If you're anywhere near SoCal , Valley Beverage has a shitload for the past 2 years sitting on the shelves for 100 bucks. Call them and they might ship
My IPA Tavour strategy is when I'm down to less than a week before shipping, I look at the IPAs, checking to see if the canned date is within two weeks. Takes a week on average for the crate to close, ship and arrive, its often a week before I get to any given beer, so I'm about a month in. Not ideal for hazies, but ok west coast.
I’ve had box stuck in NJ for a week now and have inquired twice - the guy says “the carrier has received it, I should get it in a few days” each time…sounds like I’m getting the run around but it is a busy time of the year and I’ve had 4 shipments thus far with no problems. Did you have a similar experience for your lost shipments?
My last box went to NJ and seemed to just sit with no updates for a little over a week and then showed up at my door (in NC), then updated to being in NY and ready to head to me.
Thanks for that feedback - that gives me some hope!! I really want these beers!! I'm trying to decipher this guy's two messages and the way I'm reading the process is that NJ is some kind of hub for Tavour shipments, and perhaps they end up sitting there for a little longer than expected, or longer than they can control, and then they divide the individual boxes up to the more local shipping agencies as time and availability dictates. Who knows, but that would make sense to me.
Just received my first box from Tavour in about 16 months, so figured I'd report on my experiences and see what other's have thought recently. Shipping costs haven't changed (still $14.99), and I got 16 beers. Perfect packaging and took 2 business days to arrive. No complaints there. As for the beer selection, it seems about the same as years past. Apart from a handful of stupid breweries like Horus ($70 for a small bottle), most are completely reasonable and are similar to what you'd pay in a store. Most of the beers that I bought were between $6 and $15, with a couple closer that exceeded $20 (Veil Cognac Circle of Wolves and Double Barrel Father Time from River North).
I have received about 6 boxes from TAVOUR and I have consistently had good experiences. Their customer service will jump through hoops to help you if there is, or isn’t a problem, shipping is reasonable, the premium for beers is reasonable, etc. Living in a beer capital like Boston, I keep saying I don’t need TAVOUR, but I find there’s always some out of market beer I want to try, and while it’s less fun than trading, it’s cheaper and easier. I also use it to try scoring Top 250 beers that traders want a premium for, and I typically avoid beers like Horus and a few others (Anchorage and 3 Sons come to mind) who charge insane amounts for beer that is marginally if at all better than other beers that cost a fraction of what they charge - but to be fair - TAVOUR is only passing their costs on. I also only get IPAs just before the shipping date, with a recent canning date for all the obvious reasons…. So all in all, I’ve had a pretty good experience with it, cheers!
I think this is a really good point. I also live in a place with tons of great beer, but Tavour simply gives access to great beer outside of local markets. I also agree about the few breweries that are very expensive on Tavour. It's clearly the brewery setting their prices high, not Tavour price gauging. The shipping cost is a pretty big plus - you can get 30 beers and still pay the $14.99 flat rate.
And having just made my comments about being able to snag out of market Top 250 beers I haven’t had - up pops Coconut Medianoche, and thar she goes, missed it, damn!!
I’ve had nothing but great experiences. I get probably 4 boxes a year and never had a problem. It does take about 10 days for my beers to arrive in Boston so I won’t order IPAs once the weather starts warming up but I don’t trade with my friends then either. Prices are very reasonable. Some are super expensive but not marked up much. BA stouts from Perennial are $5 more than if you purchase direct for example.
Was going to start my first Tavour crate in over 2 years today because of DB Rusty Nail. Had to delete my old payment info and put a new one on because my card had expired. System wasn't working. Kept saying, "Error. Not connected to the internet. Try again later." Now it's a Wailist Me only option and I still can't get my payment method to be saved. And yes, I cleared cache, deleted app and reinstalled, etc. Guess I'll just wait another 2 years or so. Probably better off without it.
Last time I bought Coconut Medianoche on Tavour it was filled with protein slugs. You're probably better off. Traded my other bottle away after that experience. I was very transparent with the other trader about the possibility of globs, and even sent pics. They wanted to roll the dice. /shrug
That's a bummer. I've been monitoring the app sporadically and turned off Notifications so I'm not splurging on stuff I don't need right now. I plan to dust it off closer to the holidays. But selection-wise, it seems it's gotten a little stale and heavy on all the usual Tavour suspects without much new stuff popping up.
Interesting...I can only imagine that was a bad batch as I'd find it hard to believe that Tavour would somehow get sent suboptimal cases, or first fills outta the barrel...but who knows? Other than half baked or well-aged IPAs, I can't say I've many problems, but I've also been sitting on some of the stout's I've bought from them so time will tell. I'm passing on that DB Rusty Nail too (which I really shouldn't given my name is Rusty...)...maybe I'll revisit next year but the few reviews and overall ratings didn't sound compelling enough to pull the trigger...cheers mate!
Forgot how disorganized the shipping is. First my crate was delayed (seems to be every order tho), then on 12/5 it updated that the target pickup date was 12/1…. But it had been picked up on 12/4. No update since. It’s either still sitting in new jersey, or on a truck somewhere
Are you signed up to get shipping updates from UPS? I get one when the box is dropped off, when arrival is in a day or two and then when delivered. If I want updates beyond that I can track it on UPS but note that when it is on the truck from the West Coast to the East Coast, there are no updates until the package gets logged in again once it is near its destination. The other thing I do is to set my drop off at a CVS. That way I don't have to worry about somebody being around to sign for the box when it arrives.
They don't use UPS here. It's some shady 3rd party that sends normal cars at weird hours. One guy called me because he couldn't find my house and was telling me he left Jersey at 5am and was heading back after he dropped my package off (it was around 7pm at this point). Still no update on the status. Half expecting to not see this thing arrive, half expecting it to show up with no notice at any point. I'll email support if it's not here by Friday
Yeah same process here although the third party service they use is semi decent and other retailers use it at times as well.
OK, now I know what you guys are talking about. Several years ago, I had a conversation with one of Tavour's founders as I was having the same issues with shipments coming to NC. He told me that for deliveries to NC they have to use two shipping companies - one for the long haul across the country and another for the last mile delivery. He also told me that they were having difficulties with the last-mile delivery service serving my area in NC as the delivery company was reluctant to drive long distances without sufficient delivery volume. One time, I actually wound up driving 90 minutes to the delivery service's office to pick up my box. He told me that there are only certain states where they can use UPS end to end due to regulatory restrictions. I can't remember the regulatory reason but, since VA was one of the states where they used UPS, I shifted my delivery address to a CVS in VA (45 minutes away), and haven't had any problems since.
