NIO CocktailsGin Lovers Box, 5 x 10 cl Pre-Mixed, Ready-to-Serve Tanqueray Gin Drinks (2 Negronis, 1 Gimlet, 1 Gin Sour and 1 Gin Proved), Gift Pack, 50 cl

This brand has been around for a while, I remember when it was advertised heavily when we all had to stay indoors. And I can see the appeal still being around. The drinks come in a compact container, they are presented very nicely. I like that individual packets can be stored in a fridge if you want to have a cold drink, and they don't take up much space.Makes a great tasting experience with the variety sets. Really well made, and go down a treat.

This charming gift set includes five premixed cocktails, beautifully presented and made with high-quality ingredients. The sachets offer a convenient way to serve the drinks, though you do need to be careful to squeeze out every drop While the quality is impressive, it’s hard to justify the price unless purchasing it as a gift. That said, thanks to the elegant packaging, any fan of bitter and sweet cocktails would likely be delighted to receive it.

This is a lovely little gift set containing five premixed cocktails. The presentation is excellent and the contents of each of the sachets is really of a decent quality. It's quite a convenient way to serve the cocktails, although you do have to be kind of careful to make sure you extract all of the liquid from the sachet.At £35 this is really quite expensive for five drinks, each of which is a very short measure. There's really no getting away from that fact. And the only way I can really justify this product is if I were giving it as a gift. Regardless of how good quality the ingredients are, this is more than the cost of a decent bottle of gin. With that said thanks to the excellent presentation, no doubt any bitter and sweet cocktail lover would be very pleased to receive this.It's really impossible to look past the price here. You're receiving a total of 50cl of alcohol, which is essentially one UK double, and that's including the mixers. For £35 I would not order again.

Having tried a couple of NIO's 'flat pack cocktail box-sets' (my term) before, I was glad to have the chance to see how they would get on with this gin based set.Like all the others, we have here five pre-mixed cocktails in slim plastic pouches with an outer protective cardboard cover; dispensing (usually over ice) is as simple as tearing off one corner & pouring. NIO use quality brand-name spirits and mixers in all their offerings, and this is no exception: while not cheap at £34 (October '24) you are not being short-changed with what goes into them, and the convenience is quite nice to have.Convenience can be a double-edged sword when it comes to cocktails of course, since you are at the mercy of the company and its preferred mixing, whereas if you make your own you can adjust to taste. That comes with the territory of course, and I freely admit I tend to mix cocktails toward the Saharan level of 'bone dry', which doesn't suit everybody. These have been very well done though. The two Negroni's are excellent and in the classic proportions (you can't really adjust a Negroni that much), while the Gimlet, despite using a different form of lime cordial to the traditional Roses', is excellent, giving all the lime flavour you'd want with sufficient sweetness to suit most palates, without feeling you're drinking syrup, which can sometimes be the case. Not here though. The gin sour is good too, with plenty of genuine bite. The Gin Proved was new to me (since it's their own), and also seems quite decent too, with an interesting balance that again doesn't drift into excess sweetness, but should still appeal to a wide range of tastes. An excellent premium box set of pre-mixed cocktails then, well worth trying & highly recommended. Well done (again) NIO!

Having recently got into mixing cocktails, there is no denying that they take a fair bit of work to produce and getting the mix right is the difference between sipping something delicious or something disgusting. These pre-mixed cocktails from NIO remove the stress but I guess they also remove a little of the control and at the price, they're not exactly cheap. The quality is clearly top-notch, from the presentation to the practicality to the premium sprits used within. I went for the gin lover's box which comes with 2x negroni, 1 gin sour (lemon), 1 gimlet (lime) and 1 gin proved (violet). The negroni was very enjoyable, a little sweeter than what I'm used to, but nice. The gimlet certainly had that lime flavour but it's the lime of lime cordial rather than fresh-squeezed lime juice. The same applies to the gin sour. And the violet flavour of the gin proved is not going to be to everyone's taste but it was a nice change for me. With each, the instruction is to twist and rip the corner of the packet, pour over ice and leave to chill for one minute. I chose to stir mine with a large cube of ice to chill quicker and deeper. You can add garnish if desired. It's certainly convenient, and a several steps up from gin in a tin, but I'd find it hard to justify the cost here. Making cocktails from scratch is a faff, but it's also fun.