A single jug of margaritas mixed to the classic recipe contains 17.4 units of alcohol, more than the NHS advises anyone drink in an entire week, according to a new analysis of 103 classic cocktail recipes carried out by UK cocktail maker Boozy.
The analysis, based on the recipe database behind Boozy's free Cocktail ABV Calculator, measured every drink as served and found that 62 of the 103 classics, six in ten, contain at least two units of alcohol in a single glass. A third hold more alcohol than a 175ml glass of wine, and nine carry more than a pint of lager. UK Chief Medical Officers' guidance, in place since 2016, advises drinking no more than 14 units a week, spread across three or more days, which a shared jug of six margaritas exceeds on its own.
The strongest drinks in the glass are the short, spirit forward classics, the ones with no mixer to soften them. A Caipirinha and a Rusty Nail are both served at 40% ABV, effectively neat spirit strength, with the Vesper Martini at 37.5% and the Classic Martini at 36% close behind. The Sazerac lands at 35.4%, and the Godfather, Black Russian, Mint Julep and Old Fashioned all sit in the 33 to 35% band. Order any of them and you are holding a drink stronger than most whiskies are bottled at, just colder and better dressed.
Measured by total alcohol rather than concentration, the rankings reshuffle. The Sidecar tops the table at a flat three units per serve, followed by the Long Island Iced Tea at 2.93, the Margarita at 2.9, the Zombie at 2.81 and the Whisky Mac at 2.67. The Long Island is the study's most deceptive drink, mixing at just 15.4% ABV and tasting softer than almost anything else in the top ten, yet carrying more alcohol than a pint of lager, which holds around 2.6 units, or a large glass of wine at 2.1. Even the Espresso Martini, often treated as a gentle after-dinner pick-me-up, matches an Old Fashioned exactly at two units per glass.
At the other end of the scale sit the drinks Britain has been switching to. The Mimosa and Bellini are the lightest serves in the database at around one unit each, and the spritz family follows close behind, with the Aperol Spritz at 1.4 units and the Hugo Spritz at 1.6. That finding helps explain the summer's defining trend, because as UK drinkers move towards lighter, longer serves, the spritz delivers a proper drink at barely half the alcohol of the classics on the top table.
The jug is where the numbers turn serious. Scaling the classic margarita recipe to a jug for six produces 17.4 units, and a Long Island jug for six slightly more at 17.6, each comfortably past the 14-unit weekly guideline in a single vessel meant for one afternoon. Nobody pours a jug intending to drink a week's alcohol, which is rather the point: at jug scale, nobody is counting.
David Baddeley, founder of Boozy, said: "Nobody stands at a party measuring their cocktail in units, and that is exactly why we published this. A jug of margaritas for six holding more than the weekly guideline surprised even us. We are not telling anyone what to drink. We just think people deserve to know what is actually in the glass, which is the same reason every can we make states its strength on the front, and why the calculator does the jug maths for you before you pour."
The full dataset is free to explore in the Cocktail ABV Calculator, which shows the strength and unit count of more than 100 cocktails and rescales any recipe from a single glass to a party batch. Each drink also has a step by step version on the Boozy recipes blog with a card that scales every measurement instantly, including the margarita itself.
Methodology: figures are calculated from standard published recipes as served, using the ABV of each ingredient, excluding dilution from ice and garnishes, which means the in-glass figures for stirred and shaken drinks are slightly higher than what reaches the lips after melt. One UK unit equals 10ml of pure alcohol. Comparisons assume a 175ml glass of 12% wine and a 568ml pint of 4.5% lager. For advice on responsible drinking, visit drinkaware.co.uk.
