I am going to Madrid later this month and I want to bring a friend there some Jack Daniels. What are the rules on carrying spirits to Europe? How is it best to pack it?
According to this you can bring in 10 litres of spirits (liquor) into Spain. That’s Duty Free - bought at the airport with no tax to pay. If you buy the stuff and pay tax in the country of origin, I believe you can bring in shedloads more.
If you buy duty free you should be able to make the purchase in the airport and pick up on your arrival, though the rules may be different per airline, given the hand baggage restrictions.
You can either pack it in your checked luggage, or buy it in duty free at your departing airport.
One word of caution, If you buy at duty free and if your plane trip involves a stop and you have to clear security again without claiming your luggage, you may lose your bottle of Jack.
I apologise; that last cite was for EU => EU travel.
This covers non-EU.
If you can’t buy it duty-free, and have to pack it then I suggest bubble wrap, then a rigid box, then more bubble wrap, then tied inside a hermetically sealed plastic bag, then wrapped up in a load of t-shirts, then in another plastic bag.
jjimm’s advice is good if the OP buys the Jack Daniels at a stopover in the EU. The duty free allowance for passengers who come from outside the EU is only 1 litre.
Alternatively, you can buy it in Madrid… but the label will show it was bought there. Unless your friend is into JD specifically, a less-common brand may be a better idea.
AFAIK, 1 litre is more than one standard bottle of JD though.
Thinking about it, mind, JD is really common in Europe - maybe a more obscure sippin’ whisky would be better.
My immediate response, as well. It’s probably cheaper in Madrid, too.
Speaking of duty free booze. Whenever I am in airports waiting for my flights I browse the duty free shops. I see the liquor there is mostly sold in 1 liter bottles. Is this how it is sold in regular markets in Europe? In the states it is sold in .75 liter bottles and sometimes 1.5 liter bottles. I always thought it was a sneaky way to keep people from determining if the prices were better in the duty free shops.
Spirits are mostly sold in 700ml bottles, with 1 litre not impossible to find, at least of the mainstream brands and cheap crap.
Give it to me. I’ll carry it for you.
Interesting. Does wine come in .75 liter bottles or .7 liter bottles like the hard stuff?
The standard bottle of wine in Europe is 750ml (0.75l).
These are usually marked as 70cl. I can’t think of any other common use of centilitres.
The 1 litre bottles are common in duty-free shops because most countries have duty-free allowances in a whole number of litres, so it makes it easier for people to completely fill their allowance.
(One exception is Australia, where the duty-free allowance is 2.25 litres of booze, so you could fill that with three 750 ml bottles. Last time I entered Australia, I bought two 1-litre bottles, and a 200 ml bottle that the duty-free shop had at a special price. I accepted that I was wasting 50 ml of my allowance 
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Well, the person I am bringing it to, specifically wanted Jack Daniels. I want to know if I can also bring something I think is nicer too.
I’ve got a bottle of Czech beer marked as 50cl (I used ml to avoid going down this sideroad 
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Or to prevent people smuggling them somewhere in a body cavity 
In the supermarket you often see them in .75 liter bottles; some in 1 liter bottles. My WAG about the brands that are .75L in the supermarket but 1L in the Duty Free is that they do this because of the customs regulations… since most customs regulations list whole numbers, it’s easier if you equate liters to bottles than if you toss fractions. Having fractions in the duty free means that you get customers whining that if they buy one bottle, they’re carrying less than the allowance, and if they buy two it’s over the allowance.
Why would this bother people who are perfectly fine with buying 3/4L bottles while at home? Because people enjoy finding stuff to grouch about, of course… but that’s a different question.
I was able to find Jack Daniels in the liquor store in a 1 litre bottle. Thank you all for your help. I fly to Madrid tomorrow.