Bitter Math
or How Much Does it Cost to Use a Good Bitter vs. a Cheap One?

This is to settle an long standing question and try to at least attempt to frame a methodology for deciding on cost benefit analysis on cocktail ingredients. In plain English – just how much more does it cost to mix a cocktail from top shelf ingredients than bottom shelf artificial crap
As Gary Regan, famous author and bartender pointed out to me – I would have to analyze hundreds if not thousands of recipes to come up with an average serving for ingredients. So I rapidly abandoned that approach. Instead here are some calculations and formulas based on cost and quantities of bitters per drink. Depending on the measurements ( drops, dashes, ounces, etc.,) it is fairly easy to do the math. Below is a table showing yields:

If we round these off for the sake of simplicity,

So if you add up the ingredients based on this formula you get the total cost to compare a low end to high end cocktail. For more expensive ingredients, just add whatever increments you need (example: for a $40 bottle add the $10 and $30 together)

As bitters are usually in added as 2 – 3 dashes at most so anywhere from 12.5 ¢ to 38 ¢ cost (2 dashes) per drink difference between a $5 bottle of cheap stuff and a premium, like Urban Moonshine. So the price difference between the two runs between 25 ¢ per drink (based on two )

Personally I think my drink and my friends’ drinks are worth it.

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