Chuck Bass pretty much always has a drink in hand. Whether this is for his personal aesthetic or it’s a coping mechanism for his never ending Blair drama, I’m not sure. Probably both, if we’re being honest. In any case, drinking like Chuck Bass is quite impressive.
So impressive, in fact, that I couldn’t help but wonder how much money he spends on alcohol. Any Gossip Girl fan knows that the last thing that Chuck needs to worry about is money, but I can’t help but be curious about the (probably ridiculous) dollar amount that’s dedicated to his drinking habits.
I decided to take a look at a few different Gossip Girl episodes to try to figure out — roughly — how much drinking like Chuck Bass would cost. Spoiler alert: the Bass Booze Fund actually isn’t as insane as I thought.
The Breakdown
In order to get an overall sense of what drinking like Chuck Bass would cost across his fictional “lifetime,” I used a random number generator to pick one episode to observe from each of the six seasons.
I didn’t want to manually look through the episodes and their descriptions as a way to choose the episodes that I watched because I didn’t want to end up only showing the extreme side of Chuck’s drinking costs.
I wanted to take a more random approach as a way to average out the episodes in which he drinks more and the ones in which he drinks less. That being said, here are the episodes that I watched, along with all of Chuck’s boozy glory.
S1, E7: “Victor, Victrola”
There couldn’t have been a better episode to start out with. It’s a personal favorite of mine because it’s the very start of Chuck and Blair as we know them — and Chuck’s drinking also does not disappoint.
While Chuck only references “drinking a bellini or two,” we do actually see him drink a mixed drink of some sort and share a bottle of champagne with Blair.
Counting the two bellini cocktails, Chuck’s total drinking costs come to roughly $115: around $15 for each mixed drink, and around $70 for the bottle of champagne.
S2, E10: “Bonfire of the Vanity”
Chuck actually doesn’t drink that much in this episode. We see him attempt to make a toast with his father, Bart, but the two never drink what looks like whisky or bourbon on screen.
However, from what we know about Chuck and Bart’s relationship, plus this specific moment going sour, it’s pretty safe to assume that Chuck drank at least one of those glasses after Bart exits the room.
Because dark liquor is Chuck’s go-to drink, we can assume that he drinks the really good stuff. For the two glasses of liquor seen in this episode, Chuck would have spent about $22.50.
S3, E22: “Last Tango, Then Paris”
Oh, another wild episode on the Chuck and Blair Emotional Roller Coaster. Hold on, people.
In the beginning of this episode, Chuck brings a platter of what looks like two shot glasses full of dark liquor into Nate’s room. No one takes a drink on screen, but if we were to imagine Chuck’s life playing out off screen, it wouldn’t be a shock if he drank at least one shot.
Later in the episode when Chuck thinks that Blair didn’t show up at the Empire State Building, he melodramatically sips on a glass of dark liquor, bottle in front of him on a coffee table.
He then shares his drink with Jenny, and if you’ve watched the show before, you know what happens next. Xoxo, go watch it for yourself if you don’t understand the reference. You know this is making you want to (re)watch Gossip Girl anyway.
Chuck is also drunk at the end of this episode, but since we don’t actually see him drinking, we can’t count this toward the total.
Total amount of money spent on booze in this episode: around $22.50.
S4, E12: “The Kids Are Not Alright”
Near the beginning of the episode, Chuck pours himself his usual glass of dark liquor while talking business with Serena. Later on in the episode, Chuck has a champagne glass in hand at a socialite party.
Toward the end of the party, Chuck storms of to go get a drink after a failed scheme. Minutes later, a new scene starts featuring Chuck Bass, dark liquor in hand.
If you’ve lost count, that’s 3 drinks so far. However, these social events have free drinks, though, so can we really count these drinks toward the total?
Then, at the end of the episode, Chuck is at a bar drinking his usual and drowning his sorrows. He abandons his drink in favor of a particular physical pursuit, so does this one count either?
I’m going to say that the bar drink counts but the socialite drinks don’t. That puts the total for this episode at roughly $26.25.
S5, E1: “Yes, Then Zero”
In this episode, Chuck has transformed into Mr. Yes Man — he’s saying “yes” to everything in order to live life to the fullest and cope with the latest Chuck and Blair drama.
He shares a toast with Serena and Nate, downing a glass of champagne. Later in the episode, Chuck sips on what looks like a mojito while hanging out at a mini bar on a yacht.
Assuming that the trio split their bottle of champagne, drinking like Chuck Bass costs around $85.
S6, E1: “Gone Maybe Gone”
After crashing what was thought to be Serena’s wedding, Chuck poured himself his classic Chuck Bass glass of liquor. Some things never change.
This is the only drink he’s seen with in this episode, so Chuck’s total drinking costs come to about $11.25. Not too bad, Bass.
The Takeaway
Drinking like Chuck Bass is not as pricey as I thought it may be. Most college students can’t drop $85 on booze for themselves, but I expected the number figure to be much higher because, I mean… He’s Chuck Bass. Need I say more?