How many shots come out of a bottle?

Figuring out how many shot glasses you can fill with a bottle can be critical to moving a celebration forward or letting it go.

Think about this situation: You celebrate your birthday. The house is full of guests. Some of them you haven’t seen for a long time.

A day to remember, no doubt. Pictures, smiles, stories, happiness floats in the air.

Suddenly, someone comes up to you and says: No more drinking.

No more drinking, in the middle of the night, with spirits at their highest, produces an unbearable drop.

But we want to free you from that nightmare and let you in on an infallible secret, used by all bartenders in the world, to calculate the quantities you must buy and how many shots come out of a bottle.

Where do we start? How many shots come out of a bottle…

A shot is a small drink that is served in miniature crystal glasses. Usually it’s all consumed in one gulp.

In Spain -some restaurants and hotels- they have the custom of giving a shot of liquor to their guests after lunch.

In this case, the shot that is served can be coffee liqueur, pomace, lemon liqueur, or herbal distillates, those that are believed to stimulate and support digestion.

The measures of the shots are always around 1 oz and there you have the most important data of the formula.

If a bottle, regardless of the liquor, has 31 oz, how many shots come out of a bottle: you can get up to 30 shots without any inconvenience.

Formula for calculating drinks

Now, when you don’t want to resort to shots but prefer to have more traditional drinks, the measurements change.

Depending on the drink you are going to consume, the amount of drinks can change.

For example, if you choose to drink rum, gin, vodka or whiskey, you can get up to 18 drinks from each bottle.

If you prefer much stronger drinks, such as tequila or aguardiente, the measure amounts to 24 drinks per bottle.

How many bottles of wine do I need?

You might want to make a toast at the beginning of the celebration. Let’s see how much a bottle of champagne or wine yields.

For a toast with white wine or champagne, you can have up to 9 glasses per bottle.

If you wish to serve red wine, the estimate is up to 8 glasses per bottle.

Perfect measurement, but how do I calculate how much liquor to buy?

So far so good, right? But you still need to calculate the number of bottles you need to buy for your party.

For the toast, we said that you can extract up to 9 glasses for each bottle.

So, if you have 20 guests, you’ll need 20 glasses for the toast. You should buy three bottles of champagne or white wine. You’ll have a few drinks left for those who wish to repeat.

For young people, we calculate 6 to 7 drinks per person during the evening. For the most adult, it is calculated between 4 and 5.

Let’s say that most of the guests are young and we have 7 drinks per person on average.

We calculate: 20 guests at 7 drinks per person, giving us a total of 140 drinks during the night.

Each bottle of vodka, which will be the drink for my party, gives me up to 18 drinks, so I need -at least- 8 bottles to guarantee the minimum consumption of your guests.

Of course, this is all an estimate and will depend – to a large extent – on the drinking habits of your guests. There will always be one that consumes slower and another with more absorption power than a sponge.

Shot ideas

At this point you know how many shots come out of a bottle and you can calculate measurements. Now we leave you with a video from the YouTube Drinking Rules channel, where they give you ideas for making 5 shots in less than a minute. Cheers!

Warning: Shots can erase history

The shots, being small, give the impression that little alcohol is being consumed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Each shot is loaded with pure liquor and usually without diluent. You should be very careful when drinking alcohol and avoid driving after the party.

On the other hand, if you are organizing your party and want to avoid breaking or losing the glasses your grandmother gave you, the best option is to buy disposable cups and glasses.

At Monouso we have an extensive catalogue of disposable cups and glasses that will help you to preserve your family’s jewellery and make it easier for you to clean up after the party.

We invite you to discover our offers in cups and disposable glasses, the ideal complement for your dream celebration.

If you want to give an interesting twist to the party, you can decorate the plastic cups with elements unique to each guest. So you’ll make them feel part of your celebration.