> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ciaran-murray.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ten drinks. Every one costed. - URL: https://www.ciaran-murray.com/ten-drinks-every-one-costed/ - Published: 2026-10-28T09:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T09:30:00.000Z - Description: The fortieth Dingle Bay Fizz on a Saturday has to taste like the first. It also has to cost the same. Here's the list a bar can run, every drink costed. - Author: Ciaran Murray - Tags: People & Craft The fortieth Dingle Bay Fizz on a Saturday has to taste like the first. It also has to cost the same. The first is training. The second is arithmetic, the half of the list most bars never finish. ## Where the drink came from The best drinks I've made began in a tea shop in the English Market in Cork. I'd gone in for something else, caught the smell of a cherry pie hibiscus loose leaf across the counter, and had to try it. It went home with me. At Brick Lane it became the base of two cocktails: the Dingle Bay Fizz, Dingle Gin and elderflower over the tea; and the Rebel's Fashioned, bourbon stirred with cherry and hibiscus syrup. The full story is in [the drinks, the people and the places](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/the-drinks-the-people-and-the-places/). ![Dried hibiscus flowers on a grey stone surface.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/1-body-2.jpg) Photo: montatip lilitsanong on Unsplash That's the part people like hearing. Here's the part that keeps the bar open. ## Ten is a list. Twenty-five is a stockroom. Ten drinks is a list a new bartender can make without the book inside a fortnight. Ten means every bottle on the back bar can earn its place in at least two drinks, so nothing stands there gathering dust, and the weekly stocktake is a page, not a chapter. Make one of the ten a drink with no alcohol in it, built with the same care, so the driver gets the night too. ## Spec it to the millilitre Every drink goes on its sheet in millilitres, not in "a good pour". The law is quieter on this than people think. In Ireland, the National Standards Authority says there is no specific law requiring a publican to sell drink in fixed quantities. The 35.5 every Irish bar knows is a measure on its list, not a quantity the law forces on you. What it does insist on is that a declared measure is poured in full. In Britain a straight gin, rum, vodka or whisky goes out at 25 or 35 millilitres, or a multiple. The moment it becomes one of three liquids in a glass, the Order steps back. Inside a cocktail, the only measure that exists is the one on your sheet. Write it down. ![A bartender measuring a spirit with a jigger over a mixing glass.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/2-body-6.jpg) Photo: Michael Odelberth on Unsplash ## Cost it after VAT Then cost it after VAT, on the current invoice price. The sum is worked through in [Wet GP explained](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/wet-gp-explained/); here it is in one line. A €16 drink in Cork is €13.01 to the house once the 23 per cent VAT is gone; a £16 drink in Inverness is £13.33 after 20 per cent. At 75 per cent GP the Cork drink has €3.25 to spend on everything in the glass, ice and garnish included. The sheet has four columns: ingredient, millilitres, cost per millilitre, line cost. Below the line, two numbers: what the drink costs and what it earns. A bartender in their first week should be able to pick up any sheet and read both. ## Batch what keeps. Build what doesn't. Batching is how ten drinks get made fast on a Saturday. The parts that keep get made by the litre and labelled with the contents, the date and the recipe: a house syrup, a tea brewed strong and kept cold. The parts that don't keep get built at the glass: citrus, which turns inside a day, and anything with bubbles, which die in the bottle. ![A row of labelled bottles of syrups and infusions.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/3-body-6.jpg) Photo: Sandra Luimes on Unsplash A batch is costed like a drink: the litre costs what its ingredients cost, divided by the serves, and that figure goes on the sheet. "Roughly a bottle and a good splash" isn't a spec, and the week the splash gets generous is the week the GP slips with nobody to blame. ## The card on the menu At Brick Lane every menu carried a cocktail-of-the-week card, so a guest could picture the glass before it arrived. A card like that does three jobs. It sells the drink before the server opens their mouth. It names what's in it, so the question about allergens or sweetness is half answered. And it points the room at the drink you've batched and costed, the one you most want to sell forty of. ![A printed drinks card on a dark bar table.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/4-body-6.jpg) Photo: Karen Z on Unsplash ## The guide for the team Then the guide, so the fortieth one on a Saturday tastes like the first. What goes on the page, one page per drink: the glass, the ice, the spec in millilitres, the method, the garnish, a photograph, the one sentence to say at the table, and the two numbers at the foot. Taste it together at the briefing, so everyone knows what right tastes like. Let the new starter make it in front of the manager before they make it for a guest. ## The last line on the sheet Nobody makes a drink bigger without a price review. It belongs on the last line of every spec sheet, and it's the one most often broken with the best intentions, because a bartender's kindness is a longer pour. Say the spirit in a drink costs the house €2 at 50 millilitres. Make it 60 and it's €2.40\. The €3.25 drink is now €3.65, and 75 per cent is 72\. Nobody noticed, because it tasted better. If the drink needs to be bigger, change the spec and the price on the same day. That's the review. ## For the owner Ask for the sheets. If your list has drinks on it that have never been costed on a current invoice, what you have is a set of promises. Ten costed drinks, a card, a guide and a last line is a list a bar can run on the fortieth Saturday as well as the first. It's also where the GP you quote and the GP you have meet. ![A stirred bourbon cocktail over ice with an orange twist.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/5-body-6.jpg) Photo: Paige Ledford on Unsplash **Bar managers:** how many drinks are on your list, and could your newest starter make them all without the book? Tell me in the comments on LinkedIn, or hit reply if this came to you by email. New here? My Monday stories and Thursday craft notes can come straight to your inbox: [subscribe free](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/#/portal/signup). Thursday: Snap-Apple Night, and why Halloween tastes of Cork. ### References - National Standards Authority of Ireland (n.d.) *Capacity Serving Measures*, Legal Metrology. Available at: [nsai.ie](https://www.nsai.ie/legal-metrology/enforcement-information/inspection-types/capacity-serving-measure/?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). - United Kingdom (1988) *The Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1988*, SI 1988/2039, art. 3, as amended. Available at: [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/2039/article/3?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 21 October 2026). - Revenue Commissioners (2026) *Standard rate of VAT*. Available at: [revenue.ie](https://www.revenue.ie/en/vat/vat-rates/what-are-vat-rates/standard-rate-vat.aspx?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - HM Revenue & Customs (n.d.) *VAT rates*. Available at: [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - Murray, C. (2026) 'Wet GP explained, for a new bartender and for an owner', ciaran-murray.com, 23 October. Available at: [ciaran-murray.com](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/wet-gp-explained/). - Murray, C. (2026) 'The drinks, the people and the places', ciaran-murray.com, 28 September. Available at: [ciaran-murray.com](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/the-drinks-the-people-and-the-places/).