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Spirits
All Containers›Shop by use case›Spirits›Getting started›Which size to lead withShop all spirits →
Getting started

Which size to lead with

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page8
The default is 750 mL because the market expects it, not because the regulation prefers it.

750 mL is a convention, not a rule

It is one of twenty-five authorized sizes and it carries no special status in the regulation. It is the default because distribution, pricing and shelf space all organised around it decades ago.

A 700 mL bottle is authorized and is the European standard. Selling it in the US is lawful and puts you at a disadvantage on a shelf where every comparison is drawn against 750.

375 mL is the trial size

Half a standard bottle. It lowers the cost of trying an unknown brand, it fits a gift set, and it is the size a bar will accept for a tasting that would not take a full bottle.

50 mL is the sample

The miniature. It is a sampling tool, a gift-set component and in some markets a product in its own right. The catalog holds 8 containers at 50 mL.

475 mL and 945 mL are the interesting ones

Both are authorized standards of fill and both are well stocked here: 110 containers at 475 mL and 59 at 945 mL. Neither is a size the category defaults to, which makes them worth knowing about rather than ignoring.

Where they come from

They are the metric equivalents of a pint and a quart, carried forward into the authorized list. For a product that wants to read as traditional or American rather than as a standard liquor bottle, that lineage is a real asset.

Lead with one, not three

Every size is a separate bottle, a separate label layout, a separate case count and a separate line on a distributor sheet. A first release is one size, and the second size is a decision made after the first one sells.

References

27 CFR 5.203(a), the standards of fill: "The following metric standards of fill are authorized for distilled spirits, whether domestically bottled or imported" — 3.75 L, 3 L, 2 L, 1.8 L, 1.75 L, 1.5 L, 1.0 L, 945 mL, 900 mL, 750 mL, 720 mL, 710 mL, 700 mL, 570 mL, 500 mL, 475 mL, 375 mL, 355 mL, 350 mL, 331 mL, 250 mL, 200 mL, 187 mL, 100 mL and 50 mL. law.cornell.edu
The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 17 October 2026. The spirits shelf is 419 rows: 192 containers and 227 closures, 149 PET and 43 glass, 30 to 710 mL with a median of 118. Across the whole catalog, containers exist at 12 of the 25 authorized standards of fill, including 110 at 475 mL, 59 at 945 mL, 54 at 355 mL, 21 at 250 mL, 19 at 100 mL, 15 at 200 mL, 12 at 500 mL, 8 at 50 mL, 7 at 710 mL and 3 at 750 mL.
Written from 27 CFR 5.63, 5.203, 16.21 and 16.22, and from the catalog as it stood on 17 October 2026. Distilled spirits are federally permitted and separately regulated by every state; label approval, permits and formula approval are outside what these pages cover, and nothing here is a substitute for TTB guidance on a specific product.