The Best Craft Cocktail Mixer Brands for Bitters, Syrups, and Shrubs

Named for a great-grandfather who was a pilot, inventor, craftsman, and legendary entertainer, this Charleston-based operation set out to revive the long-forgotten staples of classic American bartending. Small-batch production, distributed carefully to finer bottle shops and bars worldwide. The grenadine is probably the most-cited upgrade from home bartenders switching from grocery store alternatives — it's made with pomegranate juice, not red dye.

Three friends spent 2011 visiting top cocktail bars across New York, DC, and Austin, taking notes on what made great drinks great. The answer kept coming back to house-made syrups. They started on a commercial stovetop and built a 7,000 sq. ft. facility from there, appearing on CNBC's Billion Dollar Buyer in 2016. The Texas-made Spiced Tonic Syrup is something close to essential for anyone making gin & tonics seriously at home.

Portland's natural food culture translated directly into cocktail mixers here — syrups built around lavender, rosemary, cardamom, and seasonal fruit that feel like they belong in a Portland farmers market as much as a home bar. The flavor profiles are particularly well-matched to gin and vodka cocktails, and the all-natural ingredient list is unusually clean for the syrup category.

Born in Brooklyn, Hella entered the craft bitters scene with a commitment to small-batch production and real botanical sourcing. The bitters lineup — citrus, aromatic, ginger — covers the most essential cocktail applications without overcomplicating things. The brand has expanded into cocktail mixers and sparkling products without losing the focus that made the bitters worth stocking in the first place.

Made in the self-described cocktail capital of America, El Guapo produces bitters, syrups, and cocktail mixers with a commitment to clean sourcing that reads like a food label should: non-GMO, no artificial flavors, no high-fructose corn syrup, syrups sweetened with Louisiana cane sugar. The New Orleans influence shows up in the flavor profiles — bright, complex, slightly tropical. The sustainability practices are genuine, not just copy.

The go-to source for tiki cocktail builders who want syrups with actual complexity rather than generic sweetness. Passion fruit, falernum, orgeat, and other tropical building blocks are produced in Portland with an obsessive attention to flavor balance that the tiki community has recognized for years. Not just for tropical drinks — the orgeat in particular has crossover applications in classic sours and Italian-adjacent cocktails.

Portland-based Raft has built a strong reputation in the craft cocktail community for all-natural syrups and drinking vinegar shrubs that prioritize clean, bright flavor over shelf-stable stability. The shrub lineup is particularly well-regarded — tart, complex, and versatile in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic applications. A solid all-around choice for home bartenders who want to stock a genuinely distinctive mixer shelf.

Charleston, SC's contribution to the craft mixer world comes in the form of pre-batched cocktail mixers designed so that adding a quality spirit and ice is all that's required. The ratios are professionally dialed — these aren't shortcuts, they're the result of serious recipe development. Particularly popular for hosting: a bottle of Bittermilk No. 1 Toasted Oak Old Fashioned mix covers the bar program for an evening without making anyone feel like they're serving something premixed.