The best places in Philly to buy cocktail (and mocktail) kits

You can get cocktail kits from local restaurants and specialty gift stores — some with booze, some without — that have the perfect makings for a drink night. Here are the city’s best.

This Homemade Wassail Kit courtesy of Old City Pasta features a pint of cranberry cider and four ounces of brandy. Talk about the perfect after dinner drink.Read moreCry Baby Pasta

by Elizabeth Wellington

Published Dec. 16, 2020, 9:00 a.m. ET

It’s not easy to get the shaken-at-the-bar-vibe for our stirred-at-home spirits.

But you can get cocktail kits from local restaurants and specialty gift stores — some with booze, some without — that have the perfect makings for a drink night. Here are the city’s best.

Buy now.

Thank us later.

Art in the Age: Winter Collins kit

Price: $98 | Buy it

The cocktail masters at Old City’s Art in the Age — one-part swanky bar, one-part spirits shop — were inspired by our very own Philadelphia Museum of Art when they concocted the Winter Collins cocktail for our cold-weather pleasure. At $98, this kit isn’t cheap but it comes with full-size bottles of Tamworth White Mountain Vodka, Jack Rudy Sweet Tea Syrup and Fig and Cinnamon bitters. Don’t forget your own lemon, says the in-house mixologist Lee Noble, who created the kit. “It’s a play on the Tom Collins and if you don’t remember the lemon, you run the risk of the drink being too sweet.”

Cry Baby Pasta: Wassail kit

Price: $18 | Buy it

Queen Village’s Italian restaurant Cry Baby Pasta has put together this dreamy kit to make the warm cider drink wassails. (Who knew that wassails were an actual drink, but we digress.) Included in the $18 kit is a pint of mulled apple and cranberry cider, brandy and a maraschino liqueur mixture. The mix will make two 10-ounce portions, enough to fill your favorite mug.

Harper’s Garden: Blueberry Vanilla Palmer kit

Price: $10 (alcohol not included) | Buy it

Stop by Rittenhouse Square’s Harper’s Garden for all the fixings for this Blueberry Vanilla Palmer — blueberry-vanilla syrup, lemon juice and iced tea — for this tastylicious Blueberry Vanilla Palmer. For $10 you can make three drinks, but add your own 1.5 oz of vodka or gin and your own ice.

Juno: Pint of Margaritas

Price: $7-9 (alcohol not included)

Bring the bartenders at Spring Garden Street’s Juno your favorite bottle of tequila and for $7 ($9 if you chose flavored) they will mix you a pint of your favorite margarita — plain, blood orange, pineapple, jalapeno, strawberry or blueberry — for you to take home. And they will also provide the salt and sugar for your rim. Perfecto!

2SP Brewing Co.: Wawa beer kit

Price: $14-$16

OK, this one isn’t a cocktail. Frigid winter nights are perfect for dark stouts and our favorite convenience store has us covered. Wawa partnered with 2SP Brewing for a coffee stout and a bourbon-barrel aged coffee stout, too. Yum. Both can be yours for $14 for a 4-pack of the coffee stout and $16 for the bourbon-aged stout. And both come with a pint glass making the hunker-down complete. The kits are available at 2SP Brewing Company in Aston, PA

Walnut Street Cafe: Hot toddy kit

Price: $30 | Buy it

In perfect holiday miracle fashion, The Walnut Street Cafe turned its Center City eatery into a European Christmas Market — or Santa’s workshop for foodies — complete with artisan foods and a bottle shop. In the gift mix are the makings for the perfect hot toddies. Items can be ordered online and picked up, or shoppers can arrange for delivery.

Zama: Cocktail & mocktail mixers

Price: $16.50 (alcohol not included) | Buy it

Ever wanted to enjoy a Zama cocktail at home? They’re offering three new mixers for upping your cocktail game. The three mixers come in Mason jars: apple spice & calpico, pumpkin and apple spice shrub, and a shiso and yuzu simple, each enough to make six or seven drinks. Grab your favorite alcohol — or not, if you are doing mocktails — and follow the recipes. They will last a week in the fridge. Pick them up at the restaurant or have them delivered by Caviar.

Expert sources:

Lee Noble, mixologist for Art in the Age