The cocktail book every bartender wants to get into now has a new App with several years worth of cocktails just a tequila soaked thumb click away.
For those not aware of the 101 Best New Cocktail books they are the brainchild of gaz ‘I’m 63 you know’ regan. Started in 2011 gaz set about to discover the best new cocktails invented by bartenders from across the globe.
Each year he encourages bartenders to enter their finest creations for his consideration (if you want to enter a drink for next years book head here) he then goes through them picking out some favourites, makes a vast amount of drinks, once again thanks himself for his very patient partner Amy, picks his top 101 and publishes them.
As the drinks come from far and wide (last year around 7,000 entries were received) it is a fascinating insight into the trends worldwide and a chance to spot upcoming styles or ingredients. The books also contains the Regan Report, a look at these trends broken down so you can quickly and easily see what is happening.
Anyway enough about the book, it’s on Amazon and such places. We’re here to tell you about the App.
With the amount of cocktails at his disposal and the vast amount of ingredients included a very specific system needed to be found, a system that thankfully already existed. A guy by the name of Martin Doudoroff, a New York based drinks enthusiast and blogger, had produced such a thing in 2014.
Martin has already used the system on (deep breath) Martin’s New & Improved Index of Cocktails & Mixed Drinks from the First Golden Age of the American Bar (don’t worry the App is a lot more user friendly than the title) and Beachbum Berry’s Total Tiki. Both well worth a look into.
These Apps, as gaz’s new one, are tailored to be both consumer and bartender friendly with options you can choose to use, or not, as takes your fancy.
You can, if you wish, input all the ingredients you have to hand using an easily navigable menu (even if it does have a few crossovers due to the descriptions given by the bartenders) and the App will spit out which drinks listed you can make and which you need 1 or 2 more ingredients to attack. This is probably more useful to a home market or indeed a bartender making drinks at home but is nonetheless a handy tool.
You can also search by a variety of parameters from type of cocktail, ABV level, year of inclusion, base ingredient or, if you know what you are after, cocktail name. With over 375 cocktails included it is handy to be able to shorten the list down.
Each cocktail comes with the specs and method as well as details of the creator, some notes on their process as well as gaz’s thoughts on the drink. It is this element that will really appeal to the bartenders and gives the App a very unique feel.
At £7.99 it is not the cheapest App you will ever buy, but for the amount of unique cocktail recipes you get, as well as the easy search options, it seems like a bargain to us. It is also being continually updated with new recipes so it is only going to get better value for money as you go.
If you fancy getting your hands on it give it a search on your phone or click away here