In this guide, we’ll guide you through the ways you can gauge the strength of your drinks and help you define your own approach to creating low ABV serves.
In this guide, we’ll guide you through the ways you can gauge the strength of your drinks and help you define your own approach to creating low ABV serves.
How to calculate a low ABV serve by units ✓
How to calculate a low ABV serve by percentage ✓
How to look beyond low ABV to encourage drinking in moderation ✓
It’s mid-way through your working week and you want to treat yourself, but would rather avoid feeling the effects the next day during that all important 9am meeting. You’re looking at your drinks trolley and leafing through your favourite cocktails, but you have no idea what kind of ABV (alcohol by volume) you might be looking at.
Good to know: Units refer to the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink and provide a way for people to track the amount they’re drinking. A single unit = 10ml of pure alcohol. The average adult can process this in one hour.
The maths: Units = strength (ABV) x volume (ml) ÷ 1,000
So, to work out the units in a cocktail, you need to:
1. Identify the alcoholic ingredients of the cocktail.
2. Use the calculation above to get the units of each alcoholic ingredient.
3. Add the results together.
For the purpose of this guide, we’ll be using the Surplus Cobbler cocktail recipe created by Spirits Guide La’Mel Clarke as an example:
- 15ml Crossip Dandy Smoke
- 30ml Cold-Extracted Rare Tea Co. Chinese White Silver Tips Tea
- 15ml Surplus White Wine
- 10ml El Tequileño Blanco Tequila
- 2.5ml Lemon Juice
- 5ml 2:1 (sugar:water) Gomme Syrup
- Garnish: Butterfly Sorrel
In this recipe, there are two alcoholic ingredients which we need to calculate the units of:
1. 15ml white wine
White wine has an average alcohol content of 10%, which we’ll be using for this example.
Calculating the units: 10 (ABV) x 15 (ml) ÷ 1,000 = 0.15 units
2. 10ml El Tequileño Blanco Tequila
This tequila has an ABV of 38%.
Calculating the units: 38 (ABV) x 10 (ml) ÷ 1,000 = 0.38 units
Units of the Surplus Cobbler in total: 0.15 units + 0.38 units = 0.53 units
In this case, the Surplus Cobbler cocktail comes in at 0.53 units.
But how strong is that? Good question.
As we’ve mentioned in our guide to NoLo, in the UK, low ABV spirits are currently classed as such if they are stronger than 0.5% ABV and up to 1.2% ABV. So, let’s imagine someone buys a pint of 1.2% beer, which would be considered a low ABV serve.
Calculating the units in a pint of low ABV beer: 1.2 (ABV) x 568 (ml) ÷ 1,000 = 0.68 units
As you can see, the Surplus Cobbler comes with fewer units than what’s generally considered a common low ABV drink. This can be counterintuitive when you think about the fact that it mixes tequila with white wine, but that’s why the world of NoLo can be so confusing to the uninitiated.
Good to know: As a percentage, ABV indicates how much of the total volume of liquid in a drink is made up of alcohol.
The maths: Cocktail strength percentage = volume of alcohol x ABV ÷ volume of cocktail x 100
So, to work out the ABV of a cocktail, you need to:
1. Identify the alcoholic ingredients of the cocktail.
2. Use the calculation above to get the volume and strength of each alcoholic ingredient.
3. Add the results together.
4. Divide the results by the volume of the overall drink and then multiply by 100.
Let’s use our Surplus Cobbler cocktail recipe as an example again:
- 15ml Crossip Dandy Smoke
- 30ml Cold-Extracted Rare Tea Co. Chinese White Silver Tips Tea
- 15ml Surplus White Wine
- 10ml El Tequileño Blanco Tequila
- 2.5ml Lemon Juice
- 5ml 2:1 (sugar:water) Gomme Syrup
- Garnish: Butterfly Sorrel
In this recipe, all of the ingredients add up to a total volume of 77.5ml. We’ll need this number for our calculation later.
There are two alcoholic ingredients where we need to find the volume and strength.
1. 15ml white wine
White wine has an average alcohol content of 10%, which we’ll be using for this example.
Calculating the strength: 15 (ml) x 0.1 (ABV) = 1.5%
2. 10ml El Tequileño Blanco Tequila
This tequila has an ABV of 38%.
Calculating the strength: 10 (ml) x 0.38 (ABV) = 3.8%
Calculating the combined strength of alcoholic ingredients: 1.5 (white wine) + 3.8 (tequila) = 5.3%
Percentage of the cocktail in total: 5.3 (ABV) ÷ 77.5 (total volume of cocktail) x 100 = 6.8%
In this case, the Surplus Cobbler cocktail comes in at 6.8%. That’s much higher than what low ABV cocktails can currently be classed as, because it’s stronger than the max threshold of 1.2% ABV.
However, does this mean the cocktail does not provide a moderate approach to drinking? Bearing in mind that full strength Cobbler cocktails are usually around 28% ABV, the Surplus Cobbler is considerably lower ABV. This is another reason why NoLo is a minefield.
Drinking in moderation has become a movement that extends beyond the likes of Dry January and Sober October, with many choosing to substitute alcohol for lower ABV alternatives throughout the year. Just because you want to drink mindfully, it doesn't mean you have to sacrifice on a flavourful experience.
In this guide, we’ve used our lower ABV Surplus Cobbler cocktail as an example for good reason. When evaluated from the different perspectives of units and ABV, this cocktail appears wildly different in terms of strength.
By units
In terms of units, it’s 0.53. Comparing it to a popular low ABV drink, it has fewer units than a pint of 1.2% low ABV beer (0.68 units). Comparing it to a popular alcoholic drink, it has fewer than a quarter of the units found in a large glass (250ml) of 12% ABV red wine (3 units).
By ABV
In terms of percentage, it’s 6.8% ABV. That’s nearly 6 times stronger than a pint of 1.2% low ABV beer and less than half as strong as a large glass of red wine at 12% ABV.
Ultimately, the key to understanding how to drink more mindfully is to look for ways to reduce alcohol content in your tipples. This doesn’t mean taking an all-or-nothing approach. Rather, it’s about finding a sustainable middle ground and understanding where you want to go from there.
