2023 Burlington Tasting Room Holiday Gift Guide
The gift giving season has commenced, which means you’re probably working hard to figure out the perfect gift for everyone on your gifting list. If you have a cocktail lover in your life, consider us your one-stop spirits gift shop. The retail section at our Burlington Tasting Room has a variety of items to make an incredible gift basket for your cocktail-loving co-workers, friends or family members. You can find glassware, barware, mixers, bitters, recipe books, apparel, and of course, our spirits. If you’re looking for ideas, check out our Burlington Tasting Room Gift Guide below, and then visit us to quickly get what you need!
Here are our top gift recommendations for 2023:
OUR FAVORITES GIFT PACK
Our spirits gift pack includes three of our best-selling Vermont-made spirits in “flask” sized 200ml bottles, including our Straight Bourbon, our Revolution Rye and our Maple Cask Rum. If you aren’t sure which of our spirits someone would like best, this offers a great way for them to try a few of our customer favorites, all of which taste great on their own or in cocktails.
COCKTAILS GIFT PACK
This gift pack includes three cocktails that are ready to pour and sip right away—our Old Fashioned made with Straight Bourbon, our Maple Fig Madhattan made with Maple Cask Rum and Black Fig Vodka, and our Old Fashioned made with Revolution Rye, which is quite distinctive. All you need is the glassware (which you can also find at our Burlington Tasting Room!).
BITTERS, SIPPERS & NIPPERS
Our Burlington Tasting Room boasts a large display of bitters, which are just one way you can experiment with cocktail flavors. There are a few bitters we always recommend to have as staples in your home bar, and we carry those (such as Angostura Bitters, Orange Bitters and Peychaud Bitters), but we also carry a wide array of other flavors, including spicy and savory options.
What else can you find? Vena's Fizz House Spirit Sippers and Nippers, which are made with freeze-dried fruits, herbs, and natural sweeteners. You simply add one of our spirits to a bottle, allow the spirit to sit with the included ingredients for a period of time, and voila… you have yourself a very tasty shot or cocktail!
ALL THE MIXERS
Just like there are a ton of bitter options to create unique cocktail flavors, the same is true with mixers. Simple syrups from plain to fruit-flavored, grenadine, falernum, orgeat… Mixers make the task of creating incredible cocktails an easy one. Plus, we carry some maple syrups, which work great as an alternative to simple syrup. You’ll find barrel aged syrups at our Burlington Tasting Room, including Wood's Bourbon Barrel Aged and Rum Barrel Aged Maple Syrup, and a Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup from Old City Syrup Company.
GARNISH GAME
Every “host with the most” boasts a great garnish game, but it’s not always easy or quick to serve up a beautiful garnish. That’s why we carry these ready-to-use dehydrated garnishes from Vermont-made Slopeside Cocktails. There are a few packaging options for these dehydrated citrus wheels and apple slices, but the glass packaging in particular makes a beautiful gift that can also be repurposed as a rocks glass later!
BARWARE & HOME GOODS
If you know someone just starting out in the cocktail world, they probably need supplies, and we carry a variety to help stock up their home bar.
You can build a barware set, with shakers, strainers, barspoons, jiggers, mixing glasses, whiskey stones, muddlers and ice cube molds. You can also find glassware options like our best selling rocks glasses, and Vermont-made AO glassware. Need some other home goods? You’ll find cutting boards and coasters!
WEARABLES
Give the gift of local with some cool Mad River Distillers merch, including these super comfy knitted beanies, baseball hats, our cozy hoodies, and a variety of t-shirts. If your loved one loves our Revolution Rye, they’ll probably love our Join The Ryevolution tee!
MAD RIVER SPIRITS
Don't forget the most spirited gift of all, our award-winning spirits! At our Burlington Tasting Room, you can find bottles of our rye, bourbon and rums. And, if you visit us sooner than later, you might just get one of our limited bottles, like this year’s special release of Pandemic Peat, which is only available at our Burlington Tasting Room.
Above are just some of the items you can find at our Burlington Tasting Room. You can also find recipe books, caramel, chocolate and Luxardo Maraschino cherries (which are truly the best cherries out there, trust us). If you have any questions or need advice on a gift, we’re happy to help you assemble a great package for your loved one.
Visit us at 137 St. Paul Street in Burlington for all your spirits and barware needs, and show your support for local business! If you aren’t local or visiting the area, check out our Purchase page to see how you can buy our spirits online.
Wishing you all a spirited and safe holiday season!
Written by Brianne Lucas and published on November 13, 2023
