4 of the world's most expensive cocktails

A cocktail is always a treat, but some bartenders are taking these boozy luxuries to a whole new level.

When NB gin was selected by Rolls Royce as one of the world’s most revered brands, for example, they developed an opulent tipple to celebrate: the Rolls Royce Spirit of Splendour. Learn how to make on here.

Looking to take your luxury on the road? Here are five of the most lavish cocktails in the world – and where to find them, if your wallet allows.

This classic American cocktail sounds simple enough: Woodford Reserve Bourbon, sugar, mint and ice. But once you dig into the provenance of the components you’ll begin to understand the £690 price tag.

Not only is the mint grown in Louisville, Kentucky – where the annual Derby is held – but the ice is sourced directly from a 10,000-year-old Alaskan glacier.

Less than 100 of these costly cocktails have been produced, which is probably down to one more factor: each one is served in a limited-edition Tiffany & Co cup.

Looking to get a round in? You’ll have to wait until next year, as the horse race is run (and hats donned) in early May.

Looking for something a little closer to home? Head to the Ritz Carlton Paris.

The illustrious Hemingway Bar there – rumoured to be liberated by the American author, and where he spent no inconsiderable amount of time drinking with his equally hard-partying friend F. Scott Fitzgerald – boasts a cocktail with no mean historical significance.

Should you wish to order a Sidecar at the Paris Ritz, you have the option of swapping the standard Cognac for a bottle that survived the German occupation of the city. Bottled between 1830 and 1870, a cocktail featuring a measure of this very special Champagne Cognac will run you about £1,150.

Not impressed with a Sidecar featuring just one ancient spirit? Until recently you could head to Playboy Club in London, where legendary bartender Salvatore Calabrese – whose penchant for Cognacs bottled before the French Wine Blight of the mid-1800s is well known – devised the oldest cocktail in the world.

His tipple contained Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac from 1778, five years after the American Revolutionary War began, and 20ml of Kummel liqueur from 1770, when Marie Antoinette sat on the throne of France. The drink was rounded out by 20ml of Dubb Orange Curacao bottled in 1860 and four dashes of Angostura Bitters dating back to the early 1900s.

The ingredients of Salvatore’s legacy had a combined age of 730 years and, once mixed, a bill of £5,500.

Calabrese has since moved on from the Playboy Club, perhaps in an effort to escape a tragedy of sorts: just a few months before Salvatore’s Legacy was devised, one of Calabrese’s regulars dropped and shattered a £150,000 bottle of very old, very fine Cognac. 

If brown spirits aren’t your thing, the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo might have something more up your street: a glass of Grey Goose with lime and a list price of £15,600.

Sound like an outrageous mark up? Remember to account for the flawless one carat diamond – which can be valued as high as £11,000 – floating at the bottom of the glass.

There’s one more perk. Order one of these cocktails and the James Bond theme song of the same name will begin to play, whatever time of the day or night it happens to be.

Just two of these cocktails have ever been served, so what’s stopping you?