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part 1 2 3 4 5 calculator recipes
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After wowing my friends and co-workers with the sandwich calculator, some started wondering about the price of homemade cocktails. You see, if you are bothering to make and bring a sandwich to work, maybe you should be mixing drinks at your desk instead of those $10 mojitos at Centerfolds on your lunch break. |
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For cocktails, the central ingredients are easy to figure. Gin, rum, tequila, vodka and whiskey come in 1.75 liter bottles. That converts to 59 ounces of alcohol, so a $13 bottle of plain rum divides down to 22 cents per ounce. That's the heart of any cocktail, and these first calculations are the easiest. |
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Essex Place Gin $11.99 - 20¢ per ounce |
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But you need more than just these five to make most cocktails. (Although you can come close to a Long Island Iced Tea)
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Cocktails get complicated very quickly. There are a ton of different drinks, and everyone seems to have a different idea of how they should be made. Browsing through recipes, a few ingredients keep popping up, such as triple sec and pineapple juice, but these are unique recipes, so they try to throw in unique ingredients. Triple sec $4.99 for a 750 ml bottle - 20¢ per ounce |
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Special liquor, such as vermouth and Kahlua, and mixing liquor, such as peach schapps and lemoncello, are sold in 750ml bottles, which is about 25 ounces. |
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One ounce is the basic building block of a cocktail recipe. I always thought that a shot glass held one ounce, but almost all of them hold more, probably because an ounce is such a teeny amount of liquid. Note the empty space on the top and bottom of this ounce. Flat-bottomed shotglasses, even little ones, often hold two ounces. |
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For this project, and the cocktail calculator which follows, I scouted prices in many locations, from Costco and Safeway to liquor stores and BevMo.
Mixing your own, choosing top shelf liquors is about twice as expensive, but almost always below $1 per ounce.
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Juice is a popular ingredient for cocktails. I was surprised to find so many different juices in common recipes. Cranberry Juice - 9¢/oz. Note that grape juice is not used for cocktails. |
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Soda is cheaper than juice, about two cents per ounce, with the exception of Red Bull: Coke - 2¢/oz. |
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Here are some of the common specialty cocktail ingredients, seen here on the actual top shelf. Grand Marnier $38.00 / 750 ml bottle - $1.52/oz.
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The more I looked, the more exotic and varied the ingredients became. Blueberry schnapps? Cherry Tequila? Finally, I drew the line. I settled on a working pool of 52 alcohols and mixers. |
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Check out these giant bottles of Cointreau. My margarita recipe calls for a half ounce, and it is the most expensive ingredient.
Total - $1.60
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To throw a cocktail party, you might try to buy a bottle of everything. It's impossible. Most people build up a bar full of ingredients over the course of many parties. Here's how: Go to a bunch of parties and steal one bottle from each. |
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My cocktail calculations were going well, but I had to try out these recipes in the field. After Nick's birthday dinner, we got some friends and liquor mixed together. |
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Meaghan got us started with Chocolate Cake shots: 1/2 oz. vodka - 11¢ Total - 66¢ |
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Kamakazis are more to my liking. 1 1/2 oz. vodka - 33¢ Total - 52¢ |
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Anna's vodka tonic. 1 oz. vodka - 22¢ Total - 42¢ |
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Comparing the taste of a regular White Russian versus one made with egg nog. 2 oz. vodka - 44¢ Total - $1.16 (egg nog extra) |
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Alisha adding some Chambord black raspberry liqueur to a glass of Champagne. Kir Royale: 4 oz. champagne - 96¢ Total - $2.58 |
I think this was an aborted attempt at a lemon drop after we realized there wasn't any lemon juice. 1 oz. vodka - 22¢ Total - 41¢
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I think Shannon tried one with pineapple juice. |
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But, then we found the lemon juice in the fridge. Lemon Drop: 1 oz. vodka - 22¢ Total - 41¢ |
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More lemon drops. |
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1 1/2 oz. vodka - 33¢ Total - 64¢
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Back to lemon drops. |
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Long Island Iced Teas. These things are a nightmare. Check out this recipe: 1 oz. gin - 20¢ Total $1.28 |
I almost can't believe these things are potable. Five ounces of liquor flavored with two? Whatever the opposite of a miracle is, this drink is it. |
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Nick demonstrates the addition of Angostura bitters to an old fashioned. 2 oz. whiskey - 50¢ |
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Nick and Victor. |
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I left out the cost of ice, but collected price information on the most popular garnishes. Some readers may recognize this list as the Chelsea Handler diet. |
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Garnishes add up. Depending on their size, the three olives in your drink might cost more than the Three Olives in your drink. |
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Now hold onto your cocktail onions, because I jammed all of this pricing information into an overly-complex cocktail-cost calculator on the next page. You'll be able to pull out a price for any drink you can think of, even those biblical ones they made Val order at her batchelorette party. But you don't need a calculator to reach this conclusion: You can save money by drinking cocktails at home. With any luck, you won't be the only one there. |
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I drink beer. It is easy to figure out how much beer costs. The same goes for wine.
Elite, or "top shelf" name brands are common for the five main liquors, gin, rum, tequila, vodka and whiskey. I think that is really weird. Wouldn't a top-notch orange juice make a bigger difference in the taste of a screwdriver than a top-notch vodka? 
A Cosmopolitan.
