Breville BSM600SIL Smoking Gun, Handheld Food and Cocktail Smoker, Silver

Why it's worth it

The Breville Smoking Gun is a battery-powered handheld smoker with a removable burn chamber and a flexible silicone tube. It works on cocktails, but it also cold-smokes butter, cheese, fish, and even ice cream, which no chimney lid can do.

This is the one kit here that does more than cocktails. A chimney lid smokes whatever is directly under it, and that's it. The Breville pushes cold smoke down a silicone tube, so you can aim it into a glass, a zip bag of cheese, a bowl of butter, or a covered dish of salmon. If you cook at all, that flexibility is worth more than a prettier box.

It runs on four AA batteries, which Breville includes. No butane, no refills, no worrying about whether you can bring it on a plane. You load a pinch of chips in the burn chamber, hold a lighter to them, switch the fan on, and smoke comes out the tube in a few seconds. That's a real advantage if you're buying this for someone who isn't going to enjoy shopping for fuel.

From our review of 6 cocktail smoker kits, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +This is the one kit here that does more than cocktails
• +It runs on four AA batteries, which Breville includes
• +There are two fan settings, and you'll use both
• +Cleaning is where this kit earns its keep over time

What to know

• –It's a plastic-bodied gadget, and it looks like one
• –The fan makes a buzzing whir while it runs
• –You still need a lighter or torch to ignite the chips — the gun supplies the airflow, not the flame