Have a cocktail lover to shop for? Need a gift for a home mixologist? This Top 10+ Gifts For Cocktail Lovers list has travel gifts, bitters kits, books, a decanter, and more.
For more shopping help, check out all of our gift guides.
Craft cocktails started making a comeback a few years ago. We’ve been to a ton of craft cocktail bars in the last few years, and they’re all so cool. The thing is, though, craft cocktails can get pricey. There’s just so much (both care and ingredients) that go into each drink that consumers end up paying for. So that’s why a lot of people are playing mixologist at home.
If you have a home bartender in your life, you’ll love our Top 10 Gifts for Cocktail Lovers list.
Pete actually loves making cocktails at home, so we stand by a couple of these as the best gifts for cocktail lovers, mostly because he owns a couple of the items on this list already. The others are ones that I know he would love to add to his home bar.
Okay. His home bar is a cabinet in the kitchen, filled with bottles from national and local distilleries.
But that’s better than not having a home bar at all.
This Top 10 Gifts For Cocktail Lovers list is just one of the gift guides we have on Drugstore Divas in hopes of making your shopping life so much easier.
Be sure to check out Drugstore Divas’ Holiday Gift Guide for all of our shopping guides.
Top Gifts For Cocktail Lovers
Affiliate links are included in this post and Drugstore Divas may make a small commission if you use them.
What The Fxxk Should I Drink Book
If you like the book above, but 1,000 drinks just feels like an overwhelming amount of options, your gift recipient would probably like this What The Fxxk Should I Drink book instead.
The recipe book is filled with 75 drink ideas, so it’s easier to go through. Unless your cocktail lover is sensitive. The book is filled with “relaxed” language, which might not go over so well if you’re buying it for someone stuffy. So you definitely need to know your audience.
Extra Large Ice Cube Trays
Certain drinks call for certain ice cubes, so that’s why we have big ice cube trays ready to go in our freezer at all times. Pete likes the square ice cubes in cocktails, but you can choose the round version instead. They melt slowly, so they keep your cocktail cold without watering it down.
If you’d rather not water down your drinks at all, you could buy whiskey stones instead. Those come in square or round shapes too. You put them in your freezer and then in your drink. Any by drink, it doesn’t have to be whiskey. They’ll cool your drink down — no matter what spirit you’re enjoying — without watering it down.
The Cocktail Box Co. Cocktail Kits
The Cocktail Box Co. Cocktail Kits are absolutely perfect for someone who travels. You can get them as an Old Fashioned, Gin & Tonic, Moscow Mule, Champagne Cocktail, Margarita, and Mai Tai. Each kit comes with everything you need to make the cocktail (like syrups, sugar, bitters, stirrers, and more) … except the actual alcohol. You have to pick that up yourself.
They’re basically pocket sized, so they’re perfect to pack for a trip where you’re either flying on a plane and can’t pack full sized bottles or when you’re traveling with limited space. They come in a hard case, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally puncturing one of the syrup packets and it exploding all over your carry on.
Once you have the kit, you can actually buy refills (of just the perishable items; refills don’t include more stirrers) of certain cocktails, so that’s a good follow up gift idea.
Whiskey Smoker Kit
Smoked drinks are so popular in restaurants and wineries and coffee shops. Yes, we’ve had smoked drinks at all three.
And now, you can have them at home. Or your friend can if you buy them this Whiskey Smoker Kit.
It comes with six flavors of wood chips that you put into the whiskey barrel-shaped smoker. Light it with the torch (which comes in the kit) and smoke dissipates into the drink.
Whisky The Manual Book
If your friend wants to get into whisky, but feels intimidated, Dave Broom’s Whisky The Manual is perfect. It walks the reader through whisky, its forms, how to drink it, and more. It makes the liquor super accessible.
It has a section with parings as well, which will really help your whisky-wanting friend figure out how he or she will like it.
Oak Aging Barrel
I remember my brother having an oak aging barrel for ages. I think my other brother bought it for him as a gift, but I may be completely making that up. What I’m not making up is that Pete’s dad got him an Oak Aging Barrel for his birthday last year.
An Oak Aging Barrel allows you to age your own spirits at home. Pete put a white whiskey (which is basically moonshine) in, and in three months it was completely aged. What’s cool is you can reuse it without washing it to make something like a whiskey-barrel aged wine.
He’s done a three month and a six month age in it, and both have come out great. Up next is a one year age.
Corkcicle Whiskey Glass
The most important part about drinking whiskey is keeping it cold but not watering it down. That’s why whiskey stones and giant ice cubes are so popular.
For something more fun, check out the Corkcicle Whiskey Glass. It has an insert so you can freeze a giant, angled ice cube right in the glass. Pull it out when the ice is frozen and pour the whiskey in the rest of the glass. It’s perfect.
Talk Dirty To Me Kitchen Towel
If you know me, you know how much I love changing our kitchen towels with every upcoming holiday and season. And if there’s a pun involved, even better.
So, of course, I love this Talk Dirty To Me kitchen towel with the happiest dirty martini drawn on it. If you know someone who loves martinis, this is the drink for them.
The Home Mixologist: Shake Up Your Cocktail Game With 150 Recipes
The chance of your mixologist knowing more than a handful of drink recipes is slim. A couple dozen, maybe, but not 150. So this book — The Home Mixologist: Shake Up Your Cocktail Game with 150 Recipes — is the perfect way to try a few new recipes.
And who knows. The book might be one of the best gifts for the mixologist in your life. It might help him or her find a new drink for to love.
Distillery Cats Book
Cats love distilleries. That’s part of every distillery’s lore, for some reason.
So this book, Distillery Cats, is the purr-fect (see what I did there?) coffee table book for your cat loving home mixologist. Plus, it’s better than gifting your friend one more cocktail recipe book.
Cheer Book
Okay, fine. Maybe you didn’t like the cat book. Maybe you actually do want a recipe book for your friend.
If you’re shopping during the holidays, Mike Wolf’s Cheer is perfect. It’s filled with over 125 holiday drink recipes. But, not just the Christmas holiday. There are drinks for Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, Dry January non-alcoholic cocktails, and more.
Purchase Gifts For Cocktail Lovers Online:
This is a list of the best gifts for cocktail lovers, according to us, but they’re not the only gifts for mixologists out there. There are more, like the Drunk On Patios sign above.
For more Christmas gifts for cocktail lovers, check out the stores below.
Double check a store’s minimum cart total to qualify for free shipping. And consider instore or curbside pickup to avoid shipping charges.
DIY Gifts For Cocktail Lovers:
If you’re feeling crafty, instead of purchasing a gift, you can make our DIY Mason Jar Cocktail Kits instead.
Which of these gifts for cocktail lovers are you buying first?