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8 best bottled cocktails
Get the party started with these ready-made cocktails, from £6
First there were cocktails in cans, taking us from the park to the beach and back again. Now, it’s all about the ready-made, bottled cocktail.
Whether you’re hosting a drinks party or just fancy something (anything!) other than your go-to G&T come 6pm, our team of taste testers were on the case to find the best espresso martinis, margaritas and negronis to sink your teeth into.
To make it onto our line-up, these ready-made drinks needed to contain premium ingredients (no cheap and cheerful fillers here, no thank you), and require no more preparation than getting a bag of ice out of the freezer.
From salted caramel to zesty Persian lime, we think we’ve found a flavour for every palate, and with bottles starting from £6, it’s cheaper than propping up your local too.
How we test
We plied 10 willing volunteers with 17 of the most talked-about bottled cocktails. They were on the hunt for the best version of all our favourite serves — and these were the ones deemed good enough to replace your local bartender.
Vodka, coffee liqueur, espresso — for something so simple, this serve can be tricky to get right. Thankfully Kocktail has perfected it using quality ingredients and just the right dash of sweetness for our delicate palates. Just don’t blame us if you don’t get any beauty sleep!
Liberation Cocktails Espresso Martini 75cl, 10% ABV
What can we say, we bloody love an espresso martini, so we won’t make any apologies for having two versions on this list. What sets this one apart is the wine bottle size, making it great for groups. Honestly, try making seven serves in a cocktail shaker and thank us later.
Harvey Nichols Mai Tai Cocktail 125ml, 15% ABV
For those of you who still haven’t come to terms with this year’s total lack of summer, allow us to introduce the most tropical cocktail we ever did taste. With rum, pineapple, orange and almond, it’s the next best thing to being on a desert island (minus the covid tests). This is the most luxe tinny we’ve come across and we’re here for it.
Negroni, but not as you know it. This one uses creamy Black Cow vodka as a base (which is made from real milk — yes, really!), instead of the traditional gin. It’s just as bitter as its gin counterpart though, with juicy blood orange and zesty grapefruit too. The ultimate lazy-hun pre-dinner serve.
Step away from that boring G&T. Mr Lyan (aka, the world's best barman) has come up with a sweet and sour sherbet lemon-flavoured cocktail that can be drunk over ice, with tonic or prosecco — fancy!
1826 The Old Fashioned 50cl, 28% ABV
We do love an old fashioned — but jeez, all that stirring takes its toll. Made with dreamy caramel-sweet Maker’s Mark bourbon, this does away with all that — just shake, serve over ice and add orange peel if you’re up to it.
Simplify taco night with a ready-to-pour zesty margarita. Heavy on the salt and citrus, it’s a step up from anything we’ve managed to rustle up from scratch, and involves squeezing considerably fewer limes.
We’d do away with dessert altogether if a glass of this chocolate mint vodka was on offer. Tasting exactly like an After Eight, we have been known to add a splash (ok, a whopping great glug) to hot chocolate and we’ve got no regrets.
Stacey looks after all food and drink reviews — from coffee pods and veg boxes, to natural wine and tequila. Stacey is also founder of Crummbs, where she’s written nearly 2,000 restaurant and hotel reviews since 2013. Prior to this, Stacey wrote hundreds of in-depth buying guides for the Independent, i newspaper and BBC Good Food, as well as reviewing restaurants and interviewing celebrities in her column at Balance Magazine. Stacey has also appeared in BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, where she investigated South East Asia's food production industry, appearing on both Newsnight and BBC World Service to share her findings. Regularly checking out the latest restaurants, bars and product launches, Stacey also loves experimenting with recipes at home, and is a WSET-certified wine and spirits expert, with over 10 years of experience in the business. You can follow Stacey on Instagram @crummbs_uk
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