where to buy drink/cocktail ingredients in NYC area!

Hi all; FYI for anyone around NYC that's been as frustrated as I have with finding good tikicentric cocktail ingredients. Check out Shop Rite Liquors in Lincoln Park, NJ (shopriteliquors.com). I ordered Whaler's rum Vanille, Marie Brizard orange curacao and Coruba rum, all of which came in in two days (you can order online and pickup at the store or they can ship it to you.) Huge selection and friendly folks on the phone - great place!

Found two brands of Maraschino at Astor Wine, Stock and Luxardo. The Luxardo is recommended.

Also consider LeNells in Red Hook, Columbus Circle Wine & Liquor, Crush Wine Co, and Chamber Street Wines. Astor is always good bet too. Many have Ed Hamilton's Martinique rums, also the Batavia Arrack, and other classic cocktail goodies.

I used to go to Gene's Liquors on Staten Island, @ Forest & Bement Aves, but I haven't been in there in 25 years and couldn't tell you how good their selection is anymore.

Hi you guys, thanks for your valuable info!

I live in Europe, where it's impossible to get certain stuff. A friend of mine is going to NYC in january, and maybe I'm asking her to bring me some stuff. Do you know the restrictions in that area? I mean, I just want a couple of bottles, not a huge quantity, but I don't want my friend to get prosecuted for smuggling or something worse.

Any help? Thank you!

Bastardo - if you are asking about duty-free limits, they usually relate to how much you bring IN to a country and not how much you bring out. I don't believe there is a restriction on how much you can take out of the US, but you would have to check the customs laws on how much someone can bring into Spain. In addition, if you are talking about getting non-alcoholic items like orgeat, etc., there may be no limits beyond what your friend is willing to carry.

In the US, the limit on bringing in liquor is something like 2 bottles per person, and they don't always enforce the limit. In the past I have brought in much more than that, and even disclosed it on the customs form, and they just waived me through.

Also remember, the "limit" (at least in the US) relates to how much is duty-free, and is not a limit on how much you can bring in. In other words, you can bring as much stuff as you want into the US, but customs has the right to charge you duty on anything more than 2 bottles, and you can keep what you brought (assuming its not a certain cuban rum of course).

People usually take advantage of duty-free because of good prices, but you sound like you want to get some stuff you can't get otherwise, so you may be less sensitive to possibly having duty charged (yes, I know I keep saying duty and I am laughing as I write it).

Anyway, that has been my experience. Hopefully that helps.

I'm not an alcoholic, I'm an enthusiast.

[ Edited by: leisure master 2007-10-10 11:49 ]

On 2007-10-10 11:47, leisure master wrote:
Also remember, the "limit" (at least in the US) relates to how much is duty-free, and is not a limit on how much you can bring in.

SWEET! I had always been worried that I'd have to hire people to carry rum back from the islands...

So, any idea how much "duty" will cost? How do they calculate it, etc?

I know that between Nicole and me, we are allowed to bring 4 bottles, but we usually have brought much more than that with every trip. I remember our bags were particularly heavy when we came back from St Maarten a couple of years ago. Lots of good stuff there.

To be honest, and I will probably jinx myself here for my next trip, I have never had to pay duty, even when I have brought many bottles into the US. So I don't actually know the answer.

In theory, I believe they would estimate what the federal taxes would be on the "extra" bottles you bring in. I am not sure what that would be, but based on some of the rum prices you see in other countries compared to the US, it could be up to 30 - 40% of what you paid for the bottle (just a guess). I wouldn't risk it to bring in that third handle of Captain, but if you are bringing in something really unique, it may be worth the risk that they ring you up for the duty.

One key thing - I will say that I have always been pretty honest on the customs forms since they x-ray the checked luggage anyway - which is usually in addition to the stuff we carry-on. Penalties could be MUCH worse than paying duty if they catch you lying. Its just not worth it since I don't think customs has the manpower or the desire to bust everyone for having extra booze when there are so many worse things they are on the lookout for.

Here's the skinny
On how much duty you'll have to pay
If inny.

Rum is on page IV 22-11 (11th page of the pdf file)

Here's the directory of the massive guide.

From this directory you can get to the information necessary to finding what the duty is on any conceivable item you might bring into the country.

Thanks Gnomon

If I am reading that right, it seems like the duty for extra rum is $1.32 per liter? No wonder they wave me through, I am sure they don't want to go through all my bags and do all the paperwork to collect like 8 bucks.

I like that there is less duty on rum that is valued over $3 per liter than rum that is valued at less than $3 per liter. I like a government that will punish you for bringing in crappy rum.

Also nice to see that the duty on nuclear reactors is down to 3.3% - good to know if I visit any ex-soviet republics.

I'll second that making an honest declaration on your customs form seems to help. We've been asked if we had liquor before and even asked how much, but we've always answered honestly and no one has (yet) searched to see how much or what we actually have.