The Unbelievable Amount Of Shrimp In The World's Largest Shrimp Cocktail

The Guinness World Records are no stranger to shrimp-related achievements of note. Among them is the title of largest shrimp stew, which was claimed in Mexico in 2020. The stew weighed in at more than 6,834 pounds. The world's largest seafood display was erected in Hainan, China, in 2019. Tipping the scales at over 15,000 pounds, it included more than 2,600 pounds of shrimp.

If you'd rather eat your shrimp than cook it, though, you might want to attempt to surpass one of the two Guinness World Records shrimp-eating records. The current record for most shrimp eaten in one minute was set in 2012 by Patrick Bertoletti. He wolfed down 5.89 ounces in 60 seconds. A separate record exists for most shrimp eaten in three minutes, and André Ortolf holds that record as of 2018 with 428 grams, or just over 15 ounces of shrimp, consumed. Clearly, there are tons of achievements to choose from. But if you love a good shrimp cocktail, one particular record is right up your alley. 

The Guinness World Record for the largest shrimp cocktail has stood since 2015, and that feat was pulled off by a group of chefs in Cartagena de Indias, Bolivar, Colombia. Previously, the record had been set by residents of the town Mazatlán, Mexico, which they dubbed the "Shrimp Capital." The town pieced together a 1,187-pound shrimp cocktail in 2011. The current Colombian record sits at more than 2,910 pounds.

The record-setting shrimp cocktail featured a 9.9-feet-high, specially created cocktail glass that weighed more than 4,400 pounds all on its own, and a mammoth amount of cocktail sauce and shrimp. On the day of the record-setting, a team of chefs prepared more than 2,204 pounds of shrimp. For context, depending on the type of shrimp, a pound could contain anywhere from 15 to 60 shrimp. The cocktail sauce required 220 pounds of garlic, 661 pounds of onion, 331 pounds of lemon, and 1,212 pounds of tomato sauce.