Fifty people over four hours drink about 150 drinks. Two in the first hour, then one an hour after that. That is the number caterers plan against and it is close enough to build a shopping list from.
Split it a third spirits, a third wine, a third beer, and you will have almost exactly the right amount of everything.
The shopping list
| What | How much | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1.75 litre spirits | 2 bottles | about 78 drinks |
| Wine, 750ml | 10 bottles | about 50 glasses |
| Beer | 2 cases | 48 bottles |
| Mixers | 3 litres per spirit bottle | |
| Ice | 1 lb per person | 50 lb, and buy it last |
Two 1.75 litre bottles is the part people get wrong in both directions. It looks like far too much on the counter and it is almost exactly right.
Why big bottles, and by how much
A 1.75 litre bottle holds 59 ounces, which is 39 drinks at a standard pour. Espolon Reposado 1.75Lt at $65.99 works out at about $1.69 a drink. The same drink in an Atlanta bar is twelve to sixteen dollars.
Two 750ml bottles give you 32 drinks and cost more than one 1.75. There is no situation at this size where the small bottles win.
What to actually buy
Pick two spirits, not five. Espolon Reposado 1.75Lt and Bacardi Superior Rum Pet 1.75L covers margaritas, palomas, daiquiris and rum and cokes, and nobody at a party of fifty is going to miss the gin.
For wine, one red and one white, six and four. Meiomi Pinot Noir 750Ml is the red that offends nobody. Put Lamarca Prosecco D.O.C. 750Ml out at the start; people drink it fast and early and then move on.
Ice, and the mistake everyone makes
A pound a head sounds mad until you remember ice does two jobs: it chills bottles in tubs and it goes in glasses. Fifty pounds for fifty people. Buy it the day of, never the day before, and keep it in a cooler with the drain plug shut rather than in a freezer that cannot hold it.
Running out of ice ends a party faster than running out of alcohol, and it is the one item on this list you cannot improvise.
Glasses
Count on more glasses than guests. People put a drink down, lose it, and start again. Seventy-five for fifty people, and clear plastic is fine. Nobody has ever left a party early because of the glassware.
When to buy what
Spirits and wine can be bought a week ahead and they will not care. Beer is better bought within a few days so it is cold when it arrives. Ice is the day of, and only the day of.
Buy the mixers at the same time as the spirits. The single most common gap at a party of this size is running out of tonic or soda at ten o'clock, with fifty people in the house and nobody willing to leave.
If it is a wedding rather than a party
The numbers go up. A wedding runs five or six hours instead of four, and people drink more at one, so plan on four drinks a head rather than three. That is 200 drinks for fifty guests, and it shifts the split towards wine and sparkling because that is what gets poured during a sit-down meal.
Add one bottle of sparkling for every six guests if there are toasts. People take a glass, drink a third of it during the speeches, and put it down.
What is left over keeps
This is the real argument for spirits at a big party. An unopened bottle of tequila is worth the same next summer. Two cases of beer you over-bought are a problem you will still be solving at Christmas.
On our shelf right now
Prices and stock read from our own inventory when this page was built.