite two-ingredient highball (sharing the honors with a good Gin & Tonic, of course).
Q Drinks Spectacular Ginger Beer ($2): Spicier than the Ginger Ale, Q Drinks Ginger Beer is ideal for drinks requiring an assertive, fiery ginger mixer, like a Moscow Mule or a Dark & Stormy.
Q Drinks beverages were created to serve as better mixers for adult beverages. Most sodas are weakly flavored and full of corn syrup. Q Drinks ups the potency, adds interesting botanicals to create a more nuanced flavor profile, and ditches the corn syrup in favor of agave.
The ingredients differ from your typical store brands. The Ginger Ale has some coriander, cardamom, chili, orange and rose oil. The darker Ginger Beer has the first four, plus lime.
18.21 Bitters Rosemary Sage Rich Simple Syrup ($9.49): Simple Syrup is an essential for crafting countless cocktails, sweetening them enough to allow the comfortable addition or bitters or citrus. This version is heavily infused with rosemary and sage, a great herbal complement to woody whiskeys or botanical gin.
Along with the 18.21 Bitters, the Simple Syrup is ideal for highlighting the best qualities of a whiskey.
The back of the bottle has a recipe for a Rosemary Old Fashioned. I made one with the Highspire Rye in place of bourbon. It was phenomenal!
18.21 Bitters Havana & Hide Barrel Aged Bitters ($18.99): Aged in oak barrels, this bitters has fabulous notes of tobacco and leather. It smells great, like the base of a mellow cologne.
The back has a recipe for a Chicago Typewriter, made with Rye. I found that the leather, tobacco, and oak notes of the bitters paired superbly with the spice and slight astringency of the rye, giving it some of the mellow aging notes you find in older bourbons.
Sempli Cupa-Vino ($52): These two glasses are a pleasure to drink from – they feel a bit like a stemless Teku in the hand and are nice and light. The inward angle delivers your beverage to the lips in a more constrained area than a straight-sided rocks glass, which I find preferable both for ease of sipping and for holding back the rush of ice that would otherwise slide into your lips.
An interview with the creator reveals that a broken wine glass did indeed serve as inspiration for the peculiar design.
The true test of any beverage is in the tasting, so I took the occasion to give the Highspire and the glasses a test run. For some reason I was expecting the wax to bend away like the wrap on Gouda rounds, but it cracked off instead.
The Highspire Rye has a beautiful copper color when poured. It has a nice fruity bouquet and flavor profile, with a bit of spice. You can tell that it is fairly young, because of the liveliness of the fruit and softness of the deeper tones, but the heat is well-contained. As previously noted, it made a fantastic Old-Fashioned.
The Sempli glasses worked well. The look cool, and they stayed “upright,” even when very full. They where very nice to hold and drink from. They are not, however, practical for many applications – if nudged, they rotate around the point at the bottom, creating a disaster if placed near the edge of table. Also, they are not fun to carry on a tray and need to be chocked to avoid runaways. True, they travel in a circle and don’t roll far away, but the circle of travel is big enough to get into trouble.
This was a very exciting box, and it was the most complete drink making box I’ve gotten – most have just the liquor, or just mixers and garnish, or just glassware or tools – this had everything!
The Robb Vices box is certainly one of the best subscription values you can get, particularly if you like luxury. This box came in at about $193 value, which is pretty amazing. I love the curation – everything fits in the theme and is accompanied by a hefty and well-written booklet that heightens the experience and lends context to the selections.
Comments