THE BEST Drinks

Distilled in Mexico from agave, mezcal is characterized by its smoky flavor – not always desired by tequila fans. The subtle smoke of triple-distilled Vamonos Riendo Mezcal has wider appeal, using mature, high-altitude Espadín and Tobalá which concentrates flavors in the heart of the plant. Each sale benefits Oaxaca charities.

Pinhook is a new portfolio of American whiskeys, each as distinctive as the winning racehorse on the label. The Kentucky distillery’s 2020 Straight Rye – cheekily called Rye’d On – took Double-Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Available through BevMo, and online at Caskers, Drizly, and Seelbach’s.

BrüMate’s drink flasks feature a look inspired by vintage WWII gasoline “jerry” cans. They hold 8 oz. of your drink of choice and are cast from stainless steel with a special food-safe coating to eliminate any metallic aftertaste. They’re available in numerous colors, including some cool camouflage patterns.

Like most countries, you need a license in the UK to sell liquor in a bar, restaurant, or other location. But there’s a loophole in their law that seems to permit unlicensed sales aboard vehicles in transit. So Tom Scott and Matt Grey set up a working bar aboard a small hovercraft to deliver drinks to patrons in the countryside.

United Sodas of America offers a 12-pack of their soft drinks that looks like a Pantone color swatch book. Each of their delicious sodas is made with natural flavors, organically-sweetened, and has only 30 calories. With flavors like orange nectarine, pear elderflower, and toasted coconut, this ain’t your daddy’s soda pop.

This corn whiskey blend introduces natural coffee flavor into the mix. The regular brew is fragrant and nutty, while the dark roast has delicious caramel notes. It’s sweet enough to sip over ice and also tastes great in a cup of unsweetened coffee for a warm-up with a kick any time of day. Find it online at Sip Whiskey or Del Mesa Liquor.

Enhance the taste of your favorite spirits and wines with this craft cocktail infuser. Simply fill with fruits, veggies, candies, or spices, and attach it securely to your bottled beverage. Flip it over to fill with liquid, and let the ingredients infuse over time before pouring. Flavors start to meld in as little as five minutes.

Keep your drinks within reach with one of these outdoor metal holders from Newch Creative Welds. The YardStick comes in 1-drink, 2-drink, and 4-drink variants, each with a 3-foot-tall stake for the beach or grass, along with a built-in bottle opener. They also make versions with a metal stand for use on patios or decks.

Park City, Utah’s High West Distillery makes some of our favorite bourbon and rye. Now they’ve turned their attention to pre-mixed Manhattans and Old Fashioneds, which spent time in rye whiskey barrels for added depth and flavor. Each 750ml bottle pours 12 cocktails, lasts for 3 years on the shelf, and 30 days once opened.

Warm up cool October days with one of Brutaliteas’ tasty fall tea blends. Flavors include Chaiday the 13th, Children of the Candy Corn, Malloween, Night of the Living Red Apple, and Polterspice, each incorporating deliciously autumnal flavor elements like cinnamon, clove, ginger, apple, chocolate, and Halloween candy.

Whether you’re home-distilling spirits or just want to add some dimension to store-bought drinks, these coils of charred oak are a great way to add flavor and depth. They’re small enough to drop through the neck of a 750ml bottle, and their spiral design maximizes surface area for the best flavor. Sold in packs of one, two, or four.

Junipero Gin’s juniper-berry-blue bottle hints at the botanicals inside: juniper, coriander, cubeb, grains of paradise, lemon peel, orange peel, orris root, cassia bark, cardamom, orange peel, aniseed, and angelica root. Junipero pioneered the American craft gin movement, distilling in small copper pots at 98.6 unfiltered proof.

Whether or not you golf, nothing beats a cocktail at the 19th hole. The Pebble Beach Whiskey Wedge Rocks Glass by Corkcicle perfectly chills your favorite spirit without diluting its flavor. Just put the etched rocks glass and clever silicone ice form in the freezer to make a slow-melting wedge that leans on one side of the glass.

With wildfires ravaging the US West, Colorado’s Wild Barn Coffee is donating 100% of their profits on National Coffee Day, 9.29.20, to the GlobalGiving CA Wildfire Relief Fund. Wild Barn’s organic Nitro Cold Brew is spiked with two antioxidant superfoods: goji berries and cacao nibs. Sold in 6- and 12-packs.

The #1 bar in Victoria, BC and one of Canada’s 50 best, the gorgeous Q Bar at the iconic Fairmont Empress is a wowser. Equally stunning is its magical signature drink which changes colors from bold indigo to soft pink. Canada’s oldest craft distillery, Victoria Distillers, created indigo Empress 1908 Gin to do the trick.

Despite its low alcohol content and questionable flavor, White Claw spiked selzer has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Now you can enjoy the delightful citrus fragrance without the hangovers with this lemongrass candle from Meriwether. It’s made from an upcycled can and hand-poured soy wax.

Raise a glass to help local bars during Negroni Week. Through 9.20.20, Campari will match donations up to $200K to support unemployed bar workers. Others are donating a share of sales, like Cocktail Kingdom’s finger stirrers, Kegworks kits, Shaker and Spoon, Minibar delivery, and Campari purchases via ReserveBar.

We had no idea that people were packing their spirits and mixers into fuel canisters, but we found a number of artists over on Etsy doing just that. Each one features a hinged front to access your drink supplies, while some have wooden dividers or elastic straps to keep things organized. There’s a DIY guide on Instructables too.

Fans of classic whiskies from the American South take note: southern Australia nabbed a gold medal at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for Starward Two-Fold Double Grain Whisky, the first widely available Aussie whisky brand in the US. The easy-drinking spirit is known for its unique maturation style in red wine casks.

A.H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old has been called “the best American bourbon ever produced.” So where does a great distiller go from there? Back to fundamentals, with selected whiskey expressions like The Horizon Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a balanced 92-proof blend of two straight bourbons, perfect neat or on the rocks.

Boxer and MMA fighter Conor McGregor stepped into the whiskey-making ring in 2018, near his hometown of Dublin. He and an ex-Bushmills manager crafted nearly 100 blends before debuting this KO formula. Proper No. Twelve is a proper Irish spirit made with the traditional triple-distillation method in copper pot stills.

Japan has distilled shōchū for 500 years, with iichiko setting the gold standard, but iichiko Saiten is a new kind of higher proof shōchū made specifically for mixology. Co-created with U.S. bartenders, the clear, pot-distilled spirit is rich in citrus, melon, and pepper notes, derived from two-row barley and fermented koji.

Gold-medal winning Woodford Reserve straight bourbon whisky is full of flavor, with hints of sweet aromatics, spice, fruit, flowers, grains and wood. Just the ticket for refreshing bourbon cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Mint Julep, and the summery Porch Swing cocktail, characterized by its use of lemon, honey and peach tea.

Light up your evening and easily identify your beer can with Nite Ize’s illuminated SlapLit drink wraps. Their neoprene insulator wrap keeps drinks cool and palms dry, and a their slap-bracelet inspired center band glows in one of three colors thanks to LED tech.

One of the world’s favorite cocktails is the classic Dark ‘n Stormy, created in 1920s Bermuda when British Navy officers used Goslings Black Seal Rum to spike their seasickness cure: ginger beer. A century later, the drink gets its own holiday; June 9, 2020 is the first official Dark ‘n’ Stormy Day. Celebrate with the official recipe.

Cinco de Mayo is one of America’s favorite holidays, but contrary to common belief, it is not Mexican Independence Day. That treaty was signed August 24, 1821, a date commemorated by Tequila Corralejo. Their Extra Añejo 1821 honors valiant heroes with 100% blue agave, double-distilled in copper, and matured in oak for 36 months.