We've examined the steins from Taverncraft's Epic Collection along with their Tankard O' Terror replica, broken them down, and have selected our favorites out of the entire mix!

Every gamer loves his canned and bottled beverages. Whether its Mountain Dew or Jack Daniel’s, we’ve never met someone that has a penchant for gaming who avoided processed drinks. Still, every gamer has his or her own drink of choice and sometimes that drink of choice isn’t exactly the most… shall we say “dwarven”… of beverage selections. Believe it or not, we do have individuals on our staff that love to play through their favorite MMO with a nice cup of hot cocoa in hand.

So how does a gamer hide his love of the frou-frou drink? With a World of Warcraft stein! Of course, there are lots of other reasons to get one of the epically emblazoned, three pound monsters if you have the money to spare, but the ZAM staff thought it would be reasonable to check out each of the Taverncraft products and help discover the item that’s best for you!

We've examined the steins from Taverncraft's Epic Collection along with their Tankard O' Terror replica, broken them down, and have selected our own favorites out of the entire mix! Read on for our final talley on each product!

To start, we thought we’d pull out the stein that sticks closest to the current events transpiring in the actual World of Warcraft: the Rise of the Lich King. Just like the rest of the Epic Collection steins, Rise of the Lich King stands over 10” tall, is a meaty three pounds, and shows off a lovely pewter lid.

But you could’ve gotten all that from the website break down, right? What we can tell you, after looking face-to-stein at the Lich King’s searing gaze, is that the vessel is rather impressive and – to be honest – quite horrifying (in a good way) to look at. Along with the Lich King, what appear to be Sindragosa and Ick make featured appearances on the stein, along with several general monsters from the Lich King’s scourge forces. On the bottom of the stein is the standard 3 Point Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment branding, which *could* come in handy if you get so inebriated (from the huge size of the stein) that you forget what the mighty stoneware mug is actually called. Also assisting the more intoxicated gamers is a fantastic pewter lid, which features carved detailing of Azeroth, some runic symbols, and the memorable "W" from our favorite game.

Unfortunately, this stein is isn't quite perfect. While the ZAM editors could never paint as well as the magnificent Alex Horley, this stein just doesn’t have the same sort of clean lines and iconic characterization that can be seen on the other steins in the Epic Collection. Yes, the Lich King is emblazoned on the front. Yes, he has several of his top lackeys surrounding him. But Alex could have done so much more! Where’s the actual citadel in this picture? What about the Frozen Throne? Perhaps he could’ve used the mug to tell the story of Arthas – albeit a much smaller version – rather than displaying the Lich King’s ugly cronies. Or he could’ve featured the Lich King alone, standing just as he does when he calls forth Sindragosa.

But, the Rise of the Lich King stein does a number of things well to counterbalance some of the disappointments in the actual image. The handle scores a lot of points by being a nice ergonomically rounded handhold rather than the clunkier handles that appear on the Horde and Alliance mugs. The base has quite a bit of character itself, with the macabre death’s head skulls (fanged at that!) wrapped around the bottom. The coloring on the piece is also quite nice, despite the fact that the artist had to work from a selection of grays and blues and whites. And, as with all the Epic Collection steins, the Rise of the Lich King can hold 28 oz. of fluid (over two soda cans!) before you’ll have to worry about spilling. And that’s what the lid is for…

Taking all of the above into account, the Rise of the Lich King stein is this editor’s least favorite stein in the entire Epic Collection. While it certainly has its merits, between the artwork and the lack of truly iconic characters (besides the Lich King) we couldn’t put the Lich King stein high on our list. Thankfully, our search for the best Taverncraft stein gets much, much more difficult next week, so make sure you check back in with us then! And, if you're interested in learning more about the steins, you can find them at WoWsteins.com or over at our sister site!