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The official alcohol drinking advice from Te Hiringa Hauora Health Promotion Agency to reduce long-term health risk is two standard drinks daily, no more than 10 standard drinks per week for women, three standard drinks daily and no more than fifteen standard drinks per week for men, and at least two alcohol-free days per week for everyone.

It’s a matter of personal choice, but knowing how much you’re actually drinking can help.

So, what exactly is a standard drink, when translated into your favourite alcoholic beverage?

One standard drink in New Zealand contains 10 grams of pure alcohol.

All bottles, cans and casks of alcoholic drinks have to be labelled with how many standard drinks they contain. Looking at labels and counting standard drinks is a reliable way of knowing and controlling how much alcohol you are drinking.

But what if you’re pouring a drink, or someone is pouring drinks for you? 

It’s not necessarily the amount of liquid you’re consuming, it’s the amount of alcohol.

If you drink a 330ml bottle of beer at 4% alcohol, 100ml of wine at 12.5% alcohol, or 30ml of straight spirits at 42% alcohol, you are drinking approximately 10g of pure alcohol, or one standard drink.

If a bottle of wine contains eight standard drinks, you’ve poured four and the bottle is empty, each of those four drinks contains approximately two standard drinks, or 20 grams of pure alcohol.

Let’s take a look at the number of standard drinks contained in common servings of beer available here.

How many standard drinks are there in your beer?

A 330ml can of beer at 4% alcohol is a standard drink. Compare this with a 750ml bottle of beer at 4% alcohol, and you have 2.4 standard drinks.

Some craft beers can have higher alcohol concentrations, so it pays to check on the label.

As with beer, the amount of alcohol in your bottle of wine can vary, and even small changes in percentage matter. 

How many standard drinks are in your bottle of wine?

A 750ml bottle of wine at 13% alcohol contains 7.7 standard drinks, whereas the same size bottle of a wine at 14% alcohol contains 8.3 standard drinks.

Different spirits have a wide range of alcohol concentrations, so it definitely pays to check on the label.

Check the label on your favourite tipple to find out it’s concentration of alcohol.

Drinking 50ml of spirits at 37% alcohol means you’ve had 1.5 standard drinks, whereas drinking 50ml of spirits at 47% alcohol means you’ve had 1.85 standard drinks.

And what about RTDs, or Ready To Drink spirits?

There’s 1.7 standard drinks in every 335ml bottle of RTD at 6% alcohol. However, a quick check of RTDs on sale locally, showed a wide variation in alcohol concentration.

The message - it pays to check.

Knowing how many standard drinks you’ve actually consumed is important information. It’s easy to pour a drink larger than standard size.

In pubs and bars, serving sizes are usually consistent. At home, you’re probably pouring different amounts each time.

Knowing the number of standard drinks gives you an idea of how many drinks you should get out of each bottle, can or cask.

For further information and resources click here.

Images from alcohol.org.nz website.