Scotch On A Budget: 4 Bottles Under $35

By Sam Slaughter October 2, 2016

scotch on a budget — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Scotch is great, and a necessary part of anyone’s liquor cabinet, but sometimes, it can get too damn expensive. I’m not saying to not drop a couple thousand on a bottle of scotch if you can—Gordon and MacPhail’s Mortlach 75, with its cool $30,000 price tag, comes to mind—but for a lot of us, that’s just not in the cards right now.

The scotches we’ve compiled below are great additions to your bar and they won’t break the bank. Check them all out and let us know which bottles you think should be on the list as well.

Best Scotch on a Budget

The Famous Grouse ($23) — Like it’s brother The Black Grouse, Famous Grouse is a great bang for your buck scotch. If you need scotch in a pinch and don’t want to spend too much, look for The Famous Grouse first.

Monkey Shoulder ($35) — This is perhaps the best scotch on this list for use in cocktails. Monkey Shoulder is versatile and its flavor blends well instead of overpowering other flavors in drinks.

Dewar’s 12 ($29.99) — A classic for any scotch drinker, Dewar’s 12 is a great starting point if you’re looking to build your collection with eminently drinkable whiskies. On its own or with a few drops of water, you can’t go wrong here.

Speyburn 10 ($30) — A gold medal winner in 2006, this scotch is medium-bodied and a perfect example of the Speyburn line. Expect a long finish on this one, which stands up to other scotches that have been aged much longer.

Editors' Recommendations

Best Scotch Under $50: 7 Bottles of Affordable Whisky

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…

Food & Drink

10 smoky scotch whisky options to make those fall campfires magical

Our favorite smoky scotch whisky brands for late-summer drinking

Campfire whisky

The end of summer is barreling toward us like a pumpkin spice-fueled locomotive. Depending on where you live, you’re likely already seeing some signs of fall. The leaves are beginning to change color, the days are getting shorter, and Halloween candy is already on grocery store shelves. Fear not, even with the eventuality that is the end of summer, we still have until September 23 to enjoy all that the season has to offer. For us, it means as many backyard campfires as possible before the weather grows colder. It also means we only have weeks left to pair our fires with a glass of warming Scotch whisky.

Nobody will blame you for complimenting the smoky fire by drinking a complex, non-peated single malt Scotch whisky. For those confused about the spelling, most of the world omits the 'e' when referring to whisky. You also might be wondering the difference between Scotch and whiskey. Well, in the simplest terms, Scotch is a kind of whisky (Americans and the Irish still use the 'e'). So that should put an end to the Scotch vs. whiskey debate once and for all.

Food & Drink

Berries going bad too fast? Try this amazing viral TikTok hack that actually works

This viral TikTok hack shows you how to keep your berries fresh for up to 10 days

Mixed berries

Berries are a fan favorite in the produce section. These juicy little delights are a vitamin-packed fruit that's great for baking, snacking, making fruity cocktails like sangria, and even brightening up your weekend charcuterie boards. If you're someone who loves berries, you know how frustrating it can be when they start going bad too quickly.
But worry not! A viral TikTok hack has been making waves online, promising to keep your berries in tip-top shape for longer. We'll walk you through how to keep berries fresh using this amazing hack that actually works.
Say goodbye to wasting money on spoiled fruit, and hello to spoiling yourself with fresh, juicy berries whenever you want!

How to keep berries fresh with water and vinegar
Berries tend to spoil quickly due to their high water content, delicate texture, and the growth of mold and bacteria between them in their store-bought produce cartons. Exposure to moisture, heat, and air can also accelerate the ripening (or spoiling) process.

Food & Drink

Take a break from pumpkin beer: The best Oktoberfest beers to drink this fall

These delicious drinks are perfect for crisp fall days

Pint of beer

There are at least a handful of holidays (especially drinking centered holidays) that many drinkers don’t really know the true origins of. We know these are special days in which we drink tequila and Mexican beer (Cinco de Mayo), Irish whiskey or dry Irish stouts (St. Patrick’s Day), and giant pints of malty, refreshing German beer (Oktoberfest). And while we’ll get into the other two when the time comes, it’s Oktoberfest’s time in the spotlight.

Oktoberfest is more than simply a day to wear your grandfather’s lederhosen, drink Marzen, eat schnitzel, and listen to oom-pah music. It’s a two-week festival (the actual party is in Munich) that’s celebrated each fall to remember the wedding of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810.