Batch maths
The numbers behind every jug on this site.
Hosts guess at these, and the guesses are usually generous. Here is what we use, where it comes from, and the one table that answers "how many bottles".
The table
Pours per bottle
Whole glasses per bottle at each pour size, rounded down. Read across for the pour your recipe uses.
| Bottle | 25 ml | 45 ml | 60 ml | 90 ml | 125 ml | 150 ml |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparkling wine, 750 ml | 30 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 5 |
| Spirit, 700 ml (UK, EU) | 28 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
| Spirit, 750 ml (US) | 30 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 5 |
| Soda or ginger beer, 1 L | 40 | 22 | 16 | 11 | 8 | 6 |
Worked example: thirty guests, kir royale. 30 × 1.15 = 35 glasses × 115 ml of sparkling wine = 4.0 litres, which is six bottles with a little over. The kir royale page does that sum for any number.
The rules
Ten numbers, with their sources
One welcome drink per guest, plus a spare
Every jug on this site is scaled to one glass per guest with a 15% spare. Trade guidance sits around that: The Knot plans on one drink per guest per hour, America's Test Kitchen uses guests times hours plus one, and the UK hire firm Plato Hire allows 108 to 120 flutes per hundred guests for one glass on arrival. Fifteen percent is inside that range; if your guests are late and thirsty, make it twenty.
A quarter of the glasses without alcohol
UK wedding planners Purple Fizz plan for every guest to take a reception drink and a quarter of them to want a soft alternative. That is the split the finder uses when you choose "a mix", and it is why every drink here has an alcohol-free twin in the same glass.
Flutes to a bottle of sparkling wine
The champagne houses agree: Laurent-Perrier and Mumm both count six 125 ml flutes from a 750 ml bottle, and Moët notes that US restaurants often pour five ounces and get five. Our flute drinks are built on 125 ml; the spritzes use less wine per glass and stretch a bottle to eight, ten or twelve.
125 ml is the smallest legal measure for still wine by the glass in the UK under the Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1988; sparkling wine has no legal measure, so the flute is convention, not law.
Spirit bottles are not the same size everywhere
In the EU and the UK a bottle of gin, vodka or whisky is 700 ml; the standard US bottle is 750 ml, and 700 ml only became legal there in December 2020. Our bottle counts assume 700 ml and say so; a US host gets a little spare from every bottle.
Water in a batched spirit drink
A cocktail shaken or stirred with ice gains water as the ice melts: Difford's Guide measures roughly 25% from shaking and about 20% from stirring, and Punch advises adding 20 to 25% of the batch volume as water when a drink will be poured cold without ice. Bartender Tom Macy uses 20% for batches made two hours ahead and 15% plus ice for drinks poured straight away over ice. Our sours use 15% because they are poured over a large cube.
Only the spirit-and-citrus drinks need it. Sparkling drinks are diluted by the soda and the wine; long drinks by the ginger beer; sangria and mulled wine by their fruit and juice.
The lime juice window
Dave Arnold's blind tasting found lime juice squeezed four hours earlier beat juice squeezed on the spot, and Tales of the Cocktail puts the sweet spot at four to ten hours, after which bitterness climbs. Squeeze lime and lemon the afternoon of the party. Fridge life: lime one to two days, lemon two, orange two to three, grapefruit three to four.
Ice per guest
Drinks House 247 allows a kilo of ice per guest, two for a cocktail party or a warm day outdoors; Reddy Ice says one to two pounds a head. Ice goes in the glass, not the jug: a jug stored with ice keeps diluting, which is why Wine Enthusiast says to avoid adding ice during storage.
How full a jug really is
A jug is never poured to the brim: The Fabled Alchemist works at 85% capacity to leave room for stirring, fruit and carrying. Our "how many jugs" line uses that: a 1.5 L jug holds about 1.27 L of drink, which is ten 125 ml pours or eight at 150.
How far ahead
Batches with citrus keep two to three days refrigerated according to Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and taste best on the day the juice was squeezed. Spirit-only batches keep for weeks. Sangria improves overnight and is done after two days. Milk drinks like horchata are a 24-hour affair. Each drink's page carries its own "keeps" line.
Units
Millilitres first, ounces alongside
Every quantity is in millilitres because bar measures, bottle labels and recipes from the IBA are; fluid ounces sit next to them for US kitchens (1 fl oz is 29.6 ml, so 30 ml is a fair "one ounce"). Bottles are counted at 750 ml for wine and sparkling wine, 700 ml for spirits and 1 litre for soda.