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The Short Version
Bartesian® hides the twelve drinks behind tap to reveal doors on its own product page, which means you cannot see the whole lineup in one place before you decide. This page puts all twelve in one table, then tells you what the lineup actually adds up to.
Pre order pricing ends when the calendar launches in October.
Check Price at Bartesian.com →Every drink in the 2026 calendar
All twelve, in order. Three are marked NEW, and those have never appeared in a Bartesian® calendar before.
| # | Drink | Spirit you supply | Status | Glass | Garnish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Grinch Appletini | Vodka (shimmer) | Returning | Martini | Apple wheel, sugar rim |
| 2 | Mistletoe Margarita | Tequila | Fan favorite | Margarita | Thyme, cinnamon stick |
| 3 | Ginger Pear Noel | Whiskey | Fan favorite | Lowball | Pear, candied ginger |
| 4 | Frosted Ambrosia | Vodka | NEW | Lowball | Maraschino cherry, pineapple, mandarin orange |
| 5 | Jollypeño Margarita | Tequila | Fan favorite | Lowball | Pineapple wheel, jalapeños |
| 6 | Brown Butter Old Fashioned | Whiskey | Returning | Lowball | Orange peel, brandied cherry |
| 7 | Berry and Bright | Tequila (shimmer) | NEW | Highball | Rosemary sprig, blueberries |
| 8 | Winter Pear-adise | Gin | Fan favorite | Coupe | Pear slice, sage leaf |
| 9 | Salted Caramel Espresso Martini | Vodka | NEW | Martini | Sugar rim |
| 10 | Peary Christmas | Tequila | Fan favorite | Lowball | Pear slice, sugar rim |
| 11 | Holiday Spiced Old Fashioned | Whiskey | Fan favorite | Lowball | Orange peel, brandied cherry |
| 12 | Yuletide Hurricane | Rum (shimmer) | Holiday favorite | Hurricane | Orange slice, maraschino cherry |
Source: the Bartesian 2026 Advent Calendar product page, read in full.
A note on shimmer. Three of these pods contain a shimmer effect that makes the finished drink sparkle in the glass. Those are The Grinch Appletini, Berry and Bright, and Yuletide Hurricane. It is a visual trick, and it is the one that makes people at the table put their phones down and look.
The three new pods
Nine of the twelve have appeared before. These three have not.
Frosted Ambrosia (vodka). Served in a lowball glass with maraschino cherry, pineapple and mandarin orange. The garnish list alone tells you this one is built to look like something, not just taste like something.
Berry and Bright (tequila, shimmer). A highball with rosemary and blueberries. It is the only new pod with the shimmer effect, and it is the only new pod that is not vodka.
Salted Caramel Espresso Martini (vodka). A martini with a sugar rim. An espresso martini appeared in the 2021 calendar, so the espresso martini idea is not new to Bartesian®. The salted caramel version is.
I have not tasted any of these. Nobody has. They do not ship until October.
What the lineup actually tells you
This is the part the product page will not tell you. All of it is simple counting off the table above.
Tequila does more work here than you might expect. Four tequila drinks. Three vodka. Three whiskey. One gin. One rum. A lot of people picture a holiday calendar leaning toward bourbon. This one leans a little the other way. If you are stocking up for December, tequila is the bottle you will reach for most.
A quarter of the calendar is pear. Ginger Pear Noel, Winter Pear-adise, and Peary Christmas. Three of twelve. If pear is not your thing, you have lost three doors before you open the box.
Gin drinkers get one door. Rum drinkers get one door. That is worth knowing before you buy a bottle of either.
There are two Old Fashioneds. Brown Butter and Holiday Spiced. Both whiskey, both lowball, and the garnish on both is orange peel and a brandied cherry. Some people will taste a real difference. Some will open door 11 and feel like they already had this one.
None of this is a complaint. It is a twelve drink set and it has to cover ground. But you should know the shape of it before you spend the money.
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How the pre order actually works
This trips people up every year, because it does not work like a normal order.
You are not buying a calendar today. You are buying the right to buy one at a locked price.
Here is the sequence:
- You pay $29.99 now. That reserves your calendar.
- Bartesian® emails you a redemption code. It comes in its own email, separate from your order confirmation. Save it.
- In October, when the calendars are ready, they email you a reminder.
- You go back to Bartesian.com and apply your code at checkout to claim the actual calendar.
Two things people get burned on
The pre order does not count toward the $50 free shipping threshold. The calendar does count when you redeem it in October. So if free shipping matters to you, buy your pods in October at redemption time, not today.
The limit is four per customer. Four at $29.99 instead of $34.99 saves you $20.
Why the $5 is not the real reason to pre order
This calendar has sold out in five of its six years. Pre ordering is how you make sure you get one. The savings is a bonus on top of that.
My own pre order
I pre ordered one myself on August 13, 2026. The order showed up in my Bartesian® account right away. The confirmation email had not arrived by the time I wrote this, which is worth knowing if yours is slow too. Remember that two emails are coming, and the code email is the one that matters in October.
Ready to lock in the pre order price?
Prices move, so it is worth seeing what is running today.
Check Price at Bartesian.com →Is it worth it
The calendar costs $29.99 for twelve drinks. That is about $2.50 a drink. At the $34.99 launch price it is about $2.92.
Here is how that compares to buying pods the normal way. Bartesian® 8 packs list at $19.99, which is $2.50 a capsule.
| How you buy | Cost per drink |
|---|---|
| Calendar, pre order at $29.99 | $2.50 |
| Calendar, launch price $34.99 | $2.92 |
| Regular pods, no subscription | $2.50 |
| Subscription, smaller order | $2.12 |
| Subscription, 6 items or more | $2.00 |
Prices read in August 2026. Subscription figures are from my own active Bartesian subscription.
So the calendar is not a savings play. At the pre order price you pay exactly what pods normally cost. At the launch price you pay more.
Buy it for these reasons instead
Three of the twelve drinks are calendar exclusives. Frosted Ambrosia, Berry and Bright, and the Salted Caramel Espresso Martini are not sold any other way. If you want to try them, this box is the only door.
It sells out. Five years out of six. Waiting is the risk, not the price.
It is a gift. A red box with twelve doors and a gold sleigh on it is a present. Twelve loose pods in a shipping carton is not.
Who should skip it
If you only drink whiskey, three of the twelve doors are yours. Subtract three more if you do not like pear. And if you run a subscription, know that you are paying a premium for limited edition cocktails.
Which bottles you need on hand
Twelve drinks, five spirits. Here is the count so you can shop once instead of three times.
- Tequila: 4 drinks. The most used bottle in the box.
- Vodka: 3 drinks.
- Whiskey: 3 drinks.
- Gin: 1 drink.
- Rum: 1 drink.
If you are buying one good bottle for this calendar, make it the tequila. If you are buying two, add whiskey or vodka depending on which you already drink.