Is Costco’s Kirkland Signature Old Fashioned any Good?

Costco does a lot of things these days.

Costco seemingly has a Kirkland Signature version of any grocery product you can imagine – down to underwear. So when we took our usual jaunt down the liquor aisle at our local Costco it didn’t really surprise us when we laid eyes on a Kirkland Signature Old Fashioned batched cocktail. At first, we didn’t think too much of it since we love making our own Old Fashioneds right at home. But after a couple moments of consideration, we thought it would be worth a test. After all, it would be convenient if you didn’t have time to batch some OFs of your own and you’re hosting a party (or headed to one). And at the price of $26.49 for one whole liter, it wasn’t a big purchase. So we decided to grab one and do a Kirkland Old Fashioned Review.

Our next question: what’s a fair way to evaluate it?

After we brought it home, we were thinking of a couple ways we could see if it made the cut. Our initial thought was to do our typical stir in a cocktail mixing glass as we tend to do for OFs, but then we got to thinking: most people are just going to pop this bad boy open, drop a chunk of ice (or typical fridge ice) in a glass and pour it right over. So that’s what we decided to do. However, instead of just saying “it’s good!” or “it’s bad!” we needed a control to put it up against. So we decided our own house Old Fashioned would be fair enough (with some caveats as we will mention later).

So how did it do? Let’s dive into the head-to-head OF matchup and see how it stacks up.

Here’s where things landed.

We can assume our house Old Fashioned differs a bit from what Costco does in their batched OF. For starters, we use rich Demerara syrup (which is a 2:1 sugar-to-water ratio, and also uses Sugar in the Raw which keeps some molasses in the sugar granules). It would be safe and fair to assume that Costco’s batched OF leverages a 1:1 ratio of regular simple syrup, meaning that they likely use white sugar. We used Larceny Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in our version of an Old Fashioned whereas we don’t know what Kirkland uses (although it’s possible they use Barton products, per our video of their bourbon line a few years back. So just all that to say that this face-off isn’t truly 1:1; there’s definitely variables here.

That said, here’s the verdict: Ours is better, but Costco’s version ain’t bad at all.

Costco’s version is sweet, it has a fair balance of flavor and has a nice alcohol ‘bite’ to it. For a $26 bottle, we weren’t at all unhappy with it. Sure, our House OF has a better depth of flavor, more spice bite and richer sweet notes, but the Kirkland Signature version was more than acceptable – especially if you don’t like batching cocktails yourself and you want something quick to pour or take to a function. It’s a liter, and if you break that down it’s probably around 16 Old Fashioneds (assuming you’re doing just over 2 oz. for each one). That’s $1.65 per Old Fashioned. That’s a hell of a deal. For something that is not just drinkable but enjoyable, it screams value buy.

So, we give a big thumbs up to Costco’s Kirkland Signature Old Fashioned cocktail. Happy imbibing, friends!