When I was in college, I lived in an apartment with two other guys.  Our kitchen had a peninsula style counter with a large open cabinet underneath.  Since none of us cooked much, we didn’t really use that space for pots, pans, or utensils.  At some point, one of us got the bright idea of fashioning it into a bar.  Perfect! Now, I will leave it to you to decide how a bunch of underage college kids were able to procure all of the ingredients for a full fledged bar, but we did.  And I was – more often than not – the designated barkeep, which suited me just fine.  Now, I had never mixed drinks before, so my new best friend became a small drink mixing book with simple instructions and ingredients.  Something along the lines of 1,001 drinks you can make from home.  If only I had the iPhone back then, my life could have been made much simpler with this app from Fizz Software.

OK, so let’s get to it.  Cocktails Made Easy is basically the iPhone version a book written by British drink aficionado Simon Difford.  Essentially, this beginner’s guide to mixology contains over 500 different drinks using the same 14 basic ingredients.  Don’t believe me?  Just check out the main screen, which contains a complete, alphabetical list of all of the drinks included in the program.  Everything from A1 to Zoom and 528 favorites in between.  You can scroll through the list alphabetically or by star rating (every drink has a Difford’s rating of 1-5 stars.)  There is no way, however, to sort the list by ingredient, which would have been nice.  In addition to scrolling, you can also search by drink name or use the letter bar on the right hand side to skip to the letter you need.

When you find a drink you want to try, just tap on the entry.  From here, you will be taken to the recipe so you can mix it up right there in your own kitchen bar.  In addition to the recipe, you will also find some suggestions for the correct glass, garnish, and mixing method.

Ok, so you have downed that drink in record time.  What did you think?  Too much alcohol?  Not enough triple sec?  Each drink has a nifty comment  section where you can scribble your thoughts.  That way, next time you will remember whether it was worth making again or what you might want to change.  If you feel really strongly about a particular drink, go ahead and rate it.  You get the same scale the Difford’s used to rate each drink so you can see exactly how your palette compares to the “experts”.  And for those drinks you will be coming back to again and again…well, tap that star on top to adds the recipe to your favorites.

OK.  One thing I can tell you is that you do not want to scroll through that list of 530 drinks every time you are looking for a new idea to try.  So, I was glad to find a few additional ways to view your selections.  Obviously, you can view a list of the drinks you marked as favorites.  This is a pretty handy way to hop right back to the drinks that dropped you under the table the night before, but still does not fill you with creative new idea.  For that, you can just shake (not stir) your iPhone.  Give it a good shake from pretty much anywhere in the program and a random drink will be displayed.  Go ahead, give it a try (although I recommend using this method only before you start actually consuming the beverages you mix…)

This is all well and good, but it still really had not addressed the problem I mentioned above.  Most of us do not have full bars in the pantry.  These days, I have a couple of half empty bottles of who knows what from some long ago party.  So, how does iCocktail help you here?  Well, just head on over to the Cabinet.  From here, you can select any of the up to 15 bottles on the shelves (this includes the 14 main ingredients, as well as non-alcoholic drinks).  Then, head over to My Bar and you will find the list of drinks has been filtered to include only drinks utilizing the ingredients you selected in the cabinet. 

The only problem I had here is that since this program is based on the the premise of making easy drinks with only 14 key alcoholic ingredients, you really limit the contents of your cabinet.  Cool idea, but what happens when the 14 key ingredients do not match the any of the ones I am trying to use.  My cabinet at home features some 30 year old whiskey, half a bottle of peach schnapps, and Southern Comfort.  None of which were included in iCocktail’s cabinet.  I love the idea of the cabinet as a filter, but I really think it needs to include a whole lot more in order for it to be used as it was intended.

The other problem I had with this program is that there is no way to add your own drinks.  I mean, I think we can pretty positively say that while 530 drinks is a lot, it is by no means the entire universe of available drinks (I mean, this does not even have the Screaming Viking it there), nor does it allow for you to experiment and record the results of your own creativity.  So, it would have been nice if the program had offered an opportunity to create your own drinks and add them to the bar, even if this meant expanding beyond the 14 main ingredients.

One thing we have not really covered so far are the non-alcoholic ingredients.  I mean, these are called mixed drinks for a reason, because you are expected to mix the alcohol with something (if you plan to drink the alcohol straight then you really don’t need my help for that.)  If you take a look at the information tab, you will find a handy two screen shopping list of essential non-alcoholic ingredients which you will want to have on hand.  I suggest you just take this list to the grocery store and pick up one of everything before getting started.

Well, that about covers it.  I found this to be a great replacement for a basic drink mixing guide.  I did feel, however, that it could have been much more robust, and wish they had not artificially limited the program to 14 key ingredients. I also thought that the folks at Fizz missed some key opportunities to really set this apart from your run-of-the-mill drink mixing guide by showing off some truly advanced search and filter options.  Sure, they touched on this with the Cabinet feature, but it still did not offer a quick and easy way to search for drinks by ingredient or mixing method (such as blended drinks or frozen drinks). 

Nonetheless, putting those relatively minor criticisms aside, I thought Fizz did a great job with what they are giving you here.  The Cabinet is a fantastic start to a very original idea, which I hope they continue to expand upon, and the list of drinks is very easy to search and scroll to find exactly the drink you want.

One final note, I would be remiss if I did not point out that this program is for entertainment purposes only.  We here at JAMM do not encourage underage or irresponsible drinking.  And by all means, if you do decide to try out some of these drinks, please do not drive home. 

What I Liked:

• Great layout and design
• Cabinet feature is superb
• Organization worked well
• Very accessible and easy to use
• Editable comments

What Needs Improvement:

• Can’t search by ingredient or mixing method
• 14 Key ingredients was a bit limiting
• Cabinet could have had more ingredients
• Can’t add your own drinks or modify the entries

Developer Site: Fizz Software

Price: $2.99

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