Contents
- 01Litres per person: the rules of thumb
- 02The first hour, and why consumption tapers
- 03A welcome reception or a whole evening
- 04The alcohol-free share you plan too small
- 05Ice, glassware and what gets broken
- 06Buying the drinks yourself or taking the caterer's
- 0719% on drinks, 7% on food: the quiet line
- 08Run your own evening through it
- 09Common questions about drinks quantities
- 10Drinks and food from one brief
Drinks are the line people guess at most. For food the guest count helps; for drinks it barely does. The same 80 people drink something entirely different in a courtyard in June than in a restaurant in November. What you need instead are rules of thumb by length and season, an honest split between alcoholic and alcohol-free, and the knowledge that drinks carry 19% VAT where food carries 7%. All of it is here, and further down you can run your own evening through the budget calculator.
The short answer
As a rule of thumb, count on roughly 0.4 litres in the first hour and 0.3 litres for every hour after that, so about 1.6 litres per person across a five-hour evening. That volume splits between alcohol-free, beer and wine, and how it splits is decided by your guests rather than by a table. Heat, a dance floor and salty food push the number up; a seated menu pulls it down.
- Rule of thumb: 0.4 l in the first hour, then 0.3 l per hour · five hours is roughly 1.6 l per person
- Reception drinks: one to two 0.1 l glasses in the first half hour, after which most people move on
- Net prices per person: soft drinks from €4, typically €5 to €9 · beer and wine from €11, typically €16 to €28 · open bar from €22, typically €32 to €46
- Glassware and tableware from €2, typically €3 to €8 per person when the venue supplies none
- Drinks carry 19% VAT while food and service carry 7% · the line that quietly moves a drinks-heavy budget
Litres per person: the rules of thumb
Caterers plan drinks per guest and hour, not per guest. That is the actual trick of it: a party running five hours does not need twice what a two-and-a-half-hour one needs, because consumption is high at the start and tapers afterwards. The table below is the starting point everything else is calculated from.
Rules of thumb per person · the first hour and every hour after
| Drink | first hour | each hour after |
|---|---|---|
| Water & soft drinks The line most often planned too tight. Considerably more in heat and on a dance floor. | 0.4 l | 0.3 l |
| Beer A bottle or a glass at the start, then it tapers. Applies only to the share of guests drinking beer. | 0.5 l | 0.3 l |
| Wine A standard glass is 0.2 l. Across a long evening that adds up to three or four glasses. | 0.2 l | 0.15 l |
| Sparkling wine at the reception One or two 0.1 l glasses during arrivals, after which most guests switch. | 0.2 l | 0.1 l |
| Coffee & tea Much higher during the day than in the evening, with another surge after the meal. | 0.2 l | 0.1 l |
| Long drinks & cocktails At a bar guests take roughly one drink an hour, as long as somebody is mixing and there is no queue. | 1 glass | 1 glass |
Event-planning rules of thumb, not measurements. How far your guests depart from them is best read off a comparable party the year before.
What matters is what you do not do with those rows: you do not multiply each one by the full guest count. Do that and you buy 80 portions of beer, 80 of wine and 80 of water for 80 people, and end up with three times what you need. Instead you set shares · and you set them rather than leaving them open, even when all you can do is estimate.
An example with the arithmetic written out. Eighty guests, five hours, a summer evening in a courtyard. You assume everyone drinks something alcohol-free at some point, about half drink beer, about a third wine, and everyone gets a glass of sparkling wine on arrival. That is roughly 128 litres of water and soft drinks (1.6 l × 80), roughly 68 litres of beer (1.7 l × 40, so a good 136 half-litre bottles), roughly 22 litres of wine (0.8 l × 27, so around 29 bottles) and roughly 16 litres of sparkling wine (0.2 l × 80, so around 21 bottles). The shares adding up to more than 100 per cent is deliberate: guests switch as the evening goes on.
The first hour, and why consumption tapers
The first hour is the thirstiest, and that has less to do with alcohol than with the situation. Guests arrive from outside, they are standing, they do not know everyone yet, and a glass in the hand is the easiest way to arrive in a room. Which is why consumption at the start sits a good third above what gets drunk per hour later on.
After that, three things flatten the curve. The food arrives, and people who are eating drink more slowly. Conversations get longer, and a full glass often just stands there during them. And a share of the guests switches to water as the evening goes on. For planning that means the supply has to be there at the start, not in the middle. A bar with a queue in the first half hour loses revenue and goodwill at the same time.
A welcome reception or a whole evening
A reception and an evening are two different sums, and confusing them means buying past the target. A welcome reception lasts 30 to 45 minutes, the guests are standing, there is finger food alongside, and more than one or two 0.1 l glasses per person will not happen. For 80 guests that is around 16 litres or a good 20 bottles, plus water for everyone and an alcohol-free option that is not simply orange juice.
A whole evening is calculated across hours, and sparkling wine is almost never the main drink there. It is the opening; after that wine, beer and alcohol-free options take over. Buy sparkling wine for the whole evening because the reception went well, and as a rule you will buy far too much. The reverse holds too: plan only for the reception and then run a party until midnight, and water is the first thing you run short of.
The two formats also want different food. A reception suits finger food you can eat one-handed; an evening suits a buffet or a menu. Which format fits which evening is covered in the comparison of finger food, buffet or plated menu.
The alcohol-free share you plan too small
Alcohol-free is no longer a leftover category. Alcohol-free beer is on almost every list, wine alternatives and mocktails are easy to get in Berlin, and at company events a good alcohol-free option is an expectation rather than an afterthought. Plan the way people planned ten years ago, put out two kinds of juice, and you will wonder why half the table sticks to water.
How large that share is among your guests is something nobody can tell you in advance. It depends on the team, the occasion, the day of the week and who has to drive home. Two things you can do: plan the alcohol-free quantity as its own line with its own number rather than as a remainder. And count what came back afterwards · after the second company party you will know your own share better than any rule of thumb.
Three things separate "there was water too" from a genuinely good alcohol-free selection: at least one alternative that tastes of something rather than of juice, glasses in the same shape as the alcoholic drinks, and a place on the list rather than a jug at the edge of the table. It costs almost nothing in the calculation and changes the whole evening for part of your guest list.
Ice, glassware and what gets broken
Ice is needed twice, and almost everyone plans for it once. Once for chilling, in tubs under the bottles, and once in the glass, for long drinks and soft drinks. Those are two separate quantities and two separate types: crushed ice does for chilling, cubes belong in the glass. Many planners work roughly on a kilo per person for the chilling and double it in heat. That figure is a rough marker rather than a measurement · it depends on the outside temperature, the size of the tubs and how long the bottles stand.
More important than the quantity is the logistics. Buy ice on the day itself, not the day before, because the office freezer never holds what a summer evening needs. And plan where the meltwater goes: a tub in a courtyard is harmless, the same tub on a wooden floor is a conversation with the venue. For a summer party, ice belongs on the same line as power and shade.
For glassware the rule of thumb is one and a half to two glasses per person across an evening, and not because of breakage: guests put a glass down and take a fresh one. With changing drinks that climbs quickly, since sparkling wine, wine, beer and water are four different shapes. Rented, glassware and tableware cost from €2, typically €3 to €8 per person, when the venue supplies none.
Buying the drinks yourself or taking the caterer's
This is where the most movement sits in a drinks budget, and it has no universal answer. From the caterer you get one invoice instead of five, chilled drinks, somebody pouring, and the empties taken away. Wastage is not your problem, and depending on how it is billed, unopened bottles are not either. In exchange you pay a margin that has always been higher on drinks than on food.
Buying them yourself is almost always cheaper on the purchase price alone, but the purchase price is not the whole sum. You take on transport, chilling, ice, glassware, pouring and returning the empties. Plenty of drinks merchants take back unopened crates, but that does not apply everywhere and not without limit · get it in writing before you stock up. And check with the venue whether it is allowed at all.
Which is exactly where the line that most often topples the saving sits: corkage. Some venues charge a fee for drinks you bring yourself, sometimes per bottle, sometimes per person, sometimes as a flat charge for the evening. The amounts vary widely and live in your contract with the venue rather than in the caterer's quote. Ask before you do the maths, not after.
Six things to settle before buying the drinks yourself
- CorkageDoes the venue charge a fee for drinks you bring, and how is it calculated: per bottle, per person, or as a flat charge for the evening? The amount varies widely and sits in your contract with the venue, not in the caterer's quote.
- ChillingWhere do the drinks stand until the evening, and who brings the tubs and the ice? A fridge at the venue is not a drinks cold room, and on a summer evening that detail decides the first impression.
- PouringWho serves? If the caterer is only handling the food, you need either staff for it or a self-service arrangement that still looks presentable at 10pm.
- GlasswareDoes the venue supply glasses, are you renting them separately, or is the caterer bringing them? Rented, glassware and tableware cost from €2, typically €3 to €8 per person.
- EmptiesWho takes the crates and bottles back, and when? It is the job nobody volunteers for at the end of a long evening, which is why it has to be assigned beforehand.
- Returning unopened cratesPlenty of drinks merchants take them back, but not all of them and not without limit. Get the condition in writing before you stock up.
An example of how a drinks budget breaks down when the caterer handles it: 80 guests, beer and wine at €22 per person, glassware and tableware at €5, delivery to an outer district. That comes to €2,225 net.
Drinks for 80 guests through the caterer · €2,225 net
- Beer, wine & soft drinks79%€22 per person, the middle of the usual €16 to €28 range.
- Glassware & tableware18%€5 per person, the middle of the €3 to €8 range, when the venue supplies none.
- Delivery3%A €65 delivery fee to an outer district, per booking rather than per head.
The split shows where negotiating is worth anything at all. At 3 per cent there is nothing to win on delivery, little on the glassware, and the drinks themselves are practically the whole budget. If you want to save here, you save on the selection or on where you buy, not on the side lines. How to find and read those lines in a quote is in the guide to reading a quote, and if you would rather compare straight away, put your event once into a catering request.
19% on drinks, 7% on food: the quiet line
Since 2026 the reduced German rate of 7% applies to food, and to service, rented tableware and delivery as well, as long as they belong to the catering. Drinks stay at 19%. On the food it goes unnoticed; on the drinks budget it does not, and the more that gets drunk, the further net and gross drift apart.
Work it through on one evening. Eighty guests, a buffet at €25 per person, so €2,000 of food. Add soft drinks at €7 per person, so €560 of drinks. Net that is €2,560, gross €2,806.40, an effective uplift of just under 10%. The same evening with beer and wine at €22 per person: €1,760 of drinks, net €3,760, gross €4,234.40, an effective 12.5%.
The difference between the two rates on €1,760 of drinks alone is around €211, and that is money no menu discussion ever touches. In practice it means two things. If you are booking privately, only gross counts, and drinks are why a quote feels dearer than the 7% suggests. And if you are comparing two quotes, check first whether both are net or both are gross · on a drinks-heavy evening that difference alone is enough to reverse the order.
Run your own evening through it
You now have the quantities and the prices. The calculator below puts both together for your event, with drinks as their own line, and toggles between net and gross · which is exactly the switch that shows the difference on a drinks-heavy evening. A binding quote comes afterwards, through a catering request, free and with no obligation.
Your drinks and catering budget in 30 seconds
Set up your event: format, guest count, occasion, service level, drinks and delivery location. You get a range per person and for the whole event straight away, with drinks as their own line. The net-to-gross toggle shows what the 19% actually adds.
Your catering budget
50
The food is delivered; you handle setup and serving yourself.
Drinks
Add plates, cutlery, glasses, standing tables and more.
Price display
Per person
€18–44
Estimated total€930–2,230for 50 guests
How the budget breaks down
- Food€14–35
- Drinks€4–9
- Delivery€30
How this estimate is calculated
- Buffet (hot & cold)
- for 50 guests
- Company & office event
- Delivery only
- Soft drinks
- Central Berlin (S-Bahn ring)
All prices net. Plus 7% VAT on food and 19% on drinks.
Non-binding estimate. Real quotes vary by caterer, menu and season.
Common questions about drinks quantities
Answered in brief
As a rule of thumb, 0.4 litres in the first hour and 0.3 litres for every hour after, so roughly 1.6 litres per person across five hours. You split that between alcohol-free, beer and wine according to your guests. Plan more for heat, a dance floor or salty food, and less for a seated menu.
One to two 0.1 l glasses per person during arrivals. For 80 guests that is around 16 litres or a good 20 bottles. You do not carry sparkling wine through the rest of the evening · wine, beer and alcohol-free options take over there.
Soft drinks start at €4 net per person and typically run €5 to €9. Beer and wine start at €11 and typically run €16 to €28. An open bar with cocktails starts at €22 and typically runs €32 to €46. Glassware and tableware add from €2 when the venue supplies none.
On the purchase price almost always; on the total not automatically. You take on transport, chilling, ice, glassware, pouring and the empties, and the venue may charge corkage. How much that corkage is varies widely and sits in your contract with the venue. Settle it before you do the maths.
Two kinds: crushed ice for chilling in tubs and cubes for the glass. For the chilling many planners work roughly on a kilo per person and double it in heat, but that is a rough marker rather than a measurement · it depends on temperature, tub size and how long bottles stand. Buy on the day and plan where the meltwater goes.
Since 2026 the reduced 7% rate applies to food, service, rented tableware and delivery when they belong to the catering. Drinks stay at 19%. On €1,760 of drinks that is around €211 of difference, and a drinks-heavy evening therefore ends up effectively above 12% rather than at the 7% most people have in mind.
Drinks and food from one brief
Drinks get planned last and therefore compared last. In the end three quotes are on the table: one with bar staff, one without, one with glassware, and one where both are rolled into a single sum. That is not comparable, and you notice the difference on the final invoice.
With Catervia you describe your event once, food and drinks together, with the length, the location and the guest count. Several Berlin caterers price that same brief, and because they all get the same instruction, drinks, glassware and bar staff appear as their own lines in every quote. You have a response within 24 hours.
If a quote comes back above your budget, we take it back and ask about the cut: is beer and wine enough instead of an open bar? Does the venue supply the glassware? Do you take on the soft drinks and the caterer the rest? The step-by-step version is on how it works.