Cocktail cost calculator, with prep labor priced in
Type your own bottle costs. House syrups and cordials carry the minutes it took to make them.
The drink
What goes in
Bottles at your cost. For a syrup, cordial or orgeat you make, add a house-made item and enter its batch: prep labor is priced in.
- Bottle
Your drink
Add a bottle with its cost and a pour to see what the drink costs. A cost of 0 means nothing is entered yet.
How pour cost is figured
Pour cost is what a drink costs you divided by what you sell it for. Take the bottle price over the ounces in the bottle for each pour, multiply by the ounces in the drink, add the garnish, and divide by the menu price. A drink that costs $2.40 and sells for $12 runs 20 percent.
House syrups, cordials and orgeat cost more than their ingredients, because someone stood there and made them. This calculator takes the minutes of hands-on prep and an hourly wage, spreads that labor across what the batch makes, and puts it in the drink. A syrup with $3 of sugar and 10 minutes of prep at $20 an hour costs $6.33 a batch, not $3.
There is no price list here. You type your own bottle costs, because your prices are not anyone's average. Nothing is saved on a server. The link holds your drink, so copy it to keep it or send it to your bar manager.
Questions
- How do you calculate pour cost?
- Divide what the drink costs by what you sell it for. The drink cost is each pour (bottle price divided by the ounces in the bottle, times the ounces poured) plus the garnish. A $2.40 drink on a $12 menu price is a 20 percent pour cost.
- What is a good pour cost for cocktails?
- Many bars aim for roughly 18 to 25 percent on cocktails, but the right number depends on the program and the market. This calculator starts at a 20 percent target, and you can change it.
- Should house-made syrup include labor in the cost?
- Yes, if you want the true cost of the drink. Ingredients are only part of it, because someone spends minutes making each batch. Spread those minutes, at an hourly wage, across what the batch yields and add the result to the cost per ounce.
- How do I price a drink to hit a target pour cost?
- Divide the drink cost by the target. A drink that costs $2.40 with a 20 percent target comes out at a $12 menu price. This calculator shows that price for you.
Doing this for a whole menu? PourPar costs every drink, prep included.