Guide
How to write a cocktail spec card
The format bartenders use to write a drink down so it can be made the same way twice, and why "a little less sugar" is not a recipe.
Most home cocktail recipes are written like this: “Old Fashioned. Bourbon, a bit of sugar, bitters, orange.” Which is fine until you make one that’s perfect, try to repeat it, and can’t. The recipe didn’t capture the thing that made it work, because it wasn’t a spec.
A spec is what a bar writes down so that any bartender on any shift can make the same drink. It’s a small, rigid format, and it’s worth learning even if you’ll never work a shift, because the rigidity is exactly what lets you go back to the good version.
The six lines
Every spec card on this site has the same six parts, in the same order. That order is the format.
1. Name. Big, at the top. If it’s your variation, name it. “Old Fashioned (demerara)” is a different card from “Old Fashioned.”
2. Ingredients, with amounts, in pour order. This is the line that separates a spec from a recipe. Every ingredient has a number in front of it, including bitters (dashes) and garnish. Bars list them cheapest-first so a mistake mid-build wastes the cheap stuff, which is why syrup and citrus often come before the spirit on a working card. On a home card, spirit-first is easier to read. Either way: pick an order and keep it.
3. Method. One word, then the detail: Stirred, 25 seconds, strain over a big cube. Shaken, stirred, built, blended. The method is part of the recipe. A Negroni built in the glass and a Negroni stirred and strained are not quite the same drink.
4. Glass and ice. Rocks, one large cube. Coupe, chilled, no ice. The ice is an ingredient; it’s just one that goes in last and keeps going in.
5. Garnish. Orange peel, expressed. If the peel gets expressed over the drink and dropped in, say so. If it’s just a wheel on the rim, say that. These taste different.
6. Source and notes. Where the spec came from, and a line of verdict. “Death & Co, p. 141. Too sweet at ¾; try ½.” The source lets you go back and check. The verdict is the bit everybody skips and the bit that makes the card worth having.
Write the ratio in the corner
For any sour or any stirred drink, the whole recipe collapses to a ratio: 2 / 1 / ¾ for a Daiquiri, 2 / 1 for a Manhattan, 1 / 1 / 1 for a Negroni. Write it in the top corner. It’s what you’ll actually read with a shaker in one hand; the full spec is for when you’ve forgotten which is which.
Ounces, millilitres, or both
Write whichever your jigger reads, and write the other alongside if you have room. The spec-sheet convention is 30 ml to the ounce, not the true 29.57, because it makes the arithmetic clean:
| oz | ml |
|---|---|
| ¼ | 7.5 |
| ½ | 15 |
| ¾ | 22.5 |
| 1 | 30 |
| 1½ | 45 |
| 2 | 60 |
The printable cards on this site show both. It also makes batching easier, which is the subject of its own guide.
Things that aren’t ingredients but belong on the card
- Syrup strength. “Simple syrup” means 1:1 by weight in most modern books, but plenty of people keep 2:1 rich syrup as their only syrup. ¾ oz of one is not ¾ oz of the other. Write which.
- Vermouth brand. Sweet vermouth is not one ingredient. A Manhattan with Carpano Antica and one with Dolin Rouge are different drinks, and the card should say which one you liked.
- Citrus age. A Daiquiri with lime squeezed an hour ago and one with lime from yesterday are noticeably different. You won’t write this every time, but when a drink is off, it’s the first thing to check.
- Egg white, and whether you dry-shook. Half the texture of a Whiskey Sour is in the method line.
One card per version
This is the rule that most people break, and it’s the one that matters most. When you tweak a drink, don’t cross out the old amount. Write a new card, date it, and put the change as its own line: “Same as v1, syrup ½ oz.” Two reasons:
- When the tweak is worse, and it often is, the untouched original is the one you want back.
- When you’ve got four versions, you can lay them out and see the pattern. “Every one I liked had less sugar” is a lesson you can only learn from a stack.
Paper cards make this easy: cards are cheap and a rubber band is a version control system. If your recipes live on your phone, the same rule applies; it’s just that most notes apps make it awkward, which is why the tweak ends up as “a little too sweet last time” in your memory instead of on the card. The keep-track guide is about that specific problem.
Print a blank and try it
The fastest way to learn the format is to fill one in. The blank 4×6 cards have the six lines laid out; the classics set shows twelve filled in. Copy the format, disagree with the specs, and write your own.
Questions people ask
What is a cocktail spec?
A spec is the exact recipe for a drink written in the form a bar uses. Ingredients with measured amounts, in pour order, plus the method (stirred, shaken, built), the glass, the ice, and the garnish. "Spec" is the bartender's word; home bartenders usually say "recipe."
Should I write cocktail recipes in ounces or millilitres?
Whichever your jigger reads, but write both if you can. Most US cards use ounces and most everywhere else uses millilitres. The spec-sheet convention is 30 ml per ounce, so 2 oz becomes 60 ml and ¾ oz becomes 22.5 ml.
What size should a cocktail recipe card be?
4×6 fits a recipe box and has room for six ingredients and notes. 3×5 fits a pocket, which is why bartenders have used it for a century. Both sizes are free to print on this site.
How do I keep track of changes to a recipe?
One card per version, dated, with the change written as its own line. Don't cross things out on the original. When a tweak turns out worse, the untouched card is the one you want back.