The World Most Expensive Drinks

Wednesday 28th January 2009

Samuel Adams Utopias beer - $100 a bottle

Brought to you by the wonderful people at Samuel Adams, their Utopias brand of beer has been heralded by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the strongest beer ever, at a really quite strong 27% (taken from Wikipedia, some sources indicate 25%, but that's still damn strong). Released in limited batches of between 8,000-12,000 every couple of years, the "beer" has been likened more to sherry and brandy than it has to traditional beers, as the beer itself is made with caramel, various smoked malts and types of noble hops, the process renders it with an interesting smell and an even more interesting taste.

Vieille Bon Secours beer - $750 a bottle

Not commonly available anymore for some strange reason, but at the height of its power, a bottle of this Belgian beer could be found in a Belgian restaurant that was based in London, England, and could fetch an impressive three quarters of a grand.

However, a quick browse of the internet reveals that it might not have tasted that great and certainly isn't deserving of such a hefty price tag. The bottle itself is quite retro-chic, though.

Chinese Oolong Tea (Tieguanyin) - $2400/kg or $1090/lb

Arguably the most expensive tea in the world, this is a rare Chinese tea and is named after a Buddhist goddess (Iron Goddess of Mercy or Guan Yin. You definitely wouldn't serve it to the builders.

Tutankhamun Ale - $76 a bottle, but $7,686 for the first bottle made

Brewed from secrets gleaned from the ancient kitchen of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, this truly was the liquid gold that the Ancient Egyptians would have been drinking all those thousands of years ago.

At the time of brewing, they only had enough ingredients for 1,000 bottles, the first of which went for a staggering $7,686 dollars, whilst the rest went for around $76.

Diamonds-Are-Forever Cocktail - $16,000

A list like this is never complete without the obligatory "only expensive because of stupid gemstones" item, so here it is (with more to follow). Containing no awesome ingredients, the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo offered a cocktail called Diamonds-Are-Foreverin conjunction with jeweler Bulgari. The drink contained a standard Martini cocktail, a one-carat Bulgari diamond, an olive.

Oh wait, yeah, the diamond. That's what makes it so expensive.

Kona Nigari Water - $33.50 for a two ounce bottle

Decadent water can be yours to lightly sip from a platinum cup, if you are that way inclined. This truly is water you have to pay a high price for, as at $16.75 for a single ounce, it just has to be the most overpriced water in the entire world. The truth behind it is that it is basically super awesome water (really, it's desalinated seawater) from just off the coast of Hawaii and it's awesome because it's supposedly packed with minerals and all sorts of things that are good for you and has been marketed as helping with stress, digestion and weight loss, amongst other things. The water itself is actually a concentrate, which you then have to add to a bigger bottle of water (or something similar) in order to get the full benefits. Just imagine, on the side of a bottle of Kona Nigari water, it probably says "just add water".

Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum - $53,000 a bottle

A bottle of Jamaican Rum can seemingly fetch an impressive sum. This particular type from Wray & Nephew happened to be bottled in the 1940s.

A cache of four of these bottles was found, so as of today, only four are in existence unless anyone has decided to finish their own bottle, which they probably have.

Macallan Fine& Rare Vintage 1926 (whiskey) - Originally $38,000 a bottle

The reason this bottle from Macallan's Fine & Rare Vintage selection is placed here is because after the original supplier ran out of their batch that was originally priced at $38,000, it turned up at many places, such as this place for just under $55,000 and there have been reports of a Korean businessman paying up to $75,000 for a single bottle of the stuff. Rumor has it that an Atlantic City casino & spa used to (as it's highly doubtful it still does) sell a shot of this particular whiskey for $3,300 a go.

Diva Vodka - $42 - $765,000

Produced by Blackwood Distillers, this luxury vodka is triple distilled, filtered through charcoal and then filtered in a less traditional manner, through a column of gemstones, which are also kept in a central pillar in the bottle, which is where the extreme cost lies. You can have various crystals colored however you like them, which is where the modest starting price comes in, but to kick it up a notch you can have any combination of pretty much any rare gemstone you like: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, you name it, they can decorate the inside of the bottle with it. You can view higher quality pictures here:

Blue Agave Tequila - Tequila = $negligible, bottle = $1,300,000 - $1,500,000

The madmen over at Ley .925 are offering anyone that can find a buyer for their bottle a reward of $130,000, which is roughly a tenth of the total cost of their fully platinum, diamond-encrusted alcohol bottle. After buying the bottle, you could probably have anything on Earth put in it if you didn't feel like having tequila. Regardless of what goes in the bottle, you could most definitely claim that it was the most expensive libation on the face of the planet.