How Much Whiskey for a Party?

Whiskey Planning Guide

Whiskey pours like other spirits on paper, about 16 to 17 drinks from a 750ml bottle at 1.5 ounces, but it drinks slower in practice. Sipping whiskey, neat or on the rocks, gets nursed over much longer than a mixed vodka drink, so a bottle often stretches further than the raw count suggests. Plan two drinks per whiskey drinker over an event as a starting point, and lean toward the lower end of your estimate for a crowd that is sipping rather than mixing. This is the one spirit where buying slightly less than the cocktail math implies usually still leaves you with extra.

Split your whiskey budget by how it will be used. Buy an inexpensive but solid bourbon as your mixing and cocktail bottle, since it stands up to cola, ginger ale, and an Old Fashioned without anyone noticing the price. Reserve a single nicer bottle, a small-batch bourbon or a scotch, for the guests who drink it neat, and keep it slightly aside rather than on the open bar. A 60/40 split toward the mixing bottle covers most crowds, because mixed drinks always outpace neat pours at a party.

Stock the bar around the two or three classics whiskey guests actually order. For highballs you need cola and ginger ale, roughly one liter of each per bottle of whiskey; for an Old Fashioned you need bitters, sugar or simple syrup, and a jar of cherries; and for anyone drinking it straight you want good clear ice in large cubes, which melts slower and dilutes less than crushed. Proper rocks glasses are a small touch that noticeably raises how the same whiskey is perceived, so borrow or buy a set if you are serving it as a feature.