It’s the tech industry’s latest ploy to keep you from ever setting foot in a supermarket again: meal delivery service Blue Apron just announced a new program that ships bottles of wine to your home.


Blue Apron, which recently achieved unicorn status and is now worth $2 billion, already ships packages of pre-washed seasonal ingredients with bundled recipes to your doorstep. Now with the launch of Blue Apron Wine, bottles of vino will be perfectly paired with delivered recipes. And not just any boozy grape juice, either. The wine will be hand-picked by a crew of sommeliers, and delivered alongside the eats for users who opt in. Bottles will come with tasting tips plus notes about the vineyard from whence the grapes came.

But as former Giz EIC Brian Barrett points out, the service, which will cost users $65.99 plus tax, leaves something to be desired. Namely, enough booze. Here’s what Blue Apron CEO Matt Salzberg told Fast Company:

“We created custom bottles that are two-thirds the size of traditional bottles. We wanted them to be perfect for two people to drink on an average weeknight without having to worry about not being able finish the bottle.”


Wait, whaaaat. I mean, this is a nice idea, but 500-milliliter bottles are kinda puny, no? Like, sure, I’m not gonna get crunk off of my Blue Apron delivery, but to be worth the price, I’d like to get full bottles instead of these kinds of samplers for two. If you don’t want to finish the wine, save it for tomorrow!

Slowly but surely, more Americans are turning to meal delivery services: Grubhub and Seamless bring you meals from local restaurants, Try the World brings you snacks from other countries, and outfits like Blue Apron and HelloFresh bring you boxes of ingredients for specific recipes, so you can cook up the means yourself. Even Uber’s getting in on the game. Catering to lazy homebody humans is turning into a big market, with some venture capitalists worrying the industry is headed into bubble territory.

But hey, for now? The less time you spend in the liquor aisle, the more time you can spend drunk in front of Netflix.

[PR Newswire via Fast Company]

Photo credit Blue Apron