2024 Burlington Tasting Room Holiday Gift Guide
Another gift-giving season has arrived! If you’re working on your list still, whether for family, friends or co-workers, we’ve got some great gift options for you at our Burlington Tasting Room. Our retail section offers a variety of items to make an incredible cocktail-themed gift basket, or to simply help someone stock up with supplies for their home bar. We carry a variety of glassware, barware, syrups, mixers, bitters, recipe books, Mad River merch, and of course, our ready-to-drink cocktails and spirits! Need some specific ideas? Read below for our 2024 Burlington Tasting Room Gift Guide, then stop in to check off your shopping to-do list!
Here are our top gift recommendations for 2024:
OUR FAVORITES GIFT PACK
Our “Favorites” gift pack includes three of our best-selling Vermont-made spirits in “flask” (or pocket) sized 200ml bottles. Each set includes our Straight Bourbon, Revolution Rye and Maple Cask Rum. This is a great way to introduce someone to our craft spirits. Each can all be sipped on their own, but if the person you’re gifting loves a good cocktail, be sure to have them visit our website for recipe ideas.
COCKTAILS GIFT PACK
This gift pack includes three ready-to-drink cocktails! That’s right, no mixing is required! Simply pour into a chilled glass (with or without ice, as may be preferred), and start sipping. These gift packs contain a 200ml sized bottle of our Old Fashioned made with Straight Bourbon, Maple Fig Madhattan made with Maple Cask Rum and Black Fig Vodka, and our Old Fashioned made with Revolution Rye.
BITTERS KITS
Our Burlington Tasting Room boasts an extensive selection of bitters (perhaps the biggest in the state). Bitters are an excellent way to add and experiment with cocktail flavors. While there are a few bitters we always recommend for home bars (such as Angostura Bitters, Orange Bitters and Peychaud Bitters), we offer a variety of popular kits, each containing several bitters flavors, from brands such as Crude, Strong Water, Bitter Queens, The Bitter Housewife, Scrappy’s & more.
MAPLE SYRUPS
Besides the fact that this liquid gold makes a great substitute for simple syrup (while offering double duty on your homemade pancakes), we have some other connections to Maple Syrup here at Mad River Distillers. We have a brand new (and very delicious) “Double Tapped” Rum Maple Syrup that was aged for years in our rum barrels, and contains 17.2% alcohol. We also carry Wood’s Rum Barrel Aged syrup, which is aged for several months in newly emptied rum barrels that we provide, in addition to Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup from Old City Syrup Company, which aged in our newly emptied bourbon barrels.
ALL THE MIXERS
Just like there are a ton of bitter options to create unique cocktail flavors, the same is true with mixers. A simple syrup adds a touch of sweetness to cocktails, while nut and fruit flavored syrups (like the Macadamia Nut or the Prickly Pear syrups featured here) add specific flavors that taste amazing in tropical cocktails and daiquiris. You can find other popular tropical cocktail syrups like grenadine, falernum and orgeat on our shelves as well.
BARWARE & HOME GOODS
If you know someone with a home bar looking to stock up or expand on their supplies, we carry all the items someone would need, including jiggers, shakers, strainers, bar spoons, mixing glasses, cocktail picks, muddlers, ice cube molds, glassware, tiki mugs, coasters, recipe books and more.
WEARABLES
Give the gift of local (and support local business at the same time) with some cool Mad River Distillers merch, including hats, comfy tees and cozy hoodies. Other Mad River Distillers merch includes stickers, travel mugs, glassware, coasters, flasks and whiskey stones.
DIY OLD FASHIONED KIT
You can’t go wrong with the ever-popular Old Fashioned cocktail. At our Burlington Tasting Room, you can find all the supplies you need to put together a simple Old Fashioned Kit: a bottle of Straight Bourbon or Revolution Rye, Angostura Bitters (which are used in a wide variety of other cocktails) and Luxardo Cherries. We also carry some dehydrated garnishes. If you need a rocks glass and large ice cube, we have you covered with glassware and ice cube molds, as well!
MAD RIVER SPIRITS
Not to be forgotten… The most spirited gift of all is of course our award-winning spirits! At our Burlington Tasting Room, you can find bottles of our rye, bourbon and rums. Many are available in two sizes. We also have some limited spirits on hand (which means, they won’t last long, so get a bottle while supplies last). When you stop into our Burlington Tasting Room, you can take a Tasting break and sample some of the spirits for yourself before deciding which bottles to purchase.
These are just some of the items you can find at our Burlington Tasting Room. Other available items include a variety of mocktail drinks, Bourbon Caramel chocolate bars from Lake Champlain Chocolates, Cocktail Smoker Kits and Vena’s Infusion Kits. If you have any questions or need advice on a gift, we’re always happy to help with ideas so you can assemble a great package for your loved ones.
Visit us at 137 St. Paul Street in Burlington for all your spirits and barware needs, and show your support for local business! While you’re there, order a tasting or cocktail from our bar. If you aren’t local or visiting the area, check out our Purchase page to see how you can find our spirits online.
Wishing you all a spirited and safe holiday season!
Written by Brianne Lucas and published on November 25, 2024
