Still, Cocktails HD provides just the right balance of information. If you want eye-catching, easy-to-follow drink recipes, you've got plenty to work with. And if you want to drill down deeper for even more bartending pointers, Cocktails HD offers that, too.
lacks the presentation polish of Cocktails HD. In fact, the $2 app from is fairly plain and hampered by a rather unfortunate interface decision. In landscape mode, the left side of the screen features a scrollable pane containing the app's extensive list of cocktails; tap a recipe and it appears on the right. But flip you iPad into portrait mode, and the recipe takes up the entire screen--with no way to return to the app's navigation tools until you turn your tablet sideways again. The idea, I suppose, is that the app is a virtual rolodex of drink recipes, and portrait mode acts as the equivalent of pulling a recipe out of the file. (It also makes for easier reading at a distance, the developer claims.) It's an interesting approach, but not one that matches the way I use my iPad.
Still, it would be a mistake to dwell too much on the app's interface, when Drink-a-Dex comes packed with such an impressive volume of content. The app claims more than 2,000 recipes, and it's not an idle boast. You'll find all the classics here, along with a host of variations and interpretations (three different takes on a Rob Roy, for example, and fans of the Manhattan can sample the dry, perfect, and sweet approaches to the cocktail). You'll also find a host of obscure and oddly named offerings--the Maryland Squirrel! the Tigers Milk! the Four Flush!--if you're looking to broaden your cocktail horizons.
In addition to that scrollable list, Drink-a-Dex features a search field that returns results as you type. (As with Cocktails HD, the on-screen keyboard blocks some of the results, but if you place a finger on the list to scroll through the results, the keyboard will disappear.) A Categories tab lets you search for cocktails by their base liquor, flavor, tag, or type, while a Masters tab brings up recipes from noted mixologists Jamie Boudreau, Dale DeGroff, and Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro. A star icon for each recipe lets you designate a particular drink as a favorite--they'll appear in their own tab as well. In short, if you can't easily find a cocktail recipe using Drink-a-Dex, you probably aren't trying very hard.
The app is a little bland looking--you won't find the colorful photos in Drink-a-Dex that make Cocktails HD such a pleasure to look at. But that's not really this app's aim. Rather, Drink-a-Dex wants to be an encompassing resource of cocktail recipes. And, spartan design or not, it more than delivers on that aim.