Awesome Drinks

James Beard Award-winning mixologist Toby Maloney and the bartenders of Chicago’s The Violet Hour created this 320-page guide to the fundamentals of cocktail making. You’ll learn about balancing ingredients, getting the right textures, aromas, and temperatures, then advance to making your own concoctions.

Fósforo Mezcal Ensamble balanced, approachable, and less-smoky than most mezcals. Formulated by fourth-generation mezcalero Aaron Alva Sanchez, it’s a double-distilled blend of Tobalá (maguey) and Espadilla agave plants, roasted in underground pits before fermentation. The lingering full-mouth feel characterizes Fosforo’s Tobalá house style.

We’d call the ultra-premium, extra splurge-worthy Ron Zacapa Centenario XO the cognac of rums, but it’s better than that. The gold medal winner is made with a blend of Guatemalan rums, each one aged 10 to 25 years old. For a smooth sip, it’s finished in French oak casks that previously held cognac.

There’s nothing (nada) breakable about De-Nada Tequila’s new bottles: they’re now made from recyclable aluminum with a natural wood cork. And there’s nothing artificial inside, just blue Weber agave, water, and the distiller’s proprietary yeast. The Blanco and Reposado versions are cooked in brick ovens for 48+ hours and double distilled in copper pots.

This unique recipe book is a great gift for science lovers and home mixologists. Dr. Logan Richardson of Flavor Lab explains the science behind beverages with step-by-step guides to making alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. You’ll learn to make cola, hard seltzer, and kombucha from scratch, along with unusual drinks like Viking Blaand and buttered popcorn soda.

Bring new depth and dimension to your whiskey with this spirit-enhancing gift set. The kit includes various types of oak, herbs, and spices to infuse your whiskey with, along with two bottles for mixing and six stainless steel whiskey stones for ice-free chilling. They also make infusion kits for gin and vodka.

Here’s a sweet treat for rum fans. Kraken Ship Wrecked is a limited-edition ice cream collab between Kraken Rum and Tipsy Scoop, with shipping through Goldbelly. Way better than rum raisin, it’s a very boozy blend of Kraken Black Spiced Rum and black cocoa ice cream with bits of amaro cherries and white chocolate. Price shown is for four pints.

There’s so much more to explore in Mexican spirits beyond the basics. Crystal-clear Contraluz Cristalino Mezcal is a mezcal in the refined Cristalino category, having matured in oak barrels and filtered through activated charcoal. And delicious Alma Finca is the only premium orange liqueur made with fresh citrus and spices from the Yucatán.

Las Californias Cítrico Gin is a tale of two countries — the US and Mexico — where hyper-local foraging across the border takes advantage of the area’s biological diversity. The colder waters of Alta California provide ingredients such as kelp, while Baja’s dry deserts yield white sage and juniper plus other leaves and fruits.

Toucan’s two-can approach to cocktails puts booze and mixers in separate cans you can mix them when you’re ready to drink. For extra fun, the cans snap together to become a cocktail shaker. They come in margarita, bourbon old-fashioned, lemon drop martini flavors, and a variety pack. Price shown is for six cans to make 12 cocktails. (Thanks, Harriet!)

Amanda Schuster’s elegant cocktail recipe book deserves a spot on your bookshelf. The book catalogs 200 signature cocktails from bars and restaurants around the world. Each drink recipe is accompanied by details of its origins and an artful photograph of the cocktail. It’s packed with both classic cocktails and lesser-known specialty drinks.

Swedish distiller Purity added an award to their trophy case when their Connoisseur 51 Organic Vodka was named Vodka of the Year in the New Orleans Spirits Competition. The organic spirit is distilled slowly at low temperatures for more than 20 hours in a custom copper still for a total of 51 distillations.

We’re usually not fans of ready-to-drink cocktails. But the pre-mixed Automatic Jones Earl Grey Negroni from Family Jones Distillery in Colorado won RTD of the Year in the New Orleans Spirits Competition and we’ve gotta agree. This bitter-and-sweet concoction is made with Earl Grey Juniper Jones Gin and house-made liqueurs.

Inspired by the “Sur Lie” French winemaking process, Redemption Whiskey’s unique Sur Lee Straight Rye Whiskey starts with their pre-Prohibition rye mash bill with 95% rye content. Then, it breaks from whiskey-making norms, adding flavorful “whiskey lees,” leftover bits that come off the still during distillation, into the barrels before aging.

Master blender Lorena Vásquez crafts Zacapa No. 23 high in the mountains of Guatemala, using first-press sugar cane instead of molasses, like common rums. Zacapa 23 then enjoys a version of the “sistema solera” aging process in which the rum rests in casks that previously held American whiskey, sherry, and Pedro Ximenez wines.

We’d forgotten how great Chambord was until our dog pulled a bottle off a shelf to play ball with it. Produced in France since 1982, classic Chambord is a premium liqueur featuring a unique blend of black raspberries (sweeter than red ones), black currants, Madagascan vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey, and XO Cognac.