Pumpkin spice lattes and Oktoberfest beers get all the attention this time of year, but the liquor aisle is where fall really gets weird.
Every autumn, spirits brands roll out their most experimental seasonal ideas. Some are brilliant, some are baffling, and a few are both. This year’s crop includes a cocktail with microwave instructions, Irish cream in a can, and a PB&J you can drink.
Here are five of the strangest bottles (and cans) on shelves this season. Of course, if you’d rather keep things classic, a neat whisky is a safe bet—but sometimes, you just want to get weird.
On The Rocks Chocolate Martini
Bottled-cocktail brand On The Rocks new release is a limited-edition Chocolate Martini made with chocolate liqueur and Effen vodka. The recipe comes from bartender Joaquín Simó (who invented the Naked and Famous cocktail at Death and Co) and the main serve is a chilled martini; so far, nothing crazy.
Just wait—the brand also lists a “hot serve,” which tells you to heat the cocktail in a microwave-safe container in 10-second bursts until it’s warm but “not boiling” (duh). Then you pour it into a mug and top it with whipped cream and toasted marshmallows, for a spiked-hot-cocoa-tini type situation. Now we’re talking.
$12.99 for a 375 mL bottle, available nationwide.
Blue Chair Bay Pumpkin Spiced Rum Cream
Yes, Kenny Chesney has a rum brand, and yes, it now has a pumpkin spice cream liqueur. Blue Chair Bay Pumpkin Spiced Rum Cream is the brand’s first-ever seasonal release and its first new flavor in three years.
It’s made with real spice, pumpkin, and cream, at 15% ABV. The brand suggests pouring it over ice, splashing it into hot chocolate, or putting it straight on dessert. The cream liqueur category is heavy with fake-tasting offerings that can get cloying fast and give you a sugar crash even faster, but the Blue Chair Bay Rum Cream is sweet without being overwhelming. Nice one, Kenny.
$19.99 for a 750 mL bottle at national retailers and from Blue Chair Bay’s website.
Skrewball Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Whiskey
Skrewball, maybe you’ve heard of it? The brand that invented peanut butter whiskey in 2018 just dropped its first new flavor since then: PB&J.
The origin story is half the fun. Co-founder Steven Yeng, a Cambodian refugee who fell in love with peanut butter after arriving in the U.S., started out serving a peanut butter shot at a bar he ran in San Diego’s Ocean Beach. His wife and co-founder, Brittany, used her chemistry background to turn it into a shelf-stable whiskey. Pernod Ricard now owns the brand, and the nutty flavored whiskey category it kicked off is still crowded with copycats.
The new version blends that peanut butter whiskey with strawberry jelly flavor. It comes in 100 mL cans (two full servings each) and 50 mL bottles, built for tailgates and coolers rather than the back bar, and it’s 70 proof. The brand is also teasing a “grown-up” brown paper lunch bag later this fall, which suggests the lunchbox bit is just getting started.
Cans run $3.99 and bottles $1.99, available nationwide.
Two Stacks Double Irish Cream Dram in a Can
Ahh, Irish cream. A delicious treat, sure, but also something that I can’t remember ever finishing a full bottle of. For me, a newly-cracked 750 mL bottle will emerge, produce some mixed drinks, then eventually migrate to the back of the fridge at 2/3 full until the holidays.
Two Stacks decided to tackle that serving size issue by putting the cream in a can; the 100 mL cans hold two servings each, at 17.5% ABV.
The Double Irish Cream Liqueur is made with Robert A. Merry & Co. in Clonmel, Ireland. The blend includes a little peated malt, which adds a wisp of smoke you don’t usually find in Irish cream.
$6.99 per can at retailers nationwide and online at Two Stacks’ US website.
Booker’s The Reserves 2026
If you’re wondering why a much-lauded, high price-point whiskey is on this list, stick with me. The Suntory-owned label built its reputation on uncut, unfiltered bourbon with zero gimmicks, which is exactly why this release turned heads. It was only the brand’s second-ever rye, which is cool, but nothing for folks to flip out about.
That is, until they learned about the finish: the juice spent time in apple brandy casks, and was infused with cinnamon sticks. The recipe is a nod to the apple wine Booker Noe made for friends and family every winter, but purists grumbled when the label leaked earlier this year.
Master distiller Freddie Noe released it as planned at 125.1 proof, and as weird fall drops go, if anyone was going to make an apple and cinnamon whiskey land, it would be a well-respected label like Booker’s.
$129.99, available at retailers nationwide.
