🔥 Smokers & Gadgets
Best Cocktail Smoker Kits UK 2026
Six kits compared, from a £12 torch lid to the Breville Smoking Gun.
Key Takeaways
- Torch lid kit (around £12) is the cheapest way to smoke a drink and the most-reviewed kit on this page by a long way.
- SMOKPUB electric smoker (around £33) gives you the smoke without a naked flame, which makes it the safest pick for flats.
- Breville Smoking Gun (around £65) is the one to choose when you want real control over how much smoke reaches the glass.
- Full kits with glasses and ice ball moulds (around £44) are the gift picks, because the whole box is the present.
📚 Suggested reading: whisky decanter guide and best cocktail glasses UK
A cocktail smoker kit adds cold wood smoke to a drink in under a minute, and you do not need to spend much to get the effect. The best buys in the UK right now are a £12 torch-lid kit for beginners, a £33 no-flame electric smoker for kitchens where a naked flame is a bad idea, and the Breville Smoking Gun if you want proper control over flavour. We compared six popular options on Amazon UK on build quality, chip variety, ease of use and value, using current listings, ratings and prices rather than hands-on lab trials.
Quick Picks
Best overall
Breville The Smoking Gun - electric gun, around £65
Best no-flame
SMOKPUB Electric Kit - heating element, around £33
Best top-rated torch set
Ritual Life Kit - glasses and ice moulds, around £44
Best value all-in-one
Sumapner Kit - glasses and ice moulds, around £28
Best premium gift
G&J's Finest Mahogany Box - quad torch, around £45
Best budget
Smlpuame Torch Lid - four chips, around £12
Comparison Table
| Kit | Type | Listed price | Chips | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breville Smoking Gun | Electric gun | around £65 | 3 sample + your own | Flavour control |
| SMOKPUB Electric | Electric lid | around £33 | 6 flavours | Flats and rentals |
| Ritual Life Kit | Torch + glasses + moulds | around £44 | 6 flavours | Complete whisky night |
| Sumapner Kit | Torch + glasses + moulds | around £28 | 6 flavours | Value all-in-one |
| G&J's Finest Box | Quad torch + wooden box | around £45 | 6 flavours | Premium gifting |
| Smlpuame Torch Lid | Torch lid only | around £12 | 4 flavours | First kit |
Prices are the Amazon UK listed prices at the time of comparison and move around - check the live price via the links.
Breville The Smoking Gun Food Smoker
Best overall
Rating: 4.6/5 | Type: electric smoke gun | Listed: around £65 | Brand: Breville
This is the kit every bar-focused roundup lands on eventually, and for good reason. The Breville Smoking Gun burns chips in a stainless chamber and pushes the cold smoke through a flexible hose into an upturned glass or cloche. Two fan speeds mean you can lay a whisper of smoke over a delicate Martini or go heavy for a bourbon that needs to taste like a bonfire.
It is the only pick here that feels like a tool rather than a novelty. The burn chamber is replaceable, the hose reaches where a lid cannot, and it doubles for food, cheese and desserts. That flexibility explains the £65 price, and the 4.6 rating across over 1,500 Amazon reviews suggests owners agree it earns it.
The honest downside is faff. You load chips, light them, wait for the smoke, then unclip and clean the chamber, which is more steps than a torch lid. If you only smoke one drink a month, that ritual gets old quickly.
Pros: real flavour control; hose reaches any glass; doubles as a food smoker.
Cons: priciest pick here; cleaning the chamber takes a minute; overkill for occasional use.
SMOKPUB Electric Whiskey Smoker Kit
Best no-flame pick
Rating: 4.6/5 | Type: electric lid with heating element | Listed: around £33 | Chips: six flavours
The SMOKPUB kit solves the problem most UK buyers quietly have: they live in a flat, and waving a butane torch around near a smoke alarm is not a relaxing hobby. Here a small heating element glows inside the lid, you sprinkle chips over it, and the smoke fills the glass underneath. No flame, no gas refills, no singed eyebrows.
It earns its 4.6 rating across over 1,200 reviews because it just works. Fill the cup, switch it on, wait about thirty seconds, lift and serve. The six-chip starter pack covers oak, hickory, apple, cherry and the usual suspects, so you can find your pairing before buying bulk bags.
Against the Breville it loses on control, because you cannot dial the smoke intensity as finely. Against every torch kit it wins on safety and simplicity, which for most home bars is the trade that matters.
Pros: no naked flame; no butane to buy; genuinely easy to use.
Cons: less control than a smoke gun; heating element needs a few seconds to warm.
Ritual Life Whiskey Smoker Kit with Torch
Best top-rated torch set
Rating: 4.7/5 | Type: torch lid + 2 glasses + 2 ice ball moulds | Listed: around £44 | Chips: six flavours
If you want the full smoked-old-fashioned experience in one box, the Ritual Life set is the strongest all-rounder on the page. You get the torch-lid smoker, two proper whisky glasses, two ice ball moulds and six chip flavours, which is everything needed to host a whisky night without buying anything else. A 4.7 rating across 500-plus reviews is the joint-highest score here.
The glasses are the detail that lifts it. Smoking a drink into a cheap tumbler feels like a demo; doing it into a matching pair of heavy-based rocks glasses feels like a ritual, and that is honestly half the point of smoked cocktails at home.
The trade-off is that the extras are why it costs £44, when the same smoker mechanism can be had for under £30. If you already own decent glasses and ice moulds, buy the cheaper kit below and spend the difference on better whisky.
Pros: complete night-in kit; highest rating on the page; gift-ready box.
Cons: you pay for the glasses and moulds; torch needs butane refills.
Sumapner Whiskey Smoker Kit with Torch
Best value all-in-one
Rating: 4.5/5 | Type: torch lid + 2 glasses + 2 ice ball moulds | Listed: around £28 | Chips: six flavours
The Sumapner kit undercuts the Ritual Life set by around £15 while delivering the same headline contents: torch lid, two glasses, two ice ball moulds and six chip flavours. That makes it the value pick for anyone who wants the full set without the premium price tag.
Reviewers call out two things consistently: the seal between lid and glass is tight enough that smoke does not leak, and the torch has a decent flame control rather than a jet that scorches the chips in two seconds. At 4.5 stars across over 400 reviews it is not the highest scorer, but nothing on this page beats it on completeness per pound.
Where it shows its price is finish. The glasses are lighter than the Ritual Life pair and the box is functional rather than beautiful. For your own bar that barely matters; for a gift, the presentation kits below justify their premium.
Pros: full kit for under £30; tight lid seal; six chips included.
Cons: lighter glasses; plain packaging; butane not included.
G&J's Finest Mahogany Whiskey Smoker Kit
Best premium gift
Rating: 4.7/5 | Type: quad torch + wooden box | Listed: around £45 | Chips: six flavours
Gift buyers, this is the one. The G&J's Finest kit arrives in a mahogany-finish box with a quad-flame torch, and the presentation alone justifies the price for a birthday or Christmas present. It is the kit that gets photographed, and at 4.7 stars across nearly 500 reviews it is not style over substance either.
The quad torch is the functional highlight. Four small flames heat the chips evenly instead of one aggressive jet, which means consistent smoke rather than burnt patches, and the wood-chip tray sits safely inside the lid while you work.
The catch for personal use is simple: you are paying for the box. If the kit never leaves your own kitchen, the Sumapner does the same job for £16 less. If it is going under a tree or into a leaving-present bag, nothing here lands harder.
Pros: stunning presentation; quad torch smokes evenly; strong rating.
Cons: box adds real cost; no glasses or moulds included; butane not included.
Smlpuame Whiskey Smoker Kit with Wood Chips
Best budget pick
Rating: 4.3/5 | Type: torch lid | Listed: around £12 | Chips: four flavours
The Smlpuame kit is the gateway drug of cocktail smoking. For around £12 you get a torch lid, four chip flavours and enough to decide whether you actually like a smoky Old Fashioned before spending £40 on the full ritual. With over 2,500 Amazon reviews it is comfortably the most-reviewed product on this page, which tells you how many people start here.
At this price the corners are visible. The lid is a lighter-gauge metal, the torch is basic, and you will need to buy butane separately. It also only fits glasses up to a certain rim size, so check your glassware before ordering.
That is the right framing: as a try-before-you-commit purchase, it is unbeatable. As a long-term daily driver, one of the electric kits or the Ritual Life set will serve you better and feel better doing it.
Pros: lowest price on the page; huge review base; four chips to start.
Cons: basic build; smaller lid fit; butane not included.
Buying Guide: Torch Lids, Smoke Guns and Wood Chips
Three ways to smoke a drink
Torch lids burn chips in a cup that sits over the glass, and the smoke has nowhere to go but down into the drink. They are cheap, fast and theatrical, but the flame needs managing and results vary with your technique. Electric lids replace the torch with a heating element, which trades a little drama for consistency and safety. Smoke guns push cold smoke through a hose into any covered vessel, which gives the most control and the widest range of uses, at the highest price. Most people who enjoy smoking drinks start with a torch lid and graduate to a gun if they want more control.
Which wood chips suit which drink
Oak and hickory give the deep, resinous smoke that pairs with whisky, which is why most kits lead with them. Apple and cherry are lighter and fruitier and suit rum, bourbon and sweeter cocktails, while beech and maple sit in the middle. There is no wrong answer, only pairings you will discover by tasting. The science backs the appeal: the smoke carries phenol compounds such as guaiacol, the same family that gives peated whisky its smoky character, which is why a smoked Old Fashioned tastes like a natural extension of the spirit rather than a gimmick.
No-flame kits and UK smoke alarms
Renting or living in a flat changes the buying decision. Butane torches set off smoke alarms, and some tenancy agreements frown on open flames in kitchens. The electric kits remove that worry entirely. Whichever type you choose, keep sessions short and ventilated: wood smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, so the UK government guidance on PAHs is worth a read if you plan to smoke drinks regularly. A minute of smoke over one drink in a kitchen with a window open is a very different exposure to a barbecue pit.
What to skip
Skip anything that advertises a torch but does not state butane compatibility clearly, because cheap torches with odd fittings are a headache. Skip novelty-shaped lids that only fit one specific glass, and check the rim fit before buying any lid kit. And skip kits where the gift box clearly cost more than the mechanism, unless gifting is exactly the point. If you already own good rocks glasses, our cocktail glass guide will help you pick the right vessels for smoking, because a lid needs a straight rim to seal properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a cocktail smoker kit?
A kit that adds cold wood smoke to a drink. Torch kits burn chips in a lid over the glass; electric kits use a heating element or a smoke gun with a hose. Both flavour the drink without heating it.
Do cocktail smoker kits actually flavour the drink?
Yes. The smoke carries phenol compounds such as guaiacol, the same family that gives peated whisky its smoky character, and they settle on the drink as the smoke sits under the lid.
Smoking gun or torch lid, which should I buy?
A smoking gun gives you control over smoke intensity and works with any covered glass. A torch lid is cheaper and faster but less consistent. Electric no-flame lids sit between the two and suit flats.
Is a cocktail smoker kit safe to use indoors?
Used sensibly, yes. Keep sessions short, work near an open window or extractor, and never smoke directly under a smoke alarm. Electric no-flame kits are the safest option for rented flats.
Which wood chips should I use for a smoked old fashioned?
Oak or hickory for a classic pairing. Apple and cherry are lighter and fruitier and work well with rum and bourbon. Most kits bundle four to six flavours so you can experiment before buying bulk.
What is the best cocktail smoker kit for a beginner in the UK?
The SMOKPUB electric kit removes the torch entirely, so there is no flame to manage. For the cheapest possible start, the Smlpuame torch lid at around £12 proves whether you like the style before you invest.
Final Verdict
Start with the £12 Smlpuame torch lid if you are curious and want to spend as little as possible finding out. Move to the SMOKPUB electric kit if you live in a flat or just prefer no naked flame. Buy the Breville Smoking Gun when you want proper control and do not mind the extra steps. Gift buyers should go straight to the Ritual Life set or the G&J's Finest mahogany box, depending on whether the recipient needs glasses too. Whichever you choose, prices shift week to week on Amazon UK, so check the live price before you buy.
Products mentioned: Breville The Smoking Gun, SMOKPUB Electric Whiskey Smoker Kit, Ritual Life Whiskey Smoker Kit, Sumapner Whiskey Smoker Kit, G&J's Finest Mahogany Whiskey Smoker Kit, Smlpuame Whiskey Smoker Kit.
Last reviewed: 9 September 2026 · Price-checked comparison · Contains affiliate links