All-inclusive resorts often have a large selection of alcohol to choose from, often upwards of a dozen tequilas for your margarita and plenty of rum brands for your pina colada. There are questions all over the internet from people who want to know the exact liquor brands a resort carries, but that time asking about it often doesn’t make a difference for many people as they make one mistake when ordering drinks at all-inclusives.
People forget to say a brand name
It makes sense – you say ‘I want a margarita’ and you get a margarita. At regular restaurants outside of all-inclusives, they’ll often ask what liquor you want as they hope to upsell you to a more expensive brand.
When ordering drinks at all-inclusives, the resort has the opposite approach – make it with their cheapest unless you specifically say otherwise. Often times, the cheapest isn’t even visible: Take the picture of the TRS Coral Costa Mujeres lobby bar at the top of this post. You can’t see any of the cheap alcohol there because it takes away from the image of luxury, but they keep it below the bar for those who don’t specify a brand.
This approach saves them a bundle
The reason you need to specify the brand name when ordering drinks at all-inclusives is fairly self-explanatory: Putting ‘the good stuff’ in a drink when not asked costs a lot of money.
Take vodka, where a bottle of the domestic stuff can cost under 100 MXN (~US$4.50) but a bottle of Grey Goose can cost 600-700 MXN (~US$27-31). If they get 15 drinks out of a 750ml bottle, that’s an additional $1.50-$1.80/drink. Now multiply that by the number of people ordering drinks at all-inclusives and how many drinks they each get, and it makes sense why the resort doesn’t proactively offer it.
Simply add the brand name when ordering drinks at an all-inclusive
You don’t need to stumble across a phrase like ‘Can I get a margarita, but for tequila, do you have something good like Don Julio or Corralejo?’ Simply ask with the brand in there, e.g. ‘Corralejo margarita’ and most bartenders or servers will understand what you are asking for.
While I think that all-inclusives are worth it, not doing this can make them decidedly less so as you aren’t getting the full value out of your stay.
The takeaway
If you’re ordering drinks at all-inclusives, specify the brand when ordering or you may be in for a surprise.
