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18 best brandies for sipping in 2025, from £13
Our expert-approved guide to the best brandy under £55
Tested by Callum BlackFood and Drink Testing Manager
The brandy category spans a range of products, including calvados, cognac and armagnac. Here, the Good Housekeeping Institute experts have focused their search on the best brandy under £55, with bottles starting from just £13!
Best brandy 2025
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Joint runner-up brandy and best supermarket brandy
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference XO Cognac Fine Champagne
Read review - 4
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The best Christmas food and drink for 2025, revealed
The best brandy cocktails
While brandy is delicious served neat at room temperature, or on the rocks (a balloon-shaped glass works best for serving), it’s also excellent in cocktails.
Try a classic serve such as the brandy alexander (cognac, crème de cacao, and cream) or the sidecar with Cointreau and lemon. We also like it in this honey and pear brandy old-fashioned, for a fun twist on the whisky-based cocktail.
What's the difference between brandy and cognac?
As the famous saying goes, not all brandy is cognac, but all cognac is brandy. In other words, cognac is a type of brandy, made specifically in the Cognac region of France. It’s essentially what champagne is to sparkling wine.
What does VSOP mean for brandy?
VSOP stands for “very superior old pale” and means the youngest brandy in the blend has been aged for at least four years.
Is VSOP or XO better?
While a VSOP cognac must be aged for a minimum of four years, an XO or “extra old” cognac requires a minimum of 10 years (up from six years, as of 2018). However, this legally only applies to cognac and armagnac, so you’ll still find the term used widely on other French brandy to demonstrate that it's “extra old”.
Like the best whisky, older expressions are often considered “better”, but as with anything, it comes down to your personal preference.
How we test brandy
The Good Housekeeping Institute tested 22 brandies priced under £55. The panel — made up of WSET-trained wine and spirits experts and consumers — tasted each one neat and blind to avoid brand bias, and then with a small amount of water to further assess the flavour.
They were looking for well-balanced examples, from light and fruity through to more mature examples with oak ageing. Those awarded top marks had a smooth mouthfeel, well-integrated alcohol and complex sweetness.
Read on for the best buys for every occasion.
Jean-Luc Pasquet L’Organic 07 Grande Champagne Cognac 7 Year Old
Score: 86/100
Our winning brandy is a rich and warming, certified-organic cognac, bursting with vanilla, cinnamon, dried figs and uplifting orange zest.
On the palate, caramelised apple is complemented by dark chocolate and a little oak on the finish. Our panel couldn't get enough.
Score: 84/100
This armagnac is one Master of Malt’s best-selling brandies, and we can certainly see why.
Nutmeg, cinnamon and candied orange peel dominate the nose, with caramel following on the palate, alongside smoke and toasted nuts which add a well-balanced savoury element. Rich and earthy, it has a velvety smooth mouthfeel that should appeal to all.
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference XO Cognac Fine Champagne
Score: 84/100
Holding its own against the big brands, this Sainsbury’s XO cognac is aged for a minimum of 10 years, resulting in a beautiful drop, with notes of brown butter, hazelnut, candied almond and vanilla. With a long-lasting toasted finish, it’s a rather nice way of rounding off any meal in our opinion.
Score: 81/100
This brandy is frankly outrageous value, whether you're using it to flambé the Christmas pud or enjoying it in a hot toddy. It’s aged for three years and displays sweet and spicy notes with caramelised fruit flavours.
Score: 81/100
Proving that Spanish brandy deserves a place on your drinks trolley, this gran reserva is aged in old sherry casks, adding a delicious fruity note to each sip — think spicy orange zest and cooked apple. Brown sugar and treacle add a deep, long-lasting sweetness, making this an excellent digestif.
Score: 81/100
As one of the biggest names in brandy, Martell’s cognac offers excellent value. Delicious on its own or in cocktails, you can expect a deceptively light, herbal nose that builds into a bold palate of leather, dried fruit and spice.
Vanilla and cinnamon sugar add balance, but it’s the spiciness that shines through here.
Score: 80/100
If you’re new to the world of brandy, or just don’t want to invest heavily, Lidl’s well-priced bottle is well worth seeking out. Our panel praised the approachable combination of dried fruit, apricot and orange, with a saline kiss and touch of caramel.
Score: 79/100
From the well-established Spanish wine brand, Torres, comes this top-quality Spanish brandy, aged in American oak. The enticing liquid is bursting with Christmas spice, alongside notes of caramelised vine fruit, orange zest, almonds and vanilla. A fabulous all-rounder.
Score: 79/100
Rather modestly, this brand has given itself seven stars, but did our panel agree? They found this rich and powerful, yet easy drinking, with more than a whiff of Werther’s Original about it. With that in mind, we’d serve it alongside a sticky toffee pudding.
Score: 77/100
Based in Walthamstow, London, Burnt Faith is Britain’s first ever brandy distillery. Rather excitingly, this is a blend of trebbiano, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and muscat blanc grapes, which are aged in bourbon, cognac, cherry liqueur and fortified wine casks.
The result? A palate filled with notes of caramelised apple pie, hints of orange peel and a delicious spicy depth from the oak ageing. This British brandy would make a truly stunning gift, for the drinks connoisseur in your life.
Score: 76/100
If you’re looking for an easy drinking brandy, look no further! With butterscotch, caramel, candied apples, orange, cinnamon and cloves, this silky-smooth drop goes down all too easily. An excellent value digestif that we wouldn’t hesitate to stock up on.
Score: 72/100
This versatile brandy offers a variety of spicy notes, alongside hints of menthol, with a warm, lingering finish. A punchy sip, the alcohol makes itself known, with candied apple, pear and honey in the background. Try it long, over ice, topped with soda water.
Score: 79/100
Part of the Gonzalez Byass portfolio (one of Spain's most well-known sherry producers), this brandy is aged for five years in American oak, which is apparent from the first sip. The maturation brings with it coconut, vanilla and a butterscotch note that will be irresistible to those with a sweet tooth.
Score: 71/100
On the nose, you’ll find warming festive spice and a hint of orange citrus, evoking the flavour of the best Christmas cake. The palate offers more sweet caramel, citrus peel and dried apricot, and our panel thought it would work well with your best cheese selection.
Score: 70/100
Sneaking in at just under £50, this luxury Italian brandy uses a combination of French and Slavonian oak, as well as ex-red wine barrels, each imparting their own unique characteristics to the finished liquid.
And while it’s not the most aromatic, the palate is more pronounced, with a sweet combination of caramel, toasted pecans and lemon curd. Who needs dessert?
Score: 70/100
We couldn’t bring you a best brandy round-up without including Courvoisier. The household name is, as you might expect, a safe bet however you wish to serve it.
A beautifully balanced cognac with honeyed sweetness, ginger and creamy coconut — we can understand the recent surge in popularity with a younger audience.
Score: 70/100
From St‑Rémy – part of the Rémy Martin cointreau portfolio – this brandy displays buttery oak, woody cinnamon and deep sweet toffee on the nose. The palate delivers as promised, with more intense, sweet caramel coming through on the palate. A luxurious post‑dinner treat.
Score: 70/100
With rich dried fruits (such as figs and dates) and buttery toffee on the nose, it will come as no surprise that this cognac is aged in a combination of French oak and ex-sauternes barrels (a deliciously sweet dessert wine).
However, it’s actually a lot more savoury on the palate than you might expect, with toasted walnuts and almonds, leading to a spicy, leathery finish.
Stacey looks after all food and drink reviews — from coffee pods and veg boxes, to natural wine and tequila. Stacey is also founder of Crummbs, where she’s written nearly 2,000 restaurant and hotel reviews since 2013. Prior to this, Stacey wrote hundreds of in-depth buying guides for the Independent, i newspaper and BBC Good Food, as well as reviewing restaurants and interviewing celebrities in her column at Balance Magazine. Stacey has also appeared in BAFTA-nominated BBC documentary Blood, Sweat & Takeaways, where she investigated South East Asia's food production industry, appearing on both Newsnight and BBC World Service to share her findings. Regularly checking out the latest restaurants, bars and product launches, Stacey also loves experimenting with recipes at home, and is a WSET-certified wine and spirits expert, with over 10 years of experience in the business. You can follow Stacey on Instagram @crummbs_uk
Callum is our Food and Drink Testing Manager and has been part of the world of professional catering for 10 years, from cheffing to food manufacturing. While working in manufacturing he specialised in bespoke product and menu development for several start-ups and well-known brands such as Wrap It Up! and HOP Vietnamese. He holds the WSET Level 2 in wine, a Level 3 in spirits and has a particular interest in agave spirits.
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