Costco Is Ringing In The Lunar New Year With A Special Bottle Of Whisky

Lunar New Year comes early-ish this year: January 29, 2025, marks the first day of the Year of the Wood Snake. It's a time to celebrate with great Chinese food (reading about as well as eating it), and you'll probably want to make sure you're prepared with lucky New Year foods like whole fish, oranges, and the ingredients to make longevity noodles or soup, in Korea called tteokguk. (FYI – Korea celebrates Lunar New Year, as do many other Asian countries besides China). If you're looking for the proper libation to toast the Wood Snake, though, look no further than your nearest Costco where they should be selling a bottle of Kirkland Signature Lunar New Year Scotch.

The scotch, which retails for around $50 per bottle, comes in a very attractive package. The box is red and decorated with a golden snake coiled around a flowering branch. Inside, the scheme continues as the bottle features both the snake and the blossoms, while the stopper is a square wooden block painted red and a card (also red) with a Chinese character adorning the inner pocket of the box.

Anything as visually striking as this special edition Scotch is going to get some buzz on social media, and people have posted about it to both Instagram and Reddit. Not everyone is impressed by the contents of the bottle because the Kirkland blended Scotch inside has been aged just eight years. 

One Redditor felt that a 12-year-old Scotch would be more appropriate because Lunar New Year cycles each last for a dozen years. Another, however, noted that eight is an auspicious number in the Chinese culture as it is associated with wealth and prosperity. Some people, oddly enough, said they'd prefer Scotch without the snake and blossom graphics, although you'd think they could just buy plain old Kirkland Signature blended Scotch for a similar effect.

On Instagram, commenters complained about the price tag (this for a bottle selling for $48.99), but a few Redditors wanted the price to be even higher. They suggested that $88.88 would be appropriate, although for that high dollar amount, surely a higher-quality Scotch would be in order. Some floated the idea that 14-year-old Oban single malt would be appropriate, but Oban is a distillery located in Scotland as opposed to being a global retailer like Costco. For this reason, the company might be more likely to favor a special Hogmanay bottle than one with the Lunar New Year theme.