Cocktail pour cost is the share of a drink's menu price that goes to the ingredients in the glass. If a drink sells for 16.00 and costs 2.23 to make, its pour cost (CMV, as it is called in Brazil) is about 14%. The division is easy. Getting the number right is harder, because most mistakes happen before the division: in the recipe, in the purchase prices and in what gets left out.
This guide walks through the calculation one step at a time, with three drinks run through the CostFlow engine. The examples use a fictitious bar with fictitious purchase prices, in Brazilian reais; the math is the same in any currency.
What cocktail pour cost measures
The formula has one line:
Pour cost = cost of the drink ÷ menu price
It is a ratio, not an amount of money. A pour cost of 20% means that for every 100 the guest pays, 20 goes to ingredients. The rest has to cover staff, rent, energy, taxes and, at the end, profit.
Use the same menu price basis for every drink: before or after sales tax, but always the same. And count everything that goes into the glass, not only the spirits. Mixers, citrus, sugar, garnish and ice are part of the drink.
Step 1: Write the recipe spec
You cannot cost a drink that changes every time it is made. Start with a written spec: each ingredient, the exact pour, and the unit (ml, g or each). The cost you calculate is what the drink costs when it is made as written. List the garnish and the ice too; both are often forgotten. For what a complete card should hold, see the cocktail recipe card template.
Step 2: Cost each line of the recipe
For each ingredient, the line cost is:
Line cost = pour × package price ÷ package size
Use the price you actually pay your supplier, and the size of the package you buy. A 750 ml bottle of gin that costs 60.00 gives:
50 ml × 60.00 ÷ 750 ml = 4.00
Round each line to the cent, line by line, and only then add the lines. This is how the CostFlow engine does it. Rounding only at the end gives slightly different totals.
For a lime bought by the unit, the line is the number of limes times the price of one. For sugar bought by the kilo, convert grams: 15 g from a 1 kg bag at 5.00 is 15 × 5.00 ÷ 1,000 = 0.075, which rounds to 0.08.
Step 3: Add an allowance for operational waste
No bar uses 100% of what it buys. Some liquid stays in the jigger, some citrus is discarded, a drink gets spilled. A recipe cost with no allowance for this is lower than the real cost.
The engine adds 5% on top of the ingredient total, not on the ice. Five percent is the setting in this example, not a rule; your real waste may be higher or lower. How much it changes the result is covered in bar waste and pour cost.
Step 4: Cost the ice
Ice is cheap per gram, but a drink uses a lot of it. Treat it as its own line. In the example, a 5 kg bag costs 15.00, so 120 g costs 120 × 15.00 ÷ 5,000 = 0.36.
Step 5: Divide by the menu price
Add ingredients, waste allowance and ice. That is the cost of the drink. Divide it by the menu price, and you have the cocktail pour cost.
Worked example: three drinks
Purchase prices: cachaça 1 l at 20.00; lime at 0.50 each; sugar 1 kg at 5.00; ice 5 kg at 15.00; gin 750 ml at 60.00; tonic water 350 ml at 4.00; red bitter 750 ml at 60.00; sweet vermouth 750 ml at 40.00.
Caipirinha, menu price R$ 16.00
| Line | Calculation | Cost (R$) |
|---|---|---|
| Cachaça, 60 ml | 60 × 20.00 ÷ 1,000 | 1.20 |
| Lime, 1 | 1 × 0.50 | 0.50 |
| Sugar, 15 g | 15 × 5.00 ÷ 1,000 = 0.075 | 0.08 |
| Ingredients | 1.78 | |
| Waste allowance, 5% | 1.78 × 5% | 0.09 |
| Ice, 120 g | 120 × 15.00 ÷ 5,000 | 0.36 |
| Cost of the drink | 2.23 |
Pour cost: 2.23 ÷ 16.00 = 13.94%.
Gin & tonic, menu price R$ 28.00
| Line | Calculation | Cost (R$) |
|---|---|---|
| Gin, 50 ml | 50 × 60.00 ÷ 750 | 4.00 |
| Tonic water, 150 ml | 150 × 4.00 ÷ 350 | 1.71 |
| Ingredients | 5.71 | |
| Waste allowance, 5% | 5.71 × 5% | 0.29 |
| Ice, 220 g | 220 × 15.00 ÷ 5,000 | 0.66 |
| Cost of the drink | 6.66 |
Pour cost: 6.66 ÷ 28.00 = 23.79%.
Negroni, menu price R$ 32.00
| Line | Calculation | Cost (R$) |
|---|---|---|
| Gin, 30 ml | 30 × 60.00 ÷ 750 | 2.40 |
| Red bitter, 30 ml | 30 × 60.00 ÷ 750 | 2.40 |
| Sweet vermouth, 30 ml | 30 × 40.00 ÷ 750 | 1.60 |
| Ingredients | 6.40 | |
| Waste allowance, 5% | 6.40 × 5% | 0.32 |
| Ice, 120 g | 120 × 15.00 ÷ 5,000 | 0.36 |
| Orange peel garnish | not costed in this example | 0.00 |
| Cost of the drink | 7.08 |
Pour cost: 7.08 ÷ 32.00 = 22.13%.
The example leaves the orange peel at zero to keep the table short. A real recipe card should cost the garnish, like any other line.
Common mistakes
- Leaving out ice and garnish. Each is small. Across a whole menu, they are not.
- Using old purchase prices. If the gin went up last month and the card still has the old price, the pour cost on paper is lower than the real one.
- Mixing units. A price per liter with a pour in ml needs the conversion. Write the package size next to every price.
- Costing the drink as the team "usually" makes it. Cost the spec. If the bar pours more than the spec, that shows up as a gap between theoretical and actual cost; see theoretical vs actual pour cost.
- Ignoring waste. A cost with zero allowance assumes a perfect bar.
What is a good pour cost?
There is no single right number. Typical ranges vary by concept, by country, by price level and by the kind of drink. A high-volume bar with simple long drinks and a small cocktail bar with house-made ingredients will not land in the same place.
A more useful question is whether each drink sits where you want it. That is what a target pour cost is for. Turning a target into a price is the subject of how to price cocktails.
See the calculation in the engine
The three drinks above come from the CostFlow engine, the tool Ambar uses to cost every drink from its recipe spec and purchase prices. You can see the same example on the CostFlow engine page.