Are you planning a cocktail party, celebration or reception and need to know how much alcohol to buy and what supplies to have on hand? You’ll get an estimate of how much and what to stock by using this calculator, which incorporates statistics released in 2012 based on american drinking preferences gathered from the Census Bureau and Gallup.
The general rule of thumb for serving alcoholic beverages is to expect your guests to consume 2 drinks the first hour of the party and 1 drink every additional hour. Heavy drinkers will drink more…light drinkers will drink less…so they will balance each other out. Anticipate needing 6 ounces of mixer for each cocktail and one 2-liter bottle of soda for every 5 people. Don’t forget garnishes such as cocktail olives and onions, lemon and lime slices, coarse salt and maraschino cherries. Mixers should be equal portions of ginger ale, water, and fruit juices (orange, cranberry and grapefruit).
