Best cocktail smoker kits
A spectacle gift that lives or dies on one question: can they use it the night they open it?
By Scooter M. · · How we pick
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Quick picks
The short answer, ranked. Tap any row to jump to the full write-up further down this page, or go straight to Amazon for the live price.
| # | Product | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aged & Charred Premium Cocktail Smoker Lid Kit with Torch (13-piece) Eight chip flavors, a four-burner torch and the butane. Nothing else to buy. | Best overall | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
| 2 | Breville The Smoking Gun (BSM600SIL) Battery cold smoker with a tube. Smokes food as well as drinks, and two speeds. | Most capable | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
| 3 | Aged & Charred Smoke Barrel Cocktail Smoker Kit A 12" barrel that lives on the counter. Bought for the look, honestly. | Best object | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
| 4 | Crafthouse by Fortessa Cocktail Smoking Box with Handheld Smoker Walnut, glass and steel. The version built to survive being used weekly. | The splurge | Check price on Amazon #ad Live price at Amazon |
A cocktail smoker is the most likely gift on this site to be opened with delight and then never used again, and the reason is almost never the smoker itself.
Check whether the butane is in the box. Every lid-and-torch kit needs a fuel canister the torch does not ship with unless the maker says so explicitly. A kit without it is a gift that cannot be used on the night it is opened, and a gift that cannot be used on the night it is opened is usually a gift that is never used at all.
The criteria, before the kits
Smoking a drink is not complicated and the devices are not very different from each other. What separates them is almost entirely what comes in the box and how much of your counter they take afterwards.
Fuel or batteries included
The single best predictor of whether the gift gets used. A torch without butane, or a gun without batteries, is a gift with homework attached.
How many chip flavors
One flavor is a novelty that wears off in a fortnight. Eight is a reason to keep going. Published chip yields are worth reading: the Aged and Charred set is published at over 300 drinks.
What it will fit
A lid has to sit on the glasses they own. 4.5" of lid diameter covers rocks, coupe and Glencairn shapes; a smaller lid does not.
Where it lives afterwards
A wooden lid goes in a drawer. A 12" barrel does not - it takes about 94 square inches of counter permanently, and you should buy it knowing that.
Lid, gun or box: the three shapes this gift comes in
All four picks put smoke in contact with a drink. They differ in how, and the difference is worth understanding before you spend.
| Format | Fuel | Chip flavors in box | Footprint | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aged & Charred premium lid kit | Oak lid + torch | Butane included | 8 | 4.5" lid, boxed |
| Breville Smoking Gun | Handheld cold smoker | 4 x AA included | 2 samples | 4.9" x 2.4" x 6.4" |
| Aged & Charred smoke barrel | Barrel + torch | Butane included | Published as a kit | 12" x 11" x 8.5" |
| Crafthouse smoking box | Box + handheld smoker | Battery smoker | Applewood chips | 9.5" x 9.5" x 10.75" |
Read the footprint column last and it changes the ranking. The lid kit is the only one of the four that disappears into a drawer between uses. The barrel and the box are furniture: they take counter or cart space permanently, which is fine if that is what you are buying and a problem if it is not. On a 33.9-inch bar cart shelf the barrel alone takes roughly a fifth of the surface.
What smoking actually does, and what it does not
Smoke condenses onto the surface of the liquid and the inside of the glass. The effect is real and it is immediate, and it is mostly aromatic — the first thing you notice is the smell as the lid comes off.
What it does not do is fix a drink. A smoked bad Old Fashioned is a bad Old Fashioned that smells of cherry wood. If the recipient does not yet make good stirred drinks, the ice and the bitters on the Old Fashioned gift page are a better first purchase, and the smoker is the second-year present.
Which one to buy
For most people the Aged & Charred premium lid kit is the answer, and the reason is the least glamorous item on its contents list: the butane. Eight chip flavors and a four-burner torch make it a complete evening straight out of the wrapping.
If the recipient cooks, buy the Breville gun instead. It is a cold smoker on a flexible tube, so it smokes cheese, butter and fish as readily as a Manhattan, and two speeds is real control that a lid does not offer. Budget for chips: it ships with two samples where the lid kit ships with eight flavors.
The barrel and the Crafthouse box are both bought for presence rather than throughput. They do the same thing to the drink as the lid, at more money and considerably more counter. That is a legitimate reason to buy either one — just buy it for that reason and not on the expectation that it smokes better.
The picks, in full
1. Best overall
Aged & Charred Premium Cocktail Smoker Lid Kit with Torch (13-piece)
Aged & Charred · best for the complete smoked-cocktail gift, where nothing else has to be bought to use it
A solid oak lid, eight wood chip flavors, a four-burner torch and the butane to run it, in a wooden box. It is the only smoker gift here that works the evening it is unwrapped, which is the whole difference between a used gift and a shelved one.
Published specs
- Smoke lid dimensions
- 4.5" diameter x 2.25" height, top included
- Lid material
- 100% oak, cut whole from one piece of wood
- Wood chip flavors
- 8 — oak, cherry, apple, peach, pear, mesquite, pecan, hickory
- Published chip yield
- Enough to smoke over 300 drinks
- Torch
- Four burners
- Butane
- Included
- Also included
- Wooden box, recipe book, syrup
- Glass fit
- Designed to fit rocks, coupe and Glencairn glasses
The math
- Drinks per kit, on the published chip yield: Over 300
- Aged & Charred publishes the eight-flavor chip set as enough to smoke over 300 drinks. At one smoked drink a week that is a six-year supply of chips, so the consumable is not the thing that runs out — the butane is.
- Glass shapes the lid covers: 3
- 4.5" of lid diameter is published as fitting rocks, coupe and Glencairn glasses. A rocks glass is roughly 3.25" across the rim and a coupe wider, which is why the lid is sized well over both.
What’s good
- Butane in the box, which is the single most common reason a smoker gift sits unused until someone makes a special trip
- Eight chip flavors rather than one, so the novelty lasts past the first two drinks
- The lid is cut whole from oak rather than glued from offcuts, so there is no join to char unevenly
What’s not
- Wood absorbs smoke over time and the lid will darken and smell permanently — that is normal, and it is not reversible
- A butane torch is a real flame in a kitchen and is not a gift for every household
- Smoking adds two or three minutes to every drink, which stops being charming quickly for some people
Skip this if
A household with children, or anyone who would not be comfortable owning a culinary torch. The lid alone is the safer version of this gift.
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2. Most capable
Breville The Smoking Gun (BSM600SIL)
Breville · best for a cook, not just a drinker — this smokes food as readily as it smokes a drink
A battery-powered cold smoker with a tube you point wherever you like. It is the only one here that is not tied to a glass, which makes it the right choice for someone who will also smoke cheese, butter and fish with it.
Published specs
- Model
- BSM600SIL
- Dimensions
- 4.9" x 2.4" x 6.4"
- Power
- Battery — 4 x AA included
- Speeds
- Two — gentle and intense
- Burn chamber
- Die-cast stainless steel, removable
- Smoke tube
- Flexible silicone
- Wood chips included
- Two samples — hickory and applewood
- Filters
- 2 mesh filters
- Also included
- Instruction book and recipe cards
The math
- Chip flavors in the box, against the lid kits: 2 versus 8
- Breville ships two sample chip flavors; the Aged & Charred lid kit ships eight. The gun is the more capable device and the smaller starter supply, so budget for chips as part of the gift.
- Things it can smoke: Not just drinks
- Breville publishes it for meat, fish, cheese, whisky and cocktails. Every other smoker on this page is built around a glass, which is a narrower gift for the same money.
What’s good
- Cold smoke through a flexible tube, so it works on a covered glass, a jar, a bag or a plate
- Two speeds is a genuine control that lid-and-torch smokers do not have
- Batteries included, which sounds trivial and is the reason a gift gets used on the day
What’s not
- Only two sample chip flavors, so the interesting part is a separate purchase
- More parts than a wooden lid — a burn chamber, filters and a tube all have to be cleaned
- It looks like a kitchen appliance rather than a bar object, which matters if this is going on a cart
Skip this if
Someone who wants the ritual. A wooden lid and a torch is theater; a battery-powered gun with a hose is equipment, and some recipients will feel the difference.
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3. Best object
Aged & Charred Smoke Barrel Cocktail Smoker Kit
Aged & Charred · best for the gift that is meant to be looked at as much as used
A miniature whiskey barrel that smokes the drink inside it. At 12 inches tall assembled it is a display object first and a tool second, and it is honest to buy it on that basis rather than on throughput.
Published specs
- Assembled dimensions
- 12"H x 11"L x 8.5"W
- Form
- Whiskey barrel
- Butane
- Included
- Type
- Cocktail smoker kit
The math
- Counter footprint: About 94 square inches
- 11" x 8.5" = 93.5 square inches. That is roughly ten times the base of a 750 ml bottle, so on a 33.9-inch cart shelf it takes about a fifth of the surface and never gets put away.
What’s good
- It is a genuine object rather than an accessory — it earns the space it takes
- Butane included, so it works out of the box like the lid kit does
- Smoking inside an enclosed barrel is less smoke in the room than smoking under a lid on the counter
What’s not
- 12 inches tall and 94 square inches of footprint is a permanent commitment of surface
- It does exactly the same thing to the drink as a lid costing a fraction as much
- The bigger the smoker, the more of a production every drink becomes
Skip this if
A small kitchen or a compact bar cart. There is nowhere to put this that is not somewhere you can see it.
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Where these numbers come from
4. The splurge
Crafthouse by Fortessa Cocktail Smoking Box with Handheld Smoker
Crafthouse by Fortessa · best for the person who already makes good drinks and wants a piece of theater
A glass and walnut box, a handheld smoker and applewood chips. It is a spectacle gift, and it is the version of the spectacle that is built well enough to survive being used more than twice.
Published specs
- Set contents
- Smoking box, handheld smoker, 4 oz applewood chips
- Box dimensions
- 9.5"W x 9.5"L x 10.75"H
- Weight
- 8 lb 3 oz
- Materials
- Walnut wood base, stainless steel frame, glass sides
- Collaboration
- Designed with bartender Charles Joly
The math
- Uses in the included chips: Many dozens
- A single smoke uses roughly a teaspoon of chips. Four ounces of applewood is a large number of drinks before a refill is needed — this is not a consumable that runs out quickly, which is a fair point in its favor.
What’s good
- Built as furniture — walnut, steel and glass rather than the plastic-topper versions of this idea
- Smokes food as well as drinks, which is the argument for the box over a simple cloche
- Comes with the chips, so it works the day it is unwrapped
What’s not
- Expensive, and its function is entirely theatrical — nobody needs smoked cocktails
- 9.5 inches square is a lot of counter for an occasional-use object
- Smoke in a kitchen sets off some smoke alarms; this is a real practical caveat
Skip this if
Someone at the beginning. If they do not yet own a shaker and a jigger, this is a very expensive way to skip the parts that make the drink good.
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Questions people ask
Do cocktail smoker kits actually work?
What comes in a cocktail smoker kit?
Is a smoking gun better than a smoking lid?
What wood chips are best for smoking cocktails?
Is a cocktail smoker a safe gift?
Where these numbers come from
Every specification on this page is a figure the manufacturer or retailer publishes. We have not measured any of it ourselves, and every calculation shows its working so you can redo it.
- Aged & Charred — Premium Cocktail Smoker Lid Kit with Torch, published lid dimensions, chip flavors and contents
- Aged & Charred — Cocktail Smoker Barrel Kit, published assembled dimensions
- Abt — Breville The Smoking Gun BSM600SIL, published dimensions and specifications
- Crate & Barrel — Crafthouse by Fortessa Cocktail Smoking Box, published specifications