I have Shake and Strain, the app, but I never seem to use it, generally just either get inspired from a news post or the Imbibe magazine, or a restaurant drink; or just stand in front of the liquor cabinet thinking “what looks good?”. When I have an unusual ingredient, Google it, and don’t think about the app.
Do you have a drink app in your phone and do you use it?
I use Mixel, and I quite like it. Lots of great recipes, you can rate them and save them, it matches based off your ingredients. One of the few apps I’ve happily paid for premium on.
It’s * exactly * how reference apps with in-app purchases should work. You can pay a la carte for specific lists of recipes, or pay more (once) for everything forever. It’s a really good app with a fun design. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
I have My Bar installed, but usually use it to browse recipes. I don’t maintain “my cabinet” to let it know what I have on hand and what’s missing, but that has been handy in the past when I’ve done so.
I like my bar, too. I like to try new things, and being able to input what ingredients I have, and to have it show what I can make (and even those things that I can almost make) makes it simpler to explore different options. Some of the recipes I question - no accounting for taste, I guess
This is a little embarrassing, but I wanted an easier way to reference recipes from books that I trust, so I built my own little app and enter recipes that I like. I like the app because it does exactly what I want! My favorite feature is a quantity multiplier since it’s so much easier than math when trying to mix for guests.
Thank you for the Mixel recommendation. So much better, it does have a lot and I can store the ones I create or find online, this is much more robust.
I typically go to a book first, and Google or search a cocktail forum if I can’t find anything. I highly recommend The Cocktail Codex, fantastic cocktail book.
The apps I’ve tried have been forgettable and a lot less useful than I’d hoped.