I’ve had a whirlwind week, with a visit to Adelaide to host at Paramount Liquor’s Future Proof show last week, followed by the six big days and nights of the drinkapalooza that is the Maybe Cocktail Festival, before last night judging the national final of the Cointreau Margarita Challenge (congratulations again to Keeley McAlinden from Centro 86 in Sydney). And I’m not done yet — tomorrow, Wednesday 17th I’m in Brisbane talking all things Bartenders’ Weekender — I’d love to say hi if you’re around.
That’s all to say that I’ve seen and spoken to a number of bar owners and bartenders the last week — more than usual. And the theme that keeps coming up is this: times are tough for bars out there right now. People don’t have the disposable income they did coming out of lockdowns, and they want more value for their dollar — they want something memorable.
That’s a theme I’ve been following all year, and doing some research into. Which leads me on to today’s big question:
What’s the price of a cocktail these days?
More specifically, what’s the price of a cocktail in the industry-leading bars in NSW?
It’s not the first time Boothby has answered questions like this. Back in February, we did the math and tallied the averages for drinks across the bars of Victoria — you can read that here, and last week we took a deep dive into the new list at Maybe Sammy in Sydney, tallying up the prices and looking at which brands were best represented on that menu — you can read that one here.
The prices between NSW and Victoria are relatively comparable, as you might expect, but when it comes to comparing Sydney and Melbourne, one city is around a dollar more expensive.
Behind the login wall below, you’ll find:
- the results from surveying 511 cocktails from across 36 of the best bars in NSW (according to bartenders);
- the average size of a cocktail list at these bars;
- the average price of a cocktail in Sydney;
- the top 20 brands with the most listings;
- the top 10 spirits suppliers with the most listings in NSW’s best bars;
- a breakdown of which spirit categories are most often represented on cocktail lists across NSW.
The results
During March, we surveyed 511 cocktails across the cocktail lists of 36 bars among the Top 50 of the 2023 Boothby Best Bars in NSW (we’ll be starting the 2024 process soon, by the way). These are the bars that bartenders and industry operatives consider to be the best across the state.
How big are these cocktail lists? What is the average number of cocktails on a list? Across the bars we surveyed, the average number of cocktails on a list is 13.6, higher than the average of 12.3 we found in Victoria. The average across 17 venues in Sydney itself was 13.4.
What price a cocktail?
Across the 36 NSW bars we surveyed, the average price of a cocktail was $23.29, marginally lower than the average across Victoria ($23.71).
As you might expect, the average price of a cocktail in the Sydney CBD was higher than this, coming in at $24.29, around a dollar cheaper than in the Melbourne CBD ($25.39). Stepping into Sydney’s surrounding suburbs, across eight venues in Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Paddington, and Potts Point, the average price was $24.11, whereas in Newtown (where we had six venues with data) it was $22.51.
Again, gin cocktails reign supreme
We’re living in an age of gin supremacy when it comes to cocktails. When we surveyed the best bars across Victoria, gin was the most frequently listed spirit base for cocktails. Across NSW, that trend was repeated.
Of the 511 cocktails we surveyed, gin cocktails — driven in large part by the continued popularity of the Martini on cocktail lists — were the most frequently listed on NSW drink lists, representing 27.4% of cocktail listings, more than one in every four listings.
Somewhat surprisingly, the next most listed category were cocktails based on rum, with an 18.59% share of cocktail listings. Then again, NSW is home to some of the country’s best rum bars, and three bars — Jacoby’s Tiki Bar, The Lobo, and Blue Kahunas, which all figured on the Boothby Best Bars list — drove much of the rum representation.
Sitting just behind rum, were whisky cocktails (including Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, American bourbon and ryes, Japanese whisky and home grown Australian whisky), coming in at 18.57%, with bourbon taking the lead (8.41% of listings).
It’s then a bit of a jump to the next most listed spirit category in cocktails. Agave-based drinks were the next most frequently listed drink, with a 11.94% share of the listings (and higher than the 8.5% found in Victoria), followed by vodka cocktails (10.57%), amaro and vermouth cocktails (6.85%), and cognac and brandy cocktails (4.5%).
Which alcohol brands have the most listings?
We found 614 brand listings in the cocktail descriptions across the 36 bars we surveyed.
The most frequently listed brand? Well, this one comes with an asterisk: Hickson House was the most frequently listed brand in cocktails across the menus we surveyed, however the brand does have rather favourable distribution in the bars owned by the Barrelhouse Group (three of which were on the Boothby Best Bars list) — the same owners as Hickson House. They have a lot of listings thanks to this.
In reality, Campari is again the leading brand across the menus we surveyed, as it was in Victoria, thanks to the popularity of the Negroni and its variations. As we mentioned in regards to the Victorian results, it also benefits from being a proprietary brand with few — if any — real substitutes.
Campari picked up almost twice as many listings as the next most listed brand, Bacardi, followed by Aperol, Four Pillars, Tanqueray, Ketel One, Archie Rose, Plantation, and Chartreuse rounding out the top 10.
In 11th place was Cocchi, Lillet, Michter’s, and Patrón; in equal 15th place, Altos, Don Julio, Hennessy, and Maker’s Mark; Hendrick’s took 19th place and Beefeater took 20th.
Which spirits suppliers have the most listings?
The individual brand listings only tell part of the story, though.
Campari Australia had the most listings across the menus we surveyed, accounting for 11.56% of the total. Bacardi Martini landed in second place with 10.10% of listings, followed by Diageo (9.12%), Vanguard Luxury Brands (8.31%), and Pernod Ricard (6.51%).
Hickson House was there with in sixth — again, the same disclaimers apply as above — with (5.86%), followed by Brown-Forman (5.37%), Spirits Platform (5.21%), Beam Suntory (4.56%) and Proof & Company (4.23%) rounding out the top 10.
I’m enjoying doing the research and pulling these numbers together — I think it gives me a better picture of what’s going on in our bars than I had before, and I hope it helps you too. If you’ve got other questions you’d like answered, I’d love to hear them — email me at sam@boothby.com.au.
Sam Bygrave
