Cocktail ratio calculator
Two parts spirit, one part citrus, one part sweetener is the backbone of an enormous family of drinks: daiquiri, margarita, whisky sour, sidecar. Learning that one ratio and swapping the components covers more of a cocktail menu than memorising individual recipes ever does. The other classic is 3:2:1 for a slightly spirit-forward version, and 4:1:1 once you are into stirred territory.
For measuring drinks, not for advice about drinking them.
A cocktail ratio splits a total volume into parts. The classic 2:1:1 sour in a 90 ml drink is 45 ml of spirit, 22.5 of citrus and 22.5 of sweetener, and it finishes near 108 ml once shaking has added its dilution.
How to use a cocktail ratio
A ratio outlasts a recipe. Two parts spirit, one part citrus and one part sweetener is the skeleton of the daiquiri, the margarita, the whisky sour, the sidecar and a dozen others, so learning the shape and swapping the components covers far more of a menu than memorising individual drinks does. Shift the balance and you move along a spectrum rather than to a new drink: 3:2:1 is a touch more spirit-forward, 4:1:1 is heading toward stirred territory, and 8:2:1 gets you somewhere close to a dry martini. The old punch rhyme counts the other way round, one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak, which is a 4:3:2:1 ratio with water as a named ingredient.
Dilution is that named ingredient, and treating it as an accident is what makes home cocktails taste harsh. Shaking with ice adds roughly a fifth to a quarter of the drink’s volume as melt water while dropping the temperature sharply, and both halves of that matter to how it tastes. This uses 20 per cent, so a 90 ml build finishes near 108. Stirring dilutes less because it moves less ice against less surface, which is part of why a stirred drink tastes stronger from the same starting proportions. A batch that skips the step entirely is not a stronger version of the drink so much as an unfinished one, which is why pre-batched cocktails have water added deliberately and are then chilled rather than shaken.
The millilitres also let you work out what you have actually poured. Forty-five millilitres of a 40 per cent spirit contains 18 ml of ethanol, and in a 108 ml finished drink that is a shade under 17 per cent alcohol by volume, roughly the strength of a fortified wine served in a much smaller glass. Measured against the standard definitions, 18 ml of ethanol is about 1.8 UK units, where a unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol, or almost exactly one US standard drink, which is defined as 14 grams and works out at 17.7 ml. Scaling a batch multiplies that as faithfully as it multiplies everything else.
What people use it for
- Making a drink from a ratio when you have no recipe to hand
- Batching for a party without guessing at the water
- Scaling a drink to a different glass size
- Converting parts into millilitres or into jigger pours
- Working out what a drink actually contains in alcohol terms
- Rebalancing a drink that came out too sharp or too sweet
- Adapting a recipe written in ounces to a metric jigger
Questions
Two parts spirit, one part citrus, one part sweetener. It is the base of the entire sour family, from the daiquiri to the sidecar.
Whatever you decide, provided it stays the same across the drink. Enter a total volume and the panel works the part size out for you.
No. 2:1:1 and 4:2:2 describe the same drink. Only the proportions between the parts do anything.
Roughly 20 to 25 per cent of its volume in melt water. This uses 20, so a 90 ml build finishes near 108 ml.
Less, because there is less agitation and less broken ice. Expect somewhere nearer 15 to 20 per cent, which is part of why a stirred drink reads stronger at the same proportions.
Yes. Add about a fifth of the batch volume as water to stand in for the dilution shaking would have provided, then get it properly cold before serving.
Spirit-only stirred drinks keep for weeks refrigerated. Anything with fresh citrus in it is a different matter, since juice starts to dull within hours and is noticeably tired by the next day.
A 45 ml pour of a 40 per cent spirit carries 18 ml of ethanol, which in a 108 ml finished drink is a little under 17 per cent ABV.
About 1.8 UK units, since a unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol. It is also almost exactly one US standard drink, which is defined as 14 grams, or 17.7 ml.
Considerably. A 1:1 simple syrup and a 2:1 rich syrup are not interchangeable by volume, because the rich one carries around half again as much sugar per millilitre. A drink built for one and made with the other lands somewhere else.
Yes. Larger, colder, drier ice chills with less melting, so it dilutes less for the same amount of shaking. Small wet ice from a freezer tray does the opposite.
Around 90 ml before dilution for a shaken sour, or 60 to 75 ml for a stirred spirit-forward drink, which is served smaller because it is stronger.