The Most Expensive Cocktails in the World (And Where to Find Them)

Some may tell you to go to The Playboy Club in London for the city’s most expensive cocktail, but true cocktail-seekers will know that the almost $7,000 ($6,622 to be exact) cocktail named Salvatore’s Legacy is found in none other than Donovan’s Bar in Browns Hotel, London. Scintillating cocktails are on offer for just $30, but Mayfair’s most indulgent sippers will opt for Salvatore’s Legacy, named after the cocktail “maestro” who created it. The cocktail calls for 1778 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 1770 Kummel Liqueur, Dubb Orange Curacao (circa 1860), and two dashes of Angostura Bitters (circa the 1900s). The vintage spirits cocktail has more than 700 years of history in a glass and is worth appreciating, so sip this cocktail very slowly.  

Le Relais Bernard Loiseau, an institution in French gastronomy, has long been regarded as a culinary pitstop for discerning foodies and oenophiles. Travelers start their two-Michelin star experience (created by Chef Patrick Bertron) with Kir—a French cocktail made from the region’s creme de cassis liqueur, which is normally topped with a local white wine. At the Loiseau family-run chateaux, guests are treated like the celebrities who visited in the past, including Edith Piaf and Julia Childs, and are allowed to heighten their Kir with one of the highly-prized vin blancs in the Loiseau wine cave. The Loiseau sommelier and I consider it a sacrilege to do so, but since guests have their culinary wishes granted in the Loiseau house, a specialty Kir with Montrachet Grand Cru 1997 by Domaine de la Romanee-Conti will set you back about $5,100.

Even Londoners think this Savoy Sazerac cocktail is a little on the pricey side. The Savoy in London is historically known as the oldest surviving cocktail bar in Britain, having opened in 1892, and so the hotel justifies this almost $7,000 Sazerac with the surrounding that it is served in. Made with Sazerac de Forge from 1857 and further embellished with 1950s Pernod Absinthe from Tarragona and Peychaud’s Bitters from the early 1900s, the cocktail is one of the most expensive cocktails you can get in London. Richer in taste, the bartenders at The Savoy stand by their price tag and claim that the lucky few who drink this are indeed sipping the original Sazerac served in the 19th-century.

Bartender and owner Colin Field has been voted the world’s best bartender on numerous occasions, and so what better way to sample his talents than the most expensive cocktail in his bar. The classic Sidecar cocktail comes to life here in The Bar Hemingway, with 1830 Ritz Reserve Cognac being the piece de resistance of the hotel bar. Made from vines harvested prior to an insect plague in the 1860s, the grapes used to make this Cognac no longer exist, making this spirit very valuable and highly sought after. Since its debut, it has increased from 400 Euro to 700 Euro with the price currently standing at $1,670.

The cocktail known as The Jewel of Pangaea is touted as the most extravagant cocktail in Asia, coming in at $32,000 a glass. Master mixologist Ethan Leslie Leong says it took more than six months to formulate and perfect the drink with a mix of gold-flecked Hennessy brandy, a hickory smoke-infused sugar cube, and 1985 vintage Krug champagne—all coming together with a 1-carat diamond created by Swiss jeweler, Mouawad. The original cocktail came out with a bodyguard and “Pangaea girls” who served the cocktail in a smoke-filled stainless-steel briefcase for theatrics.

The Devil’s Place in St. Moritz, Switzerland, is where locals hang out for a fun apres-ski session while sipping more than 25,000 different bottles of whisky. Although only true whisky-lovers find themselves in the bar taking single shots of the amber-colored drink, some may go wild and reach out for the priciest $101,100 Macallan “Genesis Decanter” whiskey (which sits behind bullet-proof glass). Served straight up upon request, the whiskey can also be reproduced as their favorite sidecar, Manhattan, whiskey sour, or old fashion cocktail, but that would be a slight waste, no? Perhaps not to the oh-so-glamorous St. Moritz crowd.

The Pines Southern California Steakhouse at Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in California has always been a place of luxury and, with its recent expansion, is offering a menu with elaborate food and wine pairings. A secret margarita made with a 1985 Salon Cuvee  ‘S’ Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut is served in a Versace medusa Lumiere Haze Champagne flute and costs a cool $5,000. Gamblers at the formerly named San Manuel Casino will roll the dice and enjoy the most expensive cocktail developed in-house: an A. H. Hirsch 16-Year-Old whiskey, distilled in 1974 with 1996 Château Lafite-Rothschild Bordeaux and splash of ultra-rare Hardy cognac. The cocktail comes served in a Lalique crystal glass along with a cocktail pick made from 14k gold and topped off with a sparkling diamond, which the guest takes home as a keepsake.

In 2006, Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino released the country’s most expensive cocktail: the Sapphire Martini, which contains Bombay Sapphire Gin, dry vermouth, and orange-flavored liquor dyed blue to really pack in the wow factor with sugar around the rim. Foxwood bartenders go the extra mile with a blend of blue sugar and a set of sapphire and diamond-studded earrings to match the color of the ocean-blue drink. The cocktail is still available to date and prices at $3,000, but if it is too high for your taste, go to the Neon Palm Bar in the same hotel for a cheap frozen daiquiri served in a priceless insulated souvenir cup.