Cocktail Recipe Scaling Calculator

Cocktail ratios are the proportional backbone of every classic drink. Learn the underlying ratio rather than the recipe and you can scale for any batch size, and substitute ingredients without guessing.

The classic 2:1:1 ratio (Sour family): 2 parts base spirit : 1 part sour (citrus) : 1 part sweet (syrup)

That is the skeleton the Daiquiri, Margarita and Whiskey Sour are all built on, though the modern versions have drifted off it. Bars pulled the sweet side back to about 0.75, because commercial syrups and supermarket citrus are sweeter than what the original ratios assumed. The Daiquiri and Whiskey Sour below are the pulled-back versions.

The Margarita is the exception, and it is worth knowing why before you scale ten of them. Its sweet side here is 0.75 oz of triple sec plus 0.25 oz of simple syrup, which adds up to a full part, so by the numbers it is still a straight 2:1:1. Triple sec is doing two jobs at once: it is sweetener and it is orange, and cutting it to 0.75 alone would take the orange out along with the sugar. Splitting the difference keeps the flavour and lets you tune the sweetness with the syrup. Leave the syrup out and you have the drier, sharper Margarita most bartenders actually pour.

Batch scaling formula: Amount per Ingredient = Single-drink amount × Number of servings

Worked example: Batch Margaritas for 10 people: The spec above, 2 oz tequila, 1 oz lime, 0.75 oz triple sec and 0.25 oz simple syrup, is 4 oz of liquid per drink before ice. For 10 people:

Tequila = 2 × 10 = 20 oz Lime juice = 1 × 10 = 10 oz Triple sec = 0.75 × 10 = 7.5 oz Simple syrup = 0.25 × 10 = 2.5 oz

Drop the quarter ounce of syrup and you get 2:1:0.75, which is where the Daiquiri and the Whiskey Sour sit. That version comes out sharper and drier. Both are defensible, and the syrup is the knob to turn: it is there to take the edge off supermarket limes, which are rarely as sweet as the ones the original recipe assumed.

Classic cocktail ratios reference:

The six the calculator scales, in oz per drink, exactly as the code has them:

A quarter ounce of syrup in an Old Fashioned is about one and a half teaspoons, and 0.08 oz of bitters is between two and three dashes. Both are worth measuring once so you know what your own pour looks like.

Three classics the calculator does not scale, for reference, because they are stirred spirit-only drinks you build in the glass rather than batch:

Dilution factor: Shaking with ice adds roughly 20–25% water to the finished drink. Stirring adds 15–20%. Those percentages are of the whole glass.

What you get below is the undiluted recipe, because how you dilute depends on how you serve it. Shaking each drink over ice handles it for you and needs no extra water at all.

For batching, the panel prints a dilution figure measured against a different base, so watch for it: 25% of the spirit volume, not of the whole drink. Dilution tracks the alcohol rather than the total liquid, which is why a spirit-heavy Old Fashioned needs proportionally more water than a Mojito that is already half soda and lime. It is the same convention the cocktail batch scaling calculator uses, and the panel prints the number alongside your recipe.