PUNCH: The Best High-End Spirits for Cocktails

This year, we polled more than 25 bartenders across the country for their favorite high-end spirits to use in cocktails. While several of last year’s top-shelf picks are still highly favored, some exciting newcomers have emerged, along with a few trends: spirits that blur the line between categories (like Scotch aged in ex-rum barrels) seem to be on the rise, in addition to well-made flavored spirits (like a mezcal distilled with mango).

After sifting through the responses, we compiled the most popular choices in each category, plus some standout, impassioned recommendations. Here’s what surveyed bartenders had to say.

White Rum / Cane Spirit

Most popular: Clairins from The Spirit of Haiti

Recent years have seen a great white rum expansion, in which interesting, boldly flavored options have become more variable and more available stateside than ever before. Clairins from The Spirit of Haiti were most commonly mentioned here, particularly the Vaval, a floral and herbaceous bottling, and the Le Rocher, which Adler says is “similar to agricole-style rums, but with an increased funkiness and grassiness. The distillery also uses a percentage of dunder, the residual backwash in each batch, which makes it heavier on the palate with a light smokiness.” Also, these bottlings are still fairly affordable. “Like a lot of rums, some might not call these ‘top-shelf,’” notes David E. Yee, bar manager at Cobra in Columbus, Ohio, but that’s “because they’re radically underpriced.”

Aged Rum

Most popular: Hampden Estate

Tulloch sums it up: “Hampden Estate is high-octane, intense and makes a damn good Daiquiri.” While many surveyed bartenders recommend serving this spirit neat to fully appreciate it, Hampden Estate also shines in cocktails where it plays the starring role, like a rum Old-Fashioned. “I love a good high-ester Jamaican rum and this one ranks high on my list,” says Flowers. “Give me overripe banana, tropical fruit, terroir goodness!”

Overproof Rum

Most popular: Rivers Royale Grenadian Rum

Dennison and Flowers recommend this rum, especially in Daiquiris. “Rum, lime and sugar may sound simple, but with Rivers Royale Grenadian Rum, it is complex,” says Flowers. “It has the grassy, briny flavor of sugarcane juice rum that I love, but it also has herbaceous, tropical fruit notes that play exceptionally well in cocktails.” 

BBC: 'Is it for a day or four years?' Tariff uncertainty spooks small businesses

Donald Trump's talk of applying new tariffs to goods from America's biggest trade partners has sparked months of uncertainty for business owners.

On Saturday, the president made good on his threats, ordering a new 25% tax on shipments from Mexico and Canada and raising existing tariffs on goods from China by 10%.

But that has not stopped the questions.

"Is it for a day, is it a political flex or is it something that will last for four years?" asked Nicolas Palazzi, the founder of Brooklyn-based PM Spirits. He runs a 21-person business that imports and sells wine and spirits, about 20% of which come from Mexico.

Trump's orders set in motion threats that the president has discussed for months, striking at shipments from America's top three trade partners, which together account for more than 40% of the roughly $3tn goods the US imports each year.

Canadian oil and other "energy resources" will face a lower 10% rate. But otherwise, there will be no exceptions, the White House said.

Trump said the tariffs were intended to hold Canada and Mexico accountable for promises to address illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

The measures go into effect on 4 February and are to remain in place "until the crisis is alleviated," according to the orders.

If the plans were not a surprise, they still presented a potentially stunning blow to many businesses, especially for those in North America. The three countries have become tightly linked economically after decades of free trade under a treaty signed in the 1990s, known then as Nafta and updated and renamed under the Trump administration to USMCA.

The growth of mezcal in the US, brought in by businesses like Palazzi's, has been part of this shift.

Since 2003, consumption of tequila and mezcal has roughly tripled, increasing at a rate of more than 7% each year, according to Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group.

Overall since the 1990s, trade in spirits between the US and Mexico has surged by more than 4,000% percent, said the organisation, which issued a statement after the president's announcement warning that the tariffs would "significantly harm all three countries".

For months, Palazzi has been fielding nervous questions from his suppliers in Mexico, who are typically small, family owned businesses and may not survive if the tariffs are prolonged.

If it sticks, he said the 25% tax on the bottles of mezcal, tequila and rum he brings in will push up prices - and sales will drop.

"Definitely this is going to impact the business negatively. But can you really plan? No," he said. "Our strategy is roll-with-the-punches, wait and see and adapt to whatever craziness is going to unfold."

Economists say the hit from the tariffs could push the economies of Mexico and Canada into recession.

Ahead of the announcement, Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, described the looming tariffs from the US, and expected retaliation, as "existential" for many of his members.

"Look, we get that the government has got to respond in some fashion …. But at the same time we urge the government to use caution," he said, comparing tariffs on imports to chemotherapy: "It poisons your own people in order to try and fight the disease."

"It's going to have an effect everywhere," said Sophie Avernin, director of De Grandes Viñedos de Francia in Mexico, noting that many Americans own Mexican alcohol brands and Modelo beer is actually owned by a Belgian company.

Trump, who has embraced tariffs as a tool to address issues far removed from trade, has dismissed concerns about any collateral damage to the economy in the US.

But analysts have warned the measures will weigh on growth, raise prices and cost the economy jobs - roughly 286,000, according to estimates by the Tax Foundation, not including retaliation.

Those in the alcohol business said the industry had already been struggling to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic and its after-shocks, including inflation, which has prompted many Americans to cut back on dining out and drinking.

Smaller firms, who typically have less financial cushion and ability to swallow a sudden 25% jump in cost, will bear the brunt of the disruption.

"I'm pretty frustrated," said California-based importer Ben Scott, whose nine-person business Pueblo de Sabor brings in brands from Mexico such as Mal Bien and Lalocura.

"There's just a huge cost that's going to affect so many people in ways other than they're paying a couple bucks more for a cocktail, which doesn't sound like a tragedy."

Fred Sanchez has spent years pushing to expand his business, Bad Hombre Importing, a small California-based importer and distributor of Mexican agave-based spirits like Agua del Sol, and was recently working on deals in New York and Illinois.

But his potential partners started hesitating as Trump's tariff talk ramped up last year.

Now, instead of expanding, he is contemplating selling off his stock of liquor and possibly shutting down. He said he had little capacity to absorb the jump in costs and saw little scope for raising prices in the current economy.

"25% is just not something that we can realistically pass onto the consumer," he said.

Sanchez said he believed that Trump might be using tariffs as a negotiating tactic, and the tax could be short-lived. Still, for his business, damage is already done.

Gear Patrol: The Buffalo Trace of Rum Is Still Cheap and Easy to Find. For Now

A bourbon lover’s guide to the best spirit you’re not drinking yet.

Early adopters have long prophesied rum’s rise. Surely, it would only be a matter of time until bourbon drinkers would be drawn in by the two drinks’ similarities.

They were right in one sense but wrong in another. Bourbon whiskey shares much with rum but whiskey fanatics will only convert if given a pressing reason to. And ironically, it’s bourbon’s own swelling popularity that’s provided one.

There are other, perhaps even better, reasons the modern bourbon-whiskey drinker might be tempted by the rum world’s easy-going nature. However, the simplest argument comes down to numbers: if you could buy Pappy van Winkle for $130 right now, would you?

Bourbon whiskey’s popularity has reached the point where many coveted bottles — including Pappy, not to mention most of the Buffalo Trace lineup — are effectively unobtainable.

By contrast, rum offers more: varieties, flavors, eccentricities and, critically, availability. Step back and compare the breadth of flavor profiles in the rum world to that of bourbon — or even whiskey, bourbon’s parent category — and rum is the clear winner.

This is mostly due to one of rum’s unique traits: decentralization. Where bourbon, Scotch and spirits like tequila and cognac are, to different degrees, bound by regulation, geography and strict definitions, rum is a loose cannon.

Make it with molasses, you’ve got rum. Make it with fresh sugarcane, and you still have rum. Age it (or don’t), blend it with spices (or not), filter out the color (or add it) … it’s all rum.

With that in mind, here are the best rums for an ex-bourbon drinker to start with — from the true Pappy of rum to the Bacardi you should be drinking.

The Buffalo Trace of Rum

The Real McCoy Barbados Rum 12 Year

• Origin: Barbados

• ABV: 40%

• Price: $61+

Reliably excellent, well-made and expertly matured, The Real McCoy 12-year-old rum is named after a famous Prohibition-era rum smuggler whose product became known as “the real McCoy” due to the number of fakes at the time.

Today, it’s sourced from the Barbados-based Foursquare Distillery, the rum producer closest to capturing the enormous pull of Buffalo Trace Distillery in the bourbon world.

The Pappy of Rum

Great House Distillery Edition Single Jamaican Rum

• Origin: Jamaica

• ABV: 57% (2024)

• Price: $135+

Hampden Estate has been making rum on a near-continuous basis since 1779, and its Great House blend (released every year since 2019) has quickly earned a reputation for intense, rich flavor and a healthy dose of rum funk.

For longtime rum drinkers, it represents rum’s mighty potential. For former bourbon lovers, it offers a glimpse into a category not yet destroyed by hype magnets.

The “Made in USA” Rum

Privateer Rum Distiller’s Drawer

• Origin: USA

• ABV: Varies

• Price: $70+

This top-notch rum comes from an odd place: America. By most accounts, Privateer is the best in the country — and it’s not made anywhere near the tropics, either.

Based in Massachusetts, Privateer’s Distiller’s Drawer series offers rum from barrels hand-selected by its master distiller, and they’re some of the most whiskey-like bottles in the category. Expect oak, vanilla, burnt sugar and more classic bourbon notes.

The White Dog of Rum

Clairin Casimir

• Origin: Haiti

• ABV: Varies

• Price: ~$50

If you want to go straight to the bottom of the rabbit hole, Clairin is a good way to do it. It’s usually unaged, so it has more in common with white whiskey than bourbon proper. It’s also made with wild sugarcane and dunder, which is a bit like the sour mash of the rum world (but used far less frequently than its whiskey counterpart).

All this lends Clairin a deep funkiness that blends with the base spirit to invoke whiskey, mezcal, natural wine and rum all at once.

Los Angeles Times: A mecca for mezcal: These are the best agave bars in L.A.

“You’ve got to put a bottle of mezcal on the ofrenda,” says Ivan Vasquez, owner of Madre Oaxacan Restaurant & Mezcaleria, with four locations across L.A. County and the largest small-batch mezcal collection in the U.S. “For me, and back in the villages, a bottle of mezcal has to be there.

“On Día de los Muertos, you drink a copita with your loved ones,” Vasquez instructs. “It’s the only spirit that keeps our loved ones alive. When I drink mezcal on Día de los Muertos, I’m reunited with my grandpa. Thanks to him, I was introduced to mezcal.”

While tequila has had a couple centuries to gain an international following, the rise of mezcal and regional spirits like sotol and bacanora is more recent. It was only in the ‘90s that mezcal gained Denomination of Origin (DO) status, which restricts legal and commercial use of the word, and paved the way for it to be sold across the globe.

The spirit, which imparts earthy tasting notes, exploded in popularity over the pandemic, partially because of the heritage involved — mezcal producers, or mezcaleros and mezcaleras, often utilize methods that have been honed across generations and are unique to their family or village. The final product, Vasquez says, delivers a flavor that can be more layered and complex than wine.

Also known as maguey, the spiky agave plant has been revered by Indigenous Mexicans for millenniums, providing food, practical items such as rope and sandals and fermented beverages like pulque. When Spanish colonizers arrived with the still, agave wine was distilled into spirits like tequila, made exclusively from agave tequilana, and mezcal, which can be made from over 40 other agave types.

“Los Angeles is like the mecca right now for agave distillates,” said Rocío Flores, a mezcalera who grew up splitting time between L.A. and Jalisco and now hosts agave tastings and educational experiences, including the program at Guerrilla Tacos. “It’s probably the one place in the world where you can find the most diverse, the most amazing mezcals that you can’t even find in Mexico in one place all together.”

The global appreciation for Mexico’s ancestral spirits has influenced the tequila industry too. For his part, Vasquez only works with small producers and serves tequila blanco exclusively — no reposados or añejos. When customers ask for corporate brands like Casamigos, he and his staff use it as an opportunity to educate.

“I tell them, ‘Let me bring you several options that are higher proof at a lower price’ and I ask them to enjoy it neat,” he says. “They’re just amazed when they try it.”

L.A. was already a great place to drink agave distillates, but these days the options are overflowing. Included on the list below are agave-focused bars that prioritize stocking small-batch producers and offer flights that encourage imbibers to sip in the traditional style. Some, like Vasquez, even sell rare bottles out of their bars. Whether you’re toasting in celebration or stocking up to savor with your ancestors on Día de los Muertos, these are the best agave bars in Los Angeles.

Clear as a Bell

These elegant (but electric) digestifs are the perfect pick-me-up, nightcap, and grand finale—all in one glass

BY AMIEL STANEK PHOTOGRAPH BY ISA ZAPATA

Once the dessert forks have been surrendered and everyone swears they couldn’t possibly take even one more bite, a final pour of something special on Thanksgiving just feels right. While I can see the merits of trotting out a bottle of bark-bitter amaro or a mellow bourbon that’s seen a few years in oak, these days I take a different tack. When I want to round out a big meal in style, the choice is clear—a clear spirit, that is. I’m talking about things like eau-de-vie, grappa, mezcal, and clairin. Though these liquors are unique in terms of their geographic origin, composition, and production, they share a brazen character, making them ideal meal-enders. Instead of relying on extensive aging in wood to lend complexity, each spirit tastes unabashedly of the raw materials from which they were distilled and the places where they were made. Heirloom apples. Hand-harvested grapes. Pit-roasted agave. Wild-fermented sugarcane. These idiosyncratic products are as lively and expressive as the day they trickled out of the still; with no time spent in barrels to discipline their rougher edges, flavor has nowhere to hide. And at the end of a rich meal, one sharp sip immediately snaps you back to consciousness, like a cold plunge after a sweaty sauna session.

As is the case with all booze, spirits made with care by small, independent producers are going to be more compelling and often boast a price tag to match. But this is the most special of occasions, after all—when else are you going to break out the good stuff?

CYRIL ZANGS – DOUBLE ZÉRO EAU-DE-VIE DE CIDRE

This bright 100-proof apple brandy is a collaboration between culty Normandy cider maker Cyril Zangs and renowned distillery Calvados Roger Groult. It smells and tastes like a brisk fall stroll through an orchard: ripe fruit, a crisp breeze,

LAURENT CAZOTTES – GOUTTE DE REINE CLAUDE DORÉE

Laurent Cazottes’s eaux-de-vie are the stuff of legend, crafted from small parcels of his own lovingly tended trees and vines. To make this style, Cazottes painstakingly dries and hand-pits greengage plums before fermentation, which yields an extraordinarily concentrated elixir.

CLAIRIN VAVAL RUM

Traditional clairin, perhaps Haiti’s most revered spirit, is rum for mezcal nerds. Made from freshly pressed heritage sugarcane varietals and fermented with no added yeasts, each distillation is a unique expression of terroir. This one, from second-generation producer Fritz Vaval, is sunny and herbaceous, each sip gracefully ping-ponging between delicate flowers and salty funk.