How to Choose the Best Cocktail App For You
Finding the right cocktail app makes mixing the perfect cocktail a breeze for any occasion.
You may not be a professional bartender, but that doesn’t mean you can’t mix like one at home. Knowing how to make a good cocktail is easier than ever, thanks to these top 10 cocktail recipe apps available on your smartphone. But what makes a good cocktail app?
Our Top 10 Best Cocktail Apps:
- Cocktail Flow - Best cocktail app overall
- Mixology - Best for being a veritable encyclopedia of drink recipes and bartender tips
- Liquor Cabinet - Best for an upscale guide to handpicked cocktails and spirits
- Cocktails Guru - Best for ranking, liking, and sharing cocktail recipes and photos
- Untappd - Best interactive playground for beer lovers and brewers
- My Cocktail Bar - Best customizable cocktail creator and digital mixer
- HighBall - Best cocktail recipe archive with a social media twist
- Perfect Drink - Best for mixing, pouring, and weighing real-life cocktails interactively
- Lush Cocktails - Best comprehensive list of cocktails and DIY recipes
- Bartender's Choice - Best classy cocktail recipes from NYC mixologists
Ingredients
One of the most important things that you need to get out of a cocktail app is a solid layout of the ingredients. Most of us know already which types of liquor we prefer and which we would like to stay away from. Being able to search by liquor and other ingredients can help you know if you can use any ingredients you already have to pull off a drink, as well as what you should buy to make what you would like to drink.
Mixology and Lush Cocktails offer the option to search by ingredients, helping you add or eliminate ingredients to find the perfect cocktail recipe for your needs. Highball is also another simple app to use that lays out the ingredients clearly. Highball also states that it takes into consideration the weight of any ingredient, giving you a completely balanced and perfect cocktail.
Directions
Not only should you know how much of what ingredient you need to make a drink, but a good cocktail app is going to give you step-by-step instructions on the order the ingredients should be added in, preparation of ingredients, and whether the ingredients are to be mixed, shaken, or left layered in the cocktail.
My Cocktail Bar and Cocktail Flow offer easy-to-follow directions on how exactly you should be mixing your drink so it turns out the way that it was supposed to. Simplicity is key when it comes to instructions and both apps pull it off.
Skill Level
Something that is often taken for granted when it comes to mixing cocktails is that they are not all created equal. Some recipes for cocktails are more challenging to get right than others. Whether you are a novice or an expert, your cocktail app should be able to tell you how complicated it is.
The Liquor Cabinet is one of the most helpful apps in this regard, letting you know what you are getting yourself into before committing to the drink. The best mixology app for honing your skills, however, just might be Perfect Drink. This app works in tandem with a scale which you plug into your phone and use to measure the weight, ingredient ratios, and proportions of your own cocktail.
Desired Flavors
Perhaps you are not sure about the cocktail that you would like to make and need some inspiration. Cocktail apps can help you find recipes to please your crowd and reach the flavor that you are looking for.
Whether you are looking for a fun and fruity cocktail, or something a little harder, you should be able to tell the type of cocktail it is before you taste it and find out that you are mistaken. Cocktail Flow and Mixology are both apps that will help you determine the flavor that you are hoping to achieve by mixing your cocktail.
Strength
The potency of some cocktails is going to be higher than other cocktails. Knowing what you are getting into ahead of time can help you plan not only what you are mixing, but how much you really are going to need. Bartender’s Choice and Cocktail Flow both provide options for viewing how strong the drink really is.
This can help guide you toward a drink that is the consistency that you were looking for, especially if you are bartending a party in your house.
Your Favorites
Have you ever followed a recipe and made something incredible, only to lose the recipe and never find it again? A great recipe app, no matter what you are making, should give you the option to save your favorite recipes so that you can find them again to remake them when you want to.
All of the best cocktail apps out there offer the ability to save your favorites, including Mixology, Perfect Drink, Bartender’s Choice, and Cocktail Flow. You need to have the option to save a recipe in order to not only make it again, but if you see a recipe that you are not going to make right away, you can have it in a safe place to find it when you need it.
Something New
If you have been making cocktails for a while, you may be in the market for a cocktail app not to teach you how to make cocktails, but instead to help you create an inspired and new drink. The best app out there for new cocktails is Cocktails Guru, which is an app that is made by bartenders and serious cocktail aficionados.
Users can not only view new recipes but rank, share, and comment on them along with others in the community. You might not be a professional bartender, but that does not mean you cannot try out some new and impressive cocktails right at home.
Overall Best Cocktail App
When you are going for a cocktail app, it could be that you want most of the factors that we have already listed for you. Yet, not all apps are going to have every option available. The overall best app for making cocktails, as was rated by a wide variety of websites, is Cocktail Flow.
Cocktail Flow provides a wide array of helpful features, including searches for occasion, strength, and ingredients, making it easier than ever to find the exact drink that you may or may not have known that you were looking for.
Mixology Apps for Non-Cocktail Drinkers
Having the opportunity to find the right cocktail recipe is incredibly helpful, but only for those who drink or want to make cocktails. Thankfully, there are apps out there for the beer lovers of the world as well.
Untappd is the best beer app out there right now. Untappd is more of a social media app, letting you share the beer you are drinking and where you are drinking it at, with all of your beer-loving friends. This app is helpful for those who enjoy a relaxing drink, but who may not enjoy a cocktail.
Create the Best Cocktails Anywhere and Be The Bartender You Always Wanted to Be
Now that we’ve reviewed the best cocktail apps to use, you can try your hand at concocting a cocktail that will wow your guests, loved ones and friends at any occasion.
Who said that only bartenders could create cocktail magic? No matter what you want to create, any of these cocktail apps should help you whip up an awesome drink!
