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Plan a 1920s NYE party at home with this list of all the food and drinks in The Great Gatsby. I recently reread the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald and compiled a list of every single food, liquor, cocktail and non-alcoholic drink mentioned.

Food and drink are useful tools for setting the scene in books and films. In The Great Gatsby, we get a sense of Gatsby’s immense wealth when Nick Carraway mentions the buffet tables at Gatsby’s lavish party filled with “glistening hors d’oervre” and “turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.” He also points out a bar well-stocked with pricey liquors and cordials and copious amounts of champagne.

Big parties almost seem like a thing of the past because of the pandemic, sadly. I do miss parties, especially a good theme party. A few years ago, I attended Party Like Gatsby, a special event held in a concert venue. Everyone dressed in fringe dresses or suits and danced the Charleston between performances by musicians, contortionists and burlesque dancers. While you may not hire a band or professional dancers for your party, you can channel the 1920s with the right food and drinks.

If you’re planning a NYE party at home, who better to take inspiration from than the ultimate party host himself? Make it an authentic 1920s dinner party and serve the food and drinks in The Great Gatsby. Or turn you home into a speakeasy with 1920s cocktails and appetizers, a jazzy playlist and a vintage dress code. Take a cue from Jay Gatsby and make sure there’s no shortage of champagne and hors d’oervres.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of every single food item, non-alcoholic drink and cocktail mentioned in The Great Gatsby. Let’s start with the most important element of any good party—booze!

Spirits & cocktail drinks in The Great Gatsby

As the novel is set during the Roaring ’20s, there’s no shortage of alcoholic drinks in The Great Gatsby. If you’re hosting a Gatsby-themed NYE party, I suggest a set of coupe glasses for champagne or gin cocktails. Here are the celebratory libations mentioned in the book, listed in order of appearance:

Cocktails

“Cocktails” are mentioned many times in The Great Gatsby, but Fitzgerald doesn’t often say what kind, specifically. At the Buchanan home in chapter one, Nick notes that Jordan Baker refused cocktails from the pantry. At the first Gatsby party that Nick attends in chapter three, he mentions cocktails several times. When he finally meets up with Jordan, he notes, “A tray of cocktails floated at us through the twilight.”

Claret

During dinner with the Buchanans and Jordan in chapter one, Nick drinks at least two glasses of “corky but rather impressive claret.” Claret is a British term that refers to red wines from Bordeaux, France. According to Wine Enthusiast, claret wines are blends of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Whiskey

Whiskey is Tom Buchanan’s drink of choice. It’s first mentioned in chapter two, at the apartment Tom keeps in the city to spend time with Myrtle Wilson. Tom has brought Nick on his latest extramarital rendezvous and once there, Tom fetches a bottle of whiskey from a locked bureau door.

In chapter seven, Gatsby and Nick visit the Buchanan home to meet up with Daisy, Tom and Jordan. Daisy suggests the group head to town and as she’s getting ready upstairs, she calls down to the men outside to ask if they should take anything to drink. Tom goes inside to get some whiskey.

Gin, liquors, cordials

At the start of chapter three, Nick describes in detail what an elaborate affair every party was at Gatsby’s. He mentions a bar set up in the main hall, stocked “with gins and liquors and cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.”

Champagne

Champagne is a popular drink in The Great Gatsby. At the first Gatsby party he’s officially invited to, Nick witnesses that “champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger-bowls.” He later mentions a young lady from a famous chorus who was drunk on champagne and tearfully singing beside a girl playing the piano.

In chapter six, Tom shows up to Gatsby’s one Sunday afternoon with two other people on horseback. Gatsby is quick to offer them lemonade or “a little champagne.”

Though Gatsby always ensures his guests have their fill of champagne, he rarely drinks it. Nick reveals why Gatsby doesn’t drink much in chapter six. As a young man, Gatsby worked on Dan Cody’s yacht, where women would rub champagne into his hair during parties.

Highballs

In chapter four, Nick joins Gatsby and Mr. Wolfsheim for lunch in the city. As the three men enter the restaurant, the head waiter asks, “highballs?”

When Tom arrives at Gatsby’s with friends on horseback in chapter six, highballs are served while the group engages in conversation. The woman in the riding trio says nothing, “until unexpectedly, after two highballs, she became cordial.”

Sauternes

Jordan Baker tells Nick that Daisy doesn’t drink, which is probably why she left Chicago without a sullied reputation. One exception was the night before Daisy’s wedding to Tom when she overdid it on Sauternes, a sweet white wine from the Bordeaux region of France.

In chapter 4, Jordan recalls, “I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner, and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress—and as drunk as a money. She had a bottle of Sauterne in one hand and a letter in the other.”

Gin Rickey

One of the few cocktails mentioned specifically in The Great Gatsby is the gin rickey, a cocktail made with gin, lime juice and soda water. When Gatsby and Nick visit the Buchanan home on a particularly hot summer afternoon (chapter seven), Tom brings in a round of gin rickeys “that clicked full of ice.” Get the classic gin rickey recipe here.

Cold ale

After gin rickeys in the Buchanan’s salon, the group has luncheon in the dining room, where they “drank down nervous gayety with the cold ale.”

Mint julep

The mint julep is one of two specific cocktails in the novel, but it’s unclear whether anyone actually orders or drinks them. In chapter 7, when Gatsby, Nick, Jordan and the Buchanans head to town after lunch, they regroup in a suite at the Plaza Hotel. As Nick tries to remember how they ended up in the stifling room, he recalls that the unbearable heat had prompted Daisy to suggest hiring five bathrooms to take cold baths, “and then assumed more tangible form as ‘a place to have a mint julep.'”

This is a fitting suggestion as Daisy is from Louisville, Kentucky and the drink is often associated with the Kentucky Derby, held annually in Louisville. The mint julep is a cocktail made with bourbon, sugar and fresh mint. This drink is served in a special mint julep cup.

Non-alcoholic drinks in The Great Gatsby

Of course, there are also non-alcoholic drinks in The Great Gatsby. Here are the booze-free drinks in The Great Gatsby, listed in order of appearance:

Milk

At the apartment party in chapter two, Myrtle asks the elevator boy for a box full of straw and some milk for her recently adopted dog.

Toward the end of the book in chapter 9, Henry C. Gatz arrives from Minnesota once he gets news of his son’s death. Nick sends for something to eat, but Henry is unable to eat and a glass of milk spills “from his trembling hand.”

Mineral water

Tom is finding the apartment party in chapter two rather dull at one point and says, “Get some more ice and mineral water, Myrtle, before everybody goes to sleep.”

Fresh juices

At the start of chapter three, Nick talks about the crates of oranges and lemons that arrived at Gatsby’s every Friday. Gatsby had a machine in the kitchen “which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour.”

Lemonade

Gatsby offers lemonade or champagne to Tom and his riding group in chapter six. I would assume that, like the orange juice, the lemonade would also be freshly squeezed.

Tea

Nick meets Jordan at the Plaza Hotel tea garden in chapter four. This is where we hear all about the tragic, romantic history between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.

Coffee

In chapter three, Nick shares that he often had sausages, mashed potatoes and coffee on lunch breaks while working in the city.

In chapter eight, we learn about Wilson’s movements that led up to Gatsby’s murder. At one point, he went to Gad’s Hill, “where he bought a sandwich that he didn’t eat, and a cup of coffee.”

Food in The Great Gatsby

What did the characters eat in The Great Gatsby? Food isn’t mentioned often, but it does play a part in setting the scene for first time Nick experiences one of Gatsby’s over-the-top parties. If you want to host your own Great Gatsby party, here are ideas for what kind of food to serve:

Sandwiches

Toward the end of chapter two, a second bottle of whiskey is being passed around at the apartment party with Myrtle and her sister. Tom sends for “some celebrated sandwiches, which were a complete supper in themselves.”

Hors d’oervres

The first time Nick goes to a party at Gatsby’s, he describes a buffet table filled with “glistening hors d’oervre.” Since Nick doesn’t elaborate on what kind, I looked through my vintage cookbooks for more appetizer ideas:

1920s appetizers

• Canapés: Use a cookie cutter or glass to create small rounds from a loaf of bread. Top with jelly, caviar, anchovy paste, cheese and olives, or pickled beets.
• Deviled eggs: Season the filling with salt, pepper and paprika. Arrange deviled egg halves on small lettuce leaves and garnish with lemon.
• Tomato shrimp: Arrange two to three tomato slices on small lettuce leaves. Top with shrimp, mayonnaise and chopped pickles.
• Fruit cocktail: Combine any combination of chopped apricots, peaches, pineapple, oranges and pears in small cups (drain if using canned fruit). Chill; garnish with cherries, if desired.
• French string bean salad: Break 1 lb string beans into 1-inch pieces and cook in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain and let cool. Add to a salad bowl and toss with sliced or quartered tomatoes and French dressing.

Baked hams and roasted turkeys

Also on the buffet table at Gatsby’s party were “spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.”

Little pig sausages and mashed potatoes

In chapter three, Nick gives us a sense of how his summer days went. He worked a lot and lunched with other clerks in “dark, crowded restaurants on little pig sausages and mashed potatoes and coffee.”

Succulent hash

Gatsby invites Nick to lunch one day and they head to a “well-fanned Forty-second Street cellar” Here they meet Gatsby’s friend Mr. Wolfsheim. After ordering highballs and finding a table, a “succulent hash” arrives, which Mr. Wolfsheim eats with “ferocious delicacy.”

If you make any of these food or drinks in The Great Gatsby, tag me on Instagram @thedapperdahlia. I’d love to see your party!

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