iVideo Cocktails

Developer: iDélices
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

iPhone Integration [rating:4/5]
User Interface [rating:4/5]
Re-use / Replay Value [rating:4/5]

Overall Rating:

If you've ever stood in front of a fully stocked bar and wanted something delicious but ended up just pouring a Jack & Coke because it's all you knew how to make, this is the app for you.

What can the app do?

When you first start it up you're presented with 6 different sections to choose from:
All Cocktails, By type of cocktail, Bartender Secrets, Cocktail at random, Favorite cocktails, and Recently viewed.

[img id="img_00341.png"]I'm going to focus on the first 3 menus as the last 3 are pretty self explanatory. All Cocktails allows you to browse through the entire alphabetized drink recipes library that iVideo Cocktails has to offer. Currently, the list offers recipes and videos for 50 different drinks, many of them the staples of the cocktail world... but I'm far from calling this list extensive. Where's my Long Island Ice Tea recipe? I've got some memories from Mexico I want to relive!

With that being said, I'm sure there are already plans in the works to expand this in future updates/releases. In fact, if you take the free survey at the bottom of the main screen you can already get 10 additional cocktails for free.

Once you choose your drink, a beautiful photo of how it "should" look in the end appears. For some reason mine never seem to turn out quite as nice. You're then presented with several options; you can choose to watch a very good streaming video of how to make the drink, mark it as one of your favorites, go through the ingredients list, or read through the preparations step by step.

The ingredients list is one of the best parts of this app. It's made in a check sheet manner where you can mark off what you do and don't have before starting to make your drinks. It also allows you to choose how many people are braving a taste of your concoction (between 1-4) and will automatically adjust the portions of ingredients as needed.

By type of cocktails is a handy menu as it groups drinks based on its main alcohol ingredient, i.e. vodka, rum, tequila, etc. My only dilemma is the way the developer describes this menu "Cocktails based on the contents of your bar." To me this means something entirely different. What I would like to see is a section where you can go through a inventory list of what is in your bar, check it off and then the app automatically compiles a list of all the different drinks you can make from it. It would save a tremendous amount of time from reading the individual ingredients of a dozen different drinks, do I have that? No, next. Do I have that? No...etc.

The 3rd menu, Bartender Secrets, is a cool idea where professional bartenders give you some tricks of the trade. Unfortunately as of now though its just a waste of space. There are only two barmen in the list, one with only 5 tips, and the other with just a bio of himself (how is this a helpful secret?). If this app added some cool pouring trick videos or something along those lines.gets expanded it could be a great section. Maybe adding

In the end this app definitely has some room to grow, but even now it's a solid purchase.

Recap

The Good
• Well organized
• Detailed videos and preparation lists anyone could follow
• Cocktail at random helps you find new fun drinks to try
• Possible future updates to the drink library keeps reusability high

The Bad
• Bartender secrets is currently a waste of space
• Small drink library
• Needs options to search library by name or based on ingredients in your own bar
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