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New App Mixes New Drinks With What You Have 127

Posted by samzenpus from the I'll-have-a-squashed-strawberry-alley-cat dept.
Pickens writes "The magic of a new app called 'Top Shelf' is that if you want to mix a new drink, the app thinks the way most of us do — instead of going out to buy the ingredients, it shows you how to build a new drink with the ingredients you have available. Feeling indecisive? Let Top Shelf pick a random recipe for you. You can get a random drink from the entire database, a specific category, your favorites, search results, or the liquor cabinet."

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New App Mixes New Drinks With What You Have More

New App Mixes New Drinks With What You Have

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  • All I have is my wife and a bottle of bourbon?

    • Re:what if (Score:5, Funny)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:06PM (#34714596)

      Drink bourbon until she looks good.

      • I thought the joke was if the wife started looking good it was proof you'd had too much to drink.

        • Sometimes that's what it takes to keep the marriage working.

              "Honey, you drink too much".

              "Sweetie, you complain too much. That's why I drink."

              I wonder why I've been divorced twice. At least now I've met someone who I like being around, and don't even need to drink to drown my sorrows of being with. :)

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )

        "Pretty women make us buy beer. ugly women make us drink beer."

        I'm not saying I agree.

        I drink beer because I would had wanted to meet the pretty women. The ugly I don't need, with or without beer.

    • You aren’t very creative, are you.

    • All I have is my wife and a bottle of bourbon?

      All *I* have is tap water and no wife

      • All I have is my wife and a bottle of bourbon?

        All *I* have is tap water and no wife

        You got rid of your wife for the staggeringly cheap price of 1 bottle of bourbon? Bargain!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      Drink the bourbon, stir your wife.

      Alternatively, you can mix the two to get:
      * Dirty Mother
      * Slippery Nipple
      * Bald Beaver
      * Wet Sucker
      * Sex on the Beach

      And so on.

  • Not a new app (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mean Variance ( 913229 ) <mean.variance@gmail.com> on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:06PM (#34714598)

    I have been using Top Shelf for at least 3 years. It's one of the first apps I ever installed on my 1st gen iPod Touch.

    • Re:Not a new app (Score:5, Informative)

      by afidel ( 530433 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:29PM (#34714870)
      And back in the ancient days of the web I used a website call webtender [webtender.com], according to the copyright line it's been around since 95 =)

      • Re:Not a new app (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MachDelta ( 704883 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:53PM (#34715096)

        My girlfriend has an app called Mixologist that does the same damn thing. List of ingredients in, list of possible drinks out. Big deal.

        I don't mind slashvertisments when they're something new or innovative, but this one is neither. Bleh.

      • But an app gets a slashdot mention, a website is ignored as outdated tech.

      • And back in the ancient days of the web I used a website call webtender [webtender.com], according to the copyright line it's been around since 95 =)

        I'm pretty sure I had a DOS app for this that not only came up with drinks you could mix with what you had on hand but also more general recipes, too. It sounded really good until I started to try to keep a kitchen inventory on my PC -- I abandoned that after about a week.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Khyber ( 864651 )

          The program was called Recipes International. I still have two or three copies lying around somewhere, on floppy.

      • Yeah, but this is an app and it's on the iPhone. That makes it at least two orders of magnitude cooler than any Web v1.0 website. Looking at Webtender, they're using cgi-bin scripts. OMG! That's not Ajax, or Ruby on Rails, or anything cool. That's like a Netscape-type of website.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by afidel ( 530433 )
          And yet a 15 year old design still works on any device today but newer 'better' designs often fail on my smartphone (mostly due to flash but also due to too cute javascript).

        • It's an app on the iphone ok, but Filemaker Pro allowed me to do that in 1990 ...

          Now an app that, when launched, uses te camera to automatically identify the bottles and gives me a cocktail list, now THAT would have been cool...

      • Yup exactly what I was thinking.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by vaxjo ( 1164417 )

        The problem with Webtender (and the other, very similar, drinks-making sites I've seen) suffer from the problem that every combination of liquids, however repulsive, has been given a whimsical name and logged as a permissible "mixed drink". So if you tell it that your liquor cabinet holds a half-empty bottle of dry vermouth, a dusty bottle of Peychaud's bitters and a jar of cocktail onions; it's going to give you a list of nine different "drinks" you can make.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
        IIRC webtender even lets you specify to list hits with 0 or some number of missing ingredients, so you can get results with only one or two missing ingredients
      • There used to be one that also advised you which ingredients to buy next to most effectively increase the number of cocktails you could make in combination with your existing ingredients. I found that a very useful feature when I was building up my stockpile of goodies. I can't remember what it was called though.....

      • And silly me, I just mix what I want.

        Unfortunatley, A few days ago, I did find that we didn't have any rum in the house. And as I've found, a strong Jack Daniels eggnog really doesn't taste as good as you'd think. And with my normal mixing proportions (In a pint glass, mix 75% alcohol with 25% eggnog. Stir, and enjoy), it took me a whole 5 minutes before I could just make myself a pint of "Jack and no nog egg nog". Not quite as festive, but I was well lit. :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jedidiah ( 1196 )

        I dunno. I just use Google. I like that better trying to use some speciality "app".

        The Google method works well for more than just cocktails.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drpimp ( 900837 )
      And then there is idrink.com [idrink.com] (see my recipes) which used a few times back circa 2003-2004 ... yet I am not sure what is currently going on with their website. It looks horrible.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kizeh ( 71312 )
      Eh? There was an Symbian app like that well over half a decade ago on my Nokia. How's this news?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      and it's silly simple to make too - if you got a large drinks database, it's not that hard to devise the means to ask the user what he has and match the results. it's something that could be given as a programming practice work for a 12 year old.

      I'm pretty sure there were some palm apps that did this too. and one popular app for s60 in early s60 days was an app that suggested drinks - which is handy to have in a bar(where mobility matters).

      but a nice plug by whoever got this into slashdot. leveraging the so

  • Doesn't everyone just throw whatever they have in a glass to see if it's good? Why stick to established recipes?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Altus ( 1034 )

      I don't know the scientific explanation, but fire made it good.

    • Obligatory XKCD: Recipes and Genetic Algorithms [xkcd.org]

    • Doesn't everyone just throw whatever they have in a glass to see if it's good? Why stick to established recipes?

      What sort of heretic statement is that?

      On the lighter side of things vodka and maple syrup work well together. We tried the maple syrup with whiskey and it didn't work out so well.

    • Many generations of our elders had no Internet, TV or radio. Consequently, they spent a lot of time socializing and discovering delicious liquor combinations. No reason we can't leverage some of that good info.

    • Re:Doesn't everyone? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Delusion_ ( 56114 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @05:09PM (#34715352) Homepage

      First off, would it really kill an editor (or god forbid, a submitter) to google something first to see if it really is a new idea? The College Bar database has been doing this for years, and I know it's not the first.

      Which brings me to why I replied to this post - no. There are certain ingredients that play off each other well, and those which don't.

      The biggest problem with the default College Bar database was that it was full of garbage just like you're proposing - "hey, put this in and this in and this in and give it a funny name" that someone submitted after they "invented it" in their dorm room. Many of these so-called drinks were useless crap you'd never want to drink, and had the gimmick of weird ingredients, easy ingredients, many ingredients, a stupid name, and/or some "stunt" involved.

      While you are certainly welcome to mix Midori, Limoncello, Pepto Bismol, Jagermeister, Faygo Red Pop and Bailey's into a glass and call it a drink, the fact is that nobody over 25 or with any taste whatsoever gives a shit about your nasty frat boy drink. There's a reason why only 20-something girls who are desperate for attention consume drinks with "sexy" names like Blowjobs, Sex on the Beach, or a Slippery Bald Beaver. These are drinks for little whores, not adults.

      This isn't to say people have to agree about what constitutes a good drink - I prefer a martini shaken, not stirred, but if it has anything other than gin, vermouth, and some sort of garnish in it (and possibly a bit of bitters if you're trying to re-invent the wheel), don't call it a martini. Note I didn't say don't drink it, I'm just sick of "martini" drinks like choclatetini and appletini which are the exact opposite of what a martini actually is, sweet versus dry, syrupy instead of thin, etc. I also want no part of anything with Kahluah in it, but other reasonable people may thoroughly enjoy a White Russian.

      The first thing I had to do was delete all the frat, gimmick, and whore drinks from the College Bar. Eventually, I just populated College Bar with my own database from a well-loved cocktail book that I had lying around. It was useful when you wanted to try something you hadn't had before, hadn't considered the possibilities of a particular ingredient, but didn't want to resort to awful crap you get when college kids make "drinks" whose primary goal is to taste like Coca Cola, fruit juice, or the sort of get-drunk-immediately swill created by people who consider Bacardi shots an actual drink instead of a stunt.

  • Oh my (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Hell of a slashvertisement, here.

  • Put booze in glass, drink.

    Do you really need a recipe for that?

  • Congradulations! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    You've recreated Webtender!

    Have a cookie.

  • There is no Android version! This is Slashdot after all, we like to have customization on our mobile devices, not just one man's way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by socsoc ( 1116769 )
      But there's plenty of device agnostic prior art on the web.
    • I've been running 100001 cocktails on the droid for quite awhile now. Does the same thing, although I've found much better drinks in the 1001 (huh trend here) cocktail book with full color alcohol porn photos of each one that someone gave me awhile ago.

  • Mixed drink: (Score:3)

    by John Hasler ( 414242 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:11PM (#34714676) Homepage

    Two or more fluids in a cocktail glass, at least one of them alcoholic. Brake fluid and Everclear, for example. Or single-malt and drain cleaner.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by M8e ( 1008767 )

      Two or more fluids? Not two or more liquids?

      • Right. Gases count (at least heavy ones such as sulfur hexafluoride).

    • Looking it up...

      Brake fluid + Everclear = "Stop, Drop and Puke"
      Single-malt + drain cleaner (or carpet cleaner for a more "authentic" taste) = "Scotchgard"

      Wow, this app is amazing!

    • Two or more fluids in a cocktail glass, at least one of them alcoholic. Brake fluid and Everclear, for example. Or single-malt and drain cleaner.

      If someone makes that brake fluid and Everclear drink I propose we name it the Screeching Halt.

  • "App" is not a synonym for "iPhone application" (Score:3)

    by MaggieL ( 10193 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:12PM (#34714688)

    Be nice to mention what platform it's for.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "App" is not a synonym for "iPhone appliction"

      It is now. Words get appropriated, language changes. Deal with it. Or try to reclaim back the word "gay" and see how far you get.

      "Application" still means application. "App" is no longer a short form of "application," it's a short form of "Iphone / iPad / iPod touch application." It's been that way since the, "there's an app for that" ads. I know, marketing sucks, but it sucks because it works, and this one worked.

      • It might be applicable for smartphone apps, but in no way does it solely imply iDevice applications.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Or try to reclaim back the word "gay" and see how far you get.

        Yet another word that's become synonymous with Apple....

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by slyrat ( 1143997 )

      Be nice to mention what platform it's for.

      Yeah, one would hope that slashdot would mention that in the summary. Especially when there is probably a large portion of readers using android only.

  • This app is awesome and extremely handy, but new? This was one of the first apps I downloaded for my iPhone 3G, well over two years ago, when it was free in an "introductory" special and had a different name (which has long escaped me).

  • Is this really news? I mean even for idle it seems a bit low. FWIW Top Shelf is not the only app that does this, there's at least one other one.

  • 99 cent iphone app (Score:5, Informative)

    by will_die ( 586523 ) on Thursday December 30, 2010 @04:22PM (#34714802) Homepage
    FYI, the program cost 99 cents USD from the apple store. In additional it has more bad reviews then good ones.
  • Isn't there a rule about not mixing your drinks. To prevent having the trots the day after, for example.

  • disable advertising (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable advertising.

    How please? The check box is enabled, but I still get them in the form of submissions.

  • Are driving me crazy. The drinks turn out good though, I just read it as a squirt of this, two thumbs of that and mouthful of that other stuff. Plant a cocktail berry and an umbrella somewhere in there and drink up.
    Luckily, I RTFA and it says they have metric units as well. The first time I've seen a (decent) drink recipe app that has centiliters. Just in time for new year's eve!

  • then again, for some people booze is dinner.

  • Drink your liquor straight. If you want to be a little more wimpy you can add some pure rainwater. Don't allow anything to sap and impurify your precious bodily fluids.

  • Call me old fashioned, but this is not a problem. Usually, I just pour whatever I have !
    Scotch and water caught on that way!!
    Green Creme de Mint and OJ, we tried it at my frat! We could not give it away except the serious alcis

  • Why? (Score:2)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

    Wow.

    If you're goign to mix your liquor, why do you need a guide? It's fucking trivial.

    * pick something sweet, citrus, or salty
    * pick a liquor
    * maybe some ice
    * liquor ... or you could just drink your liquor straight, like most adults.

    • I discovered the Old Fashioned earlier this year. It's basically whisky and soda, but the little touches (bitters, muddled sugar, garnish) transform it into something sublime. There's not a thing wrong with a good martini or scotch on the rocks, but sometimes it's nice to try something a little more complex.

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