The Cocktail App Review

I worked as a pseudo-bartender for a while (waiter that occasionally bartended) and I wouldn’t have gotten through the nights I was at the bar without my iPhone. I’ve gone through a couple bar book apps and iBartender is my current favorite. But when I saw the screenshots for The Cocktail App, the beautifully simplistic design and lime green color scheme immediately drew my eye. I had to try it. Unfortunately, the visual appeal is all that the app has going for it.

Quite simply, the Cocktail App is missing a large enough library of drinks. The idea behind the app was to take a popular cocktail poster and turn it into an iPhone app. The design of the app holds to the design of the poster and the pictures are actually taken straight from the poster. The poster includes the 35 “most common” cocktails. So, unfortunately, the app includes only about 35 cocktails. While the idea and execution of it was great, the simple fact is that, unless someone’s a huge fan of the poster, this app is a lacking in the worst way an app can - in content. With only 38 recipes for cocktails, the only price that can be justified for this app, regardless of its great design, is free.

But the app does have some great features when it comes to functionality. Drinks can be filtered by ingredients by tapping on the water drop symbol and selecting an ingredient. Cocktails can be “favorited,” which is a must for any kind of app with a list. The app also includes some cool trivia for each cocktail and ingredient.

With the current features it has and if the developer were to add more drinks to the app, the app would probably go from nearly useless to my favorite bar book app! The Cocktail App has potential, but it isn’t ready for a $1.99 price tag.
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