The Nipyata is a booze filled piñata made for grownups. The Nipyata website says it is for adults who refuse to grow up.

Nipyata provided by brand representatives. All photos and opinions are my own and that of the team unless otherwise stated.

I received the Nip Colyata for review. I think it is supposed to look like a pineapple. It is currently listed on the website as sold out. Original listing price was $94.99 with current sale price listed at $74.99. That price includes 10 free nips (plastic mini liquor bottles) and a small assortment of candy stuffed inside the Nipyata. Each nip bottle comes with a fortune that you can customize.

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The Nipyata comes in a box with fun liquor themed games printed on the back. It also includes an eye blindfold and sturdy decorated stick to whack the stuffing right out of the Nipyata. The Nipyata website says 20 feet of twine comes with the box for easy hanging, but my box lacked the twine. Luckily I had some leftover from a craft project.

Nipyata or Build Your Own Boozy Piñata?

Before blasting the liquor filled piñata to bits, I wanted to see if there were comparable products on the market. Omaha is home to Oriental Trading Company. They sell empty piñatas online. We also have a Nobbies party store that is super convenient to stop in for celebrations year round. Oriental Trading and Nobbies both have a large selection of piñatas that are comparable in size to the one I received.

Comparable empty piñatas are priced at $14.99 in store and online. Nobbies also has the exact eye blindfold ($1.49) and comparable piñata buster stick ($4.99). Mini plastic liquor bottles run about $1.25 at my local liquor store. Some higher end liquors cost around $2.99. The Nipyata I received contained 10 mini liquor bottles. Let’s assume the assortment of 10 minis includes higher and lower priced bottles. Ten bottles within the $1.25 and $2.99 range averages out to $2.12 per bottle ($21.20 total for 10). An assorted bag of candy comparable to the candy inside the Nipyata sells for $3.00 a bag at the grocery store as of the day of this writing.

If we put together our own Piñata comparable to the Nipyata sent for review, we would have spent $45.67 plus tax. The Nobbies I priced product at is in the same shopping center with a grocery store with onsite liquor department. Two quick in and out visits locally means no shipping, no waiting on product to arrive that has to be signed for by an adult 21 years of age or older (because there’s liquor in there), and a much larger selection of piñatas to choose from. We could also add more mini liquor bottles (up to 25 total) if we wanted to. Nipyata charges $20 to add an extra 10 bottles to the piñata. That averages out to $2 per extra bottle.

According to the Nobbies website, a comparable piñata to the one we tested will hold approximately 2 pounds of filler.

The money saved to build our own booze filled piñata ($45.67) or buy a Nipyata (originally $94.99) is a whopping $49.32. If you don’t have a local party store available to buy an empty piñata, Nobbies standard shipping rate is $9.99. That is still less expensive that buying a Nipyata online.

Team Thoughts on the Nipyata

This was a fun little experiment. The team got to do something a little different than taste wine and spirits. We got a little outdoor time. And we have blackmail photos of everyone wearing the cute little blindfold while swinging at air.

Team consensus:

• The Nipyata is way over-priced. Sure, someone is running a business on the other end and they need to make money. But it is half the price to build your own and really not that much trouble to do so.
• The Nipyata lost its top within 5 minutes of being whacked with the piñata buster stick. That’s 5 minutes of so-so fun for what would have originally been a $94.99 price tag.
• The Nipyata was definitely solid and put up a good fight to keep its goodies to itself. We finally broke it after a half dozen whacks. We were disappointed that it broke at the neck instead of somewhere in the body. It landed on the ground with a thud with nary a candy or liquor bottle spilling from it. The team was disappointed that it didn’t break apart or spill the prizes. So we rigged the top to hang it again and tried once again to break it apart. The top only ripped more and once again it fell to the ground keeping hold of all its goodies. We gave up the ghost, came inside, and poured it all out on the counter instead.

(Read a few tips on how to reinforce the top of a piñata.)

• After some discussion (and laying claim to a few nips and noshes) we decided it is a fun idea, but not so fun in its execution. We could also build one for less money with a wider range of piñatas, minis and candies to choose from.

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All content ©2017 Cheri Loughlin, The Intoxicologist. All Rights Reserved. Chat with Cheri @TheIntoxicologist on Instagram and facebook.com/Intoxicologist

Cheri Loughlin is the Omaha writer and photographer behind www.intoxicologist.net. Email Cheri with comments and questions at str8upcocktails at gmail.com.