Organise Cocktail Recipes in a Recipe App

Drinks are the category most recipe apps handle worst, and it is a structural mismatch rather than an oversight. A cocktail has no cook time, no oven temperature and no servings in the sense a recipe app means it.

What a drink has instead is a ratio, a method of dilution, and a glass. None of those are fields a recipe app usually offers.

What makes drinks different to organise

• Ratios matter more than quantities. A margarita is a proportion; the absolute volume only matters once you know how many you are making.
• Batching for a party is the common case, and it is a different calculation from scaling a dinner because dilution does not scale linearly.
• The bottle you own decides what you can make, so searching by ingredient is the only search that helps.
• Non-alcoholic versions are usually a variation on the same recipe rather than a separate one, and they belong on the same card.

How to build it

1. Record the ratio in the notes alongside the measured quantities, so you can rebuild the drink at any size.
2. Tag by base spirit. It matches how you actually decide, which is by looking at what is in the cupboard.
3. Keep the zero-proof variation on the same recipe rather than as a second entry.
4. Note the glass and the garnish. They are the details you forget and the ones that make it feel finished.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a recipe app for cocktails?

Yes, though most are built around cook times and oven temperatures that drinks do not have. The fields that matter for a drink are the ratio, the method and the glass, so put those in the notes if the app has nowhere else for them.

How do I scale a cocktail for a party?

Scale the ingredients, then adjust for dilution separately. A batched cocktail usually needs water added to stand in for the dilution that stirring or shaking would have given each individual drink.