Boozy Gift Guide 2024: 12 Gifts Drinkers Will Love
We love sipping whiskey, mixing up cocktails, and sharing a bottle of wine with friends. We love it so much that during the holidays, we want more than that. From boozy ice cream, to tasting kits and gift packs, this is a great time of year to share (or stock up on) all the ways that the fermented grape and distilled grain can add flavor and complexity to our lives. (also check out our previous guide for more great stuff). Happy Holidays!
Straightaway Twelve Nights of Cocktails Calendar
Sure, bottles of whiskey or vodka are fun in an Advent-style calendar, but either you’re sipping them neat, or going to the work of mixing them into cocktails of your choice. Why not get the calendar that takes the burden off your shoulders. Portland-based Straightaway has bundled 12 of its deliciously balanced canned cocktails, including margaritas, mai tais, and of course, an espresso martini. Order while supplies last.
$60
RedBreast Bird Feeder
Lots of boozy holiday packaging consists simply of a shiny box, different art on the bottle, or perhaps a couple of glasses alongside the usual vodka. Redbreast Irish whiskey has a unique double-duty bottle casing for the holidays that bucks this trend. For the fourth year in a row, the holiday 12-year expression features a green metal casing which attractively highlights the whiskey. Slide it off the bottle and you’ve got a wonderfully festive bird feeder. In addition, proceeds from the sale of each bottle helps support Birdlife International.
€78 (about $84)
Tipsy Scoop Holiday Decorated Pints
Tipsy Scoop is known for its tasty cocktail-themed ice creams featuring a bit of real alcohol, so it’s only natural they’re ready for the holidays. This four-pack is available in the brand’s Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Beach locations, or you can order it via Goldbelly. You’ll enjoy 16 oz pints of four favors: Mozart White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Martini, Oreo Old Fashioned, Coquito Dulce de Leche, and Mrs Clausmopolitan Sorbet. Available through New Year’s Eve or while supplies last.
$99 (includes shipping)
Tito’s Read It & Sip Cocktail Kit
If you’re reading a book while sipping cocktails, it’s educational and productive, not indulgent. Tito’s has you covered with this kit. Along with four minis of Tito’s vodka, you’ll get mixers for several cocktails (including that ever loving Espresso Martini), along with the appropriate garnishes and a recipe booklet. On top of that, you’ll get the tome “Spirit in a Bottle: Tales and Drinks From Tito’s Handmade Vodka.” Now that’s a perfect fireside evening.
$90
BoozeDogs Bluetick Variety Pack
What’s better than booze and grilled meats? Booze-infused grilled meats! This innovative company—dedicated to the founder’s dog (Mr. Hughs) and the founder’s gregarious immigrant grandfather (Frank Hofbauer)—markets sausages, jerky, ground beef and more, all infused with boozy goodness. This variety pack includes pork shoulder bratwursts, ground chuck burgers and pork hot dogs all infused with bourbon. You’ll also find meat sticks infused with rum, gin, bourbon, and more. Even better, the company donates to K9s for Warriors, connecting rescue dogs with veterans in need of highly trained service companionship.
$80
Harbison Sandeman
A petite, soft-ripened and bark-wrapped cheese with a creamy texture. What makes it a special edition of the Sandeman Port wash, giving it a holiday vibe full of smoke and sweetness. It’s initially offered as part of Jasper Hill’s November Cheese Club ($115 for at least three cheeses and other pairings and tools), then will be offered on its own as part of the Cheese Baller collection ($135 for five cheeses).
Cut Above Cocktail Kit Paloma Kit
For those who want the cocktail experience minus the alcohol, Cut Above Spirits, which focuses on agave-inspired NA spirits (but also offers zero proof whiskey, gin, etc), has launched two new cocktail kits in time for the holidays. Mix up convincing and satisfying NA margaritas or palomas (each kit has enough salt, dried limes, tajin (along with 750ml bottles of the zero-proof spirit and mixer) to make several cocktails. Seeking a different drink? Cut Above also has cocktail kits to make an Old Fashioned or Bee’s Knees.
$46
Sacred Valley Pervuian Salt Bundle Simpli
A pinch of salt in cocktails can be a game changer. This collection, all sourced from ponds in the Sacred Valley of Peru (home to Machu Picchu) and harvested by the women-run Comunidad Salinera, will add unique flavor notes equally to steaks and martinis, bloody marys and more. Order before December 31, and you’ll receive new recipe guides for each salt blend.
$27
Dewars Double 37 Year Gift Set
For that tough-to-buy-for person on your list with fancy taste, the limited-edition Dewar’s Double Double 37-year blended Scotch whisky is what you’re seeking. A four-stage aging process, with the youngest component whiskeys being 37 years, the juice is finished in Oloroso sherry. It’s unlikely you’ve had a rounder, smoother blended whiskey with such a complex flavor profile: cooked plums, cinnamon, honey, heather, candied orange peel. This is the first of four planned marques honoring traditional Scotland whisky regions. The gift set is handsomely boxed and comes with two Baccarat Massena crystal tumblers.
$1,800
Woodford Williams Sonoma Bourbon Carmel Sauce
Each year, Kentucky’s Woodford Reserve partners with Williams Sonoma to provide intriguing and exclusive gift ideas from advent calendars to foodstuff. Rich with butter and sugar, the sauce is finished off with a bit of Buffalo Trace bourbon and barrel-smoked sea salt. A perfectly decadent pour over real vanilla ice cream, buckwheat-walnut pancakes, or straight off the spoon.
$20
Teaspressa cocktail cubes
Teaspressa Mixology Cubes
There are many ways to nudge extra flavors into your cocktails: bitters, spirit infusions, fancy simple syrups. These all-natural flavored and infused sugar cubes are an effective and simple way to add a bit of zhuzh to any drink. Combine your cocktail ingredients, minus the sugar and add these flavored cubes to craft an enhanced Margarita, Old Fashioned or Singapore Sling. The Classic Cocktail Kit includes a Moscow Mule cube (we’re guessing ginger), while the Instant Mimosa Kit allows you to customize whatever blend of sparkling wine and fruit juice you’re working with.
$30
Bitters Lab Gift Set— Core Flavors
To balance out cocktails and fill out your bar cart, upgrade your bitters. This nifty set of bitters is available in a 3, 4 or 5 pack of flavors. The 3-pack includes Aromatic, Charred Cedar & Currant, and Habanero Lime, the 4 pack includes all the core flavors plus Burnt Honey Hops and the 5 pack adds in Blueberry Cardamom. All come in 1-ounce mini bottles. They come packaged in an attractive box and include an enamel pin.
$44-72 per set
2BAR Spirits Whiskey & Chocolate Lovers Gift Pack
This small Seattle-based grain-to-glass distiller produces top-notch whiskey, and boasts deep roots in Texas, infusing the brand’s name with a brand (2Bar was the family ranch). They know a lot about what makes people tick (they host happy hours at the front of the distillery each week for the SoDo neighborhood), so this whiskey and chocolate combo makes total sense. It also makes sense to partner with Seattle’s Spinnaker Chocolate, which incorporates 2Bar bourbon into one of its most popular products. You’ll get a bottle of 2Bar Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon, Spinnaker chocolate infused with bourbon, and 2Bar’s brand new chocolate bitters.
$83
Donum Estates 2020-2022 Zodiac Vertical
One of the most interesting ways to explore a wine, is drinking the same expression vertically, through different vintage harvests. Generally you’re tasting roughly the same blend of grapes, from the same plots, and exploring how weather and the vagaries of the winemaker’s touch can influence the finished wine. In this case you’ll get three vintages of The California winery’s Carneros Estate Pinot Noir. Inspired by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” each bottle features the appropriate Chinese zodiac animal (the labels were designed by the artist) for each vintage: Year of the Rat, Ox, and Tiger. It all arrives in a stylish yellow gift box.
$325
Templeton Straight Rye Whiskey x Starlino Cherries Gift Sets
Iowa-based Templeton whiskey has experienced an complex history in its two decades, but no one’s ever doubted the flavor and quality of its rye. And since the distillery began producing its own whiskey in 2022 to blend with the original sourced liquid, we’re benefiting from even more intriguing blends and finishes. Check your rye fan off the list with this gift box featuring two small bottles of all-natural Starlino Maraschino Cherries, perfect for Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. The ornate box includes detailed tasting notes and a Manhattan recipe. Available for a limited time at select retailers across the country.
Triple Dog Irish Coffee Kit
On its surface, making an Irish coffee is easy: it’s whiskey, coffee, and a little whipped cream. But there are a bunch of reasons the drink tastes better at a bar. Get a leg up on the casual home pour with this Irish Coffee kit from Triple Dog. The whiskey distillery is located in Dundalk in County Louth (Ireland’s smallest county). You’ll get enough ingredients for a full pot of coffee (featuring Boston’s Best Coffee Donut Shop Blend, perfect for East Coasters especially), the whiskey, along with sugar, and a recipe card.
$47