Why “a drink” is ambiguous
In conversation, “a drink” might mean a can, a pour, a cocktail, or a wine glass filled to the brim. Public-health educators in the United States often use a standard drink so education materials can talk about approximate ethanol amounts without listing every product.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), a US standard drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol. Common examples that approximate that amount include 12 fl oz of ~5% beer, 5 fl oz of ~12% wine, or 1.5 fl oz of ~40% spirits — when those strengths and volumes actually match.
How BoozeRatio encodes it
Internally we store volume in milliliters. We define:
STANDARD_ALCOHOL_ML = 0.6 × 29.5735295625 ≈ 17.744 mL
That is the volume of pure ethanol corresponding to a 0.6 fl oz pure-alcohol definition commonly paired with the ~14 g rule of thumb. We keep one volume constant and do not mix gram-based and volume-based formulas on different screens.
Standard drinks in a serving = pure alcohol mL in the serving ÷ STANDARD_ALCOHOL_ML.
Calories per standard drink and dollars per standard drink then let you compare cost and energy for matched ethanol, which is useful when cans and pours differ in size.
What equivalence does not mean
Two beverages with the same standard-drink count are not guaranteed to feel the same. Absorption depends on food, carbonation, pace, body composition, medications, and more. BoozeRatio never estimates blood alcohol concentration and never ranks “how drunk you will get.”
Use standard drinks as a composition ruler, the same way you might use grams of protein on a nutrition label — for clarity, not for a dare.
Worked examples
- Light lager: 12 fl oz at 4.2% ABV → pure alcohol ≈ 14.9 mL → about 0.84 standard drinks; if 110 calories, calories per standard drink ≈ 110 / 0.84 ≈ 131.
- Wine: 5 fl oz at 13% ABV → pure alcohol ≈ 19.2 mL → about 1.08 standard drinks.
- Spirits: 1.5 fl oz at 40% ABV → pure alcohol ≈ 17.7 mL → about 1.00 standard drink.
Your catalog rows show these fields when ABV and serving size are known.
Baseline “better on both”
When you set a baseline drink, BoozeRatio can highlight options with lower calories per standard drink and lower dollars per standard drink — meaning less energy and less money for the same ethanol yardstick. That is different from sorting only by alcohol per dollar (which can favor cheap high-ABV packages without asking about calories).
Learn more on the site
- Methodology for formulas and price precedence
- How to read BoozeRatio rankings
- NIAAA’s public pages on what a standard drink is (external education resource)
For adults of legal drinking age. Drink responsibly. Do not drive impaired.
Education versus self-diagnosis
Public-health standard drinks exist so guidelines and labels share a vocabulary. They are not a personalized medical device. BoozeRatio exposes the constant so our calories-per-standard-drink and dollars-per-standard-drink columns stay consistent with that vocabulary.
If a medical professional has given you specific limits, follow that advice over any website ranking.
Cocktails and free pours
A restaurant “vodka soda” may contain more than 1.5 fl oz of spirit. Home recipes in our catalog state assumed ounces. If your free pour is heavy, your real standard-drink count is higher than the model. Measuring once with a jigger calibrates your eye.
Wine glasses
Many stemware pours exceed 5 fl oz. A generous pour of 13% wine can be 1.5+ standard drinks before anyone “had two glasses.” Use serving size honesty the same way you would with tallboy beers.
Connecting to rankings
Calories per standard drink and dollars per standard drink are the baseline tools’ friends: they ask how much energy and money you spend per unit ethanol. Alcohol per 100 calories asks a related but different efficiency question that does not require choosing a pack first.