Why You Should Take a Driver’s Dram in Scotland

What is a Driver’s Dram in Scotland?

A Driver’s Dram is essentially a takeaway vessel with your whisky of choice, that allows you to enjoy your spirit at a later (and safer) time of your choosing- namely, when you’re safely back at your hotel or apartment rental.

We were offered Driver’s Drams not only at distilleries during flights, but at distillery bars when ordering a single dram, and even bars and bottle shops that offered whisky tastings- albeit the offer was much more common in places where it was clearly obvious you were driving (e.g. a distillery not near a town compared to a pub in the heart of a city).

In a tasting, for example, drivers would be given vials to decant the samples into (some with funnels, others not- a bit harder, we admit), allowing you to still take a sniff along with everyone during a guided tasting and then package up your whisky to enjoy later.

To us, there are many merits to doing this beyond the safety factor when driving, many of which we learned only after taking our first Driver’s Dram to go.

First, you’ll be getting the same exact whisky as everyone else when on a tasting. Don’t worry there. It isn’t a smaller sample. It isn’t a different sample. It’s literally the same samples, just packaged to go. We never had one pre-packaged for us when on a tour, and always filled up our own vials from our flights ourselves.

Whether your tasting offered 25 mL pours or smaller, 15 mL pours (as you may get on premium tours), you’ll be able to take home precisely that- less any you may not get into the vial when decanting yourself (seriously, ask for a funnel if one isn’t provided). So do not feel like you could be shortchanged when taking the Driver’s Dram- you really won’t be.

Second, if you’re traveling as a couple, you really don’t need two flights of the same whisky in a tasting on most conventional tours. The fact that we both were served the same whiskies, and, more importantly, paid for the same whiskies, is one reason why we weren’t so fond of the tour experience as much. We just didn’t need that much of the same product most of the time.

Take one set to go, enjoy a wee nip off your partner’s flight if you can (this helped me figure out what I wanted to buy while at the distillery, I will admit), and now you have more to enjoy by the fire at your hotel or rental later. In fact, on busy tasting days, Angie wouldn’t even finish her drams either, so we would often decant the extra into my Driver’s Dram to take that back, too- waste no Scotch!

• Note: While distilleries strongly (and verbally) discourage drivers from drinking, it feels like a bit of an honor system in practice. No one will get mad over a small nip of a partner’s dram, insofar as you aren’t impaired by it. Be safe, as always, and err on safety. 

Third, we found some stores that offer paid tastes also offer Driver’s Drams if you prefer to take it to go, and a similar premise applied- we got to try whisky we were looking at buying, but didn’t have to taste it right before getting in the car while at a shop.

We wish we had asked about this sooner to see if more stores offered this feature (it was towards the end of the trip when a store in Speyside first offered), as we would’ve likely tried far more whiskies we were eyeing had we known that we could possibly get a dram for takeaway. If a place offers, we’d personally strategize by buying some drams at the start of a stay in any given area, enjoy the drams back in our room on the following nights, which would also potentially give the opportunity to return later to buy a bottle outright- perfect if the shop has it at a great price, too.

That said, we are not sure if every store offers this option- so your mileage may vary. There is no harm in asking and being told no, of course!

Finally, if you don’t drink the Driver’s Drams later on, they also make a good souvenir. We stacked a lot of our distilleries at the end of our trip, and I somehow stacked up about seven drams in the two days before leaving. Given that it would be quite the feat to drink that much whisky at night, I put them in my suitcase and took them home to enjoy later. A nice perk!

Overall, I really must admit that I went to Scotland with the mindset of “I don’t need to take a Driver’s Dram,” but after learning more about it and seeing the benefits first-hand, I quickly moved to accepting them at every distillery (and shop) we visited. They simply make too much sense, and offer way more perks than they do drawbacks- assuming you are able to easily decant your whisky into the tiny vials, at least.

Did you take the Driver’s Drams when visiting distilleries in Scotland? Comment below to share your thoughts!