How to create a cocktail menu for an event

A good event cocktail menu has 5–8 drinks with different bases and flavours, 1–2 alcohol-free cocktails and recipes that each take no more than 45 seconds to make. Work out the cost per serve in advance and batch the most popular drinks. Below: how to balance the list, test speed, what to batch and how to lay out the printed menu.

How many cocktails should be on the menu?

Put 5–8 cocktails on a full cocktail bar, and 3–4 plus 1–2 signatures when the main bar is wine, beer and spirits. Every extra drink means more bottles, more garnish and more of the bartender's time explaining at the counter.

As a guide:

• Up to 50 guests, 1 bartender — 5–6 cocktails.
• 100 guests, 2–3 bartenders — 6–8 cocktails, 2–3 of them quick builds.
• 150+ guests — no more than 6, half of them batched.

How do I balance the menu?

Balance by flavour and base, not by popularity. A simple 7-drink framework:

Three more rules:

• No more than two cocktails on the same base. Otherwise one bottle runs out and the rest stay full.
• Shared ingredients. Lime, sugar syrup and mint should each serve 2–3 drinks. That shortens the shopping list and frees space on the counter.
• One sweet, one bitter, one sour. A menu of three sweet fruity cocktails gets tiring fast.

How do I check preparation speed?

Time every recipe: at peak, a bartender should hand over a cocktail in 30–45 seconds. Rough times by technique:

In practice, a bartender at peak makes 60–80 simple long drinks an hour or 30–40 shaken cocktails. Three drinks at 60–90 seconds each mean a visible queue at 100 guests. The fix: replace muddling with a batch, turn the drink into a build, or drop it. Bartender numbers are covered in our wedding bar guide.

What can be batched in advance?

Batch anything that holds its flavour for a few hours:

• Stirred, spirit-forward drinks (negroni, manhattan) — mix into bottles, add 20–25% water for dilution and keep cold. Example: a negroni at 30 + 30 + 30 ml plus 20 ml water = 110 ml per serve; 50 serves = 5.5 l.
• Sour mixes — juice, syrup and aquafaba if used, mixed on the day, with freshly squeezed juice only.
• Syrups and infusions — 1–3 days ahead, in clean labelled bottles.
• Garnish — wedges and twists cut 1–2 hours before start and kept cold under a damp cloth.

Do not batch sparkling wine or fizzy mixers; add them only when serving. Label every bottle with name and date — in the dark behind the bar, that prevents mistakes.

Which alcohol-free cocktails should I include?

Include at least 2 alcohol-free drinks: one grown-up, not sweet (for example tonic with grapefruit and rosemary, or an alcohol-free spritz), and one fruity option for children. Serve them in the same glasses with the same garnish as the alcoholic drinks: a guest who is driving should not look like they are "on juice" in the photos.

How do I calculate cost per serve?

Cost per serve is bottle price ÷ bottle volume in ml × ml in the recipe for each ingredient, plus garnish, ice and straw. A spritz at typical buying prices, excl. VAT:

Do this for every drink. For an all-inclusive package, the average cocktail cost × drinks per guest (see how much alcohol per guest) gives you the drinks cost per head. How that becomes a price is covered in mobile bar pricing.

How should I name cocktails and design the printed menu?

Keep names short and clear, and list 3–4 main ingredients under each. A guest at the counter should know what they are getting within 5 seconds. Give signatures names tied to the couple, company or venue; leave classics with their usual names.

The printed menu:

• A5 or a tent card on the bar, 5–8 drinks;
• large type (14 pt or more) — bars are often dark;
• alcohol-free drinks and allergens marked (nuts, egg white, lactose);
• in Riga, LV and EN, with RU on request;
• no prices for all-inclusive events.

Run a tasting with the client before the event: it is standard practice in Latvia and the best moment to change a drink before the bottles are bought.

Cocktail menu checklist

• 5–8 drinks, no more than two on one base.
• Different flavours: sparkling, sour, refreshing, spirit-forward, signature.
• 1–2 alcohol-free drinks.
• Every recipe timed, 45 seconds or less on average.
• Batches for stirred drinks and sours, labelled bottles.
• Cost per serve for every drink.
• Printed menu with ingredients and allergens.

How this works in Garnify

In Garnify, you can upload recipes from Excel, a PDF or a photo through AI import, and they are sorted into place. The menu and bar setup are attached to the event, so the whole team sees the same thing and knows what to make.