Good liquor is surprisingly inexpensive if you cost it out. A shot poured from an $85 bottle of ambrosial 18-year-old Scotch comes out to less than you'd pay for a pint of Bud Light in most bars around the country. And that's with more than 16 servings to the bottle.



But it should be noted that some cheap booze is very good provided you shop carefully and stay away from inexpensive tequila and liqueurs. The latter will be nasty, and the former is unlikely in the extreme to be 100 percent agave. There are principles. But those things excepted, there's great stuff carefully distilled, nuanced, and utterly respectable to be found in the $15-a-bottle range (or, if you prefer, the 94-cents-a-shot range).* These are our favorite bottles.

*All prices are from discount liquor stores, but in New York City, which pretty much evens out.

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The Best: Evan Williams Black Label bourbon

$12 for 750 ml

Tight regulations, tough competition, and efficient, consolidated production have made American whiskey the best booze value on the planet. Even in the $15 range, there are plenty of good choices. Jim Beam falls in that range, and Jim Beam is a wonderful whiskey. Even better, though, is Evan Williams, hands down the best cheap liquor we tasted (and at 86 proof, the only one higher than the legal minimum of 80 proof). A complex nose—we picked up things like yeast, dill, corn bread, ash, and toasted coconut—is only the overture. On the palate, it's impressively thick and chewy, with a grainy sweetness balanced out by tannins that only develop with long aging. We must admit that we find this whiskey enormously comforting—not just what's in the bottle but also the very fact that it exists. Any country that can turn out something this serious at this price is in some fundamental way doing okay.

Moreover, aging bourbon is expensive. In part, it's because you're not allowed to reuse the barrels. But there's also the warehousing cost and, worst of all, the shrinkage—not just theft and leakage, but also evaporation: 3 or 4 percent, year in and year out. All of which makes good cheap bourbon that much more impressive.

Why it's cheap: High quality + low price = sales volume.

What it's best for: Drinking.

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Paul Masson Grande Amber VSOP brandy

$13 for 750 ml

By blending (presumably) cheap French cognac with American brandy, Paul Masson has somehow come up with something that more or less smells nutty and spicy, like real, pricier cognac, and goes down far more smoothly than anything from France in this price range could even aspire to. Tasty stuff. Go figure.

Why it's cheap: American brandy gets no respect.

What it's best for: Sidecars, baby!

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Brugal Añejo rum

($14 for 750 ml)

There are plenty of acceptable white and gold rums available for about $15. (We particularly like Flor de Caña.) Well-aged rums at that price are much rarer. But if you want something cheap, brown, and sugarcaney to go with your cigar, Brugal's blend of three- to seven-year-old Dominican rums works. There's enough flavor in this lightly sugary, nutty, and vanilla-tinged rum to make it a bargain.

Why it's cheap: Brugal doesn't spend a lot of money on TV ads.

What it's best for: Rocks. Daiquiris.

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White Horse blended Scotch whisky

$15 for 750 ml

Blended Scotch is made by mixing a selection of single-malt whiskies with varying proportions of "grain whisky" (essentially barrel-aged vodka). So in the lower price range you don't get a lot of malt in the mix. The best you can hope for is a good grain whisky, and that whichever malts are blended in are good ones. White Horse has both. It's light but clean and barley-sweet, with flashes of peat smoke.

Why it's cheap: See above.

What it's best for: Mixing with soda. Or a Rob Roy.

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Gordon's London dry gin

($15 for a liter)

Almost any vodka more than $15 a bottle will be palatable (we're fond of Smirnoff), but gin is different. This one is bright and piney, with a nose-crinkling shot of black pepper—a lot like Tanqueray, its imported stablemate. It's a bit watery, but there's a bite to remind you you're drinking gin.

Why it's cheap: It's 80 proof, not the standard 94 that classic London dry gins are bottled at. Less alcohol, lower price.

What it's best for: Any gin cocktail with citrus. It's a little too thin to make a great martini.

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