The World's Most Expensive Cocktail Is Now $12,916

An Australian bartender set a new Guinness World Record for the most expensive cocktail this week with a drink that sold for 12,500 Australian dollars ($12,916). The Age reports that Club 23 bartender Joel Heffernan is responsible for this latest entry into the realm of outrageously expensive drinks. The price of the cocktail — named Winston for Winston Churchill — is so astronomical thanks to its two nips of 1858 Croizet cognac: A bottle of the cognac has a $157,000 value and it goes for $6,000 per shot. There's also some Grand Marnier Quintessence, Chartreuse Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolonge, a dash of Angostura Bitters and other fancy touches such as chocolate nutmeg dust.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the cocktail's buyer only took a couple sips and left at an event Thursday night. Heffernan, who strips the world record from London's Salvatore Calabrese of the $8,835 cocktail, explains in the following video how he made the cocktail. He also tries to justify the price by citing the cost of caring for the cognac and how it takes him two days' notice to make the Winston.

· $12,500 cocktail to take the crown [The Age]
· A $13,000 Cocktail Goes to Waste [WSJ]
· All World Record Food on Eater [-E-]