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Calculators

Party & servings calculator

Pick a cocktail, tell us how many guests, and get exact quantities, bottle counts and a printable shopping list.

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How this works

Almost every party runs out of one thing and over-buys another. The arithmetic is not hard, but it is easy to get wrong by eye, because the quantities that matter — ice, citrus, glassware — are not the ones people think about when they are buying spirits.

How many drinks to plan for

This page does not tell you how much anyone should drink, and the calculator does not assume a figure. Start from what you intend to make: the number of drinks of each recipe you are prepared to mix, which only you can judge from who is coming, who is driving, who is not drinking and how long people will stay.

Plan the alcohol-free drinks as properly as the rest — a real recipe in the same glass, not a carton of juice — and put water and food out from the start. Buy a small allowance over your figure for spills and remakes; that is what the wastage setting is for.

Ice is the thing people underestimate

Count ice per drink, not per guest. Most drinks use it twice — a shaker or mixing glass full to chill and dilute, which is then thrown away, and the ice in the glass — and ice in a bucket melts whether anyone is drinking or not. The calculator works it out by type for the drink you choose, with a fifth added for the bucket.

Running out of ice ends cocktail service completely. Running out of one spirit just changes what people drink.

Citrus and glassware

A lime yields roughly 25 to 30ml of juice and a lemon roughly 40 to 45ml, so a drink with 25ml of lime in it is close to one lime per drink. Buy more than the arithmetic says: some fruit is dry, and juicing to order takes longer than you think.

Count glasses at about 1.5 per person rather than one. People put drinks down and lose them, and washing up mid-party is a way to miss your own party.

A worked example: twenty guests, forty drinks

  • Say you have decided to make 40 of one cocktail for twenty guests. That figure is your choice; the arithmetic follows from it.
  • At 50ml of spirit per drink that is 2,000ml — three 700ml bottles, with 100ml to spare.
  • Ice, if each drink is shaken and served on cubes in a rocks glass: about 17kg — 200g to shake with, 150g in the glass, and a fifth for melt.
  • Limes, if every drink takes 25ml: 1,000ml of juice, which is 34 to 40 limes, so juice ahead or pick drinks that do not all need citrus.
  • Glasses: 30, or hire them.

What it does not account for

  • Who is driving, who is not drinking, and how many people arrive late — all of which move the total more than any rule of thumb.
  • Whether you are serving one drink or a menu. A single batched cocktail is far easier to buy for than four different ones.
  • Food, water and the alcohol-free options, which change the evening more than the spirit count does.
  • Bottle sizes, which vary by country and by product — check the label rather than assuming 700ml.