About

The average home bar contains 8 to 15 spirit and mixer bottles. The number of possible cocktail combinations from n ingredients is 2ⁿ − 1, meaning 12 bottles yield 4095 theoretical subsets. Without a structured lookup, most people rotate through 3 or 4 memorized recipes and ignore hundreds of viable drinks. This tool queries a database of over 600 cocktail recipes, performs set intersection against your declared ingredient list, and returns only drinks you can actually make right now. It pulls full recipes including exact measures, glassware, and garnish instructions. If your ingredient shelf comes up empty, it falls back to geolocation and finds bars and liquor stores within a configurable radius. Note: the matching algorithm treats each ingredient as a binary flag (present or absent). It does not account for quantity on hand. You may have the right bottles but not enough volume for a full recipe.

Formulas

The core matching logic uses set intersection. Given a user ingredient set U and a cocktail's required ingredient set C_k, the cocktail is makeable when:

C_k ⊆ U ⇔ C_k ∩ U = C_k

The match percentage for partially matching cocktails is computed as:

M = |C_k ∩ U||C_k| × 100%

For nearby place distance, the Haversine formula computes great-circle distance between two coordinate pairs (φ₁, λ₁) and (φ₂, λ₂):

d = 2R ⋅ arcsin(√sin²(Δφ2) + cosφ₁ ⋅ cosφ₂ ⋅ sin²(Δλ2))

Where R = 6371 km (Earth's mean radius), Δφ = φ₂ − φ₁, and Δλ = λ₂ − λ₁.

Reference Data

Spirit / Ingredient	Category	ABV Range	Common Cocktails	Shelf Life (Opened)
Vodka	Base Spirit	37.5 - 50%	Moscow Mule, Cosmopolitan, Martini	Indefinite
Gin	Base Spirit	37.5 - 47%	Gin & Tonic, Negroni, Tom Collins	Indefinite
White Rum	Base Spirit	37.5 - 40%	Mojito, Daiquiri, Piña Colada	Indefinite
Dark Rum	Base Spirit	40 - 75%	Dark & Stormy, Mai Tai, Rum Punch	Indefinite
Tequila	Base Spirit	38 - 40%	Margarita, Paloma, Tequila Sunrise	Indefinite
Bourbon	Base Spirit	40 - 50%	Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, Mint Julep	Indefinite
Triple Sec	Liqueur	15 - 40%	Margarita, Cosmopolitan, Sidecar	3 - 4 years
Campari	Bitter Liqueur	20.5 - 28%	Negroni, Americano, Boulevardier	1 year
Sweet Vermouth	Fortified Wine	15 - 18%	Manhattan, Negroni, Rob Roy	1 - 3 months (refrigerated)
Dry Vermouth	Fortified Wine	15 - 18%	Dry Martini, El Presidente	1 - 3 months (refrigerated)
Lime Juice	Citrus / Mixer	0%	Daiquiri, Gimlet, Mojito	2 - 3 days (fresh)
Lemon Juice	Citrus / Mixer	0%	Whiskey Sour, Tom Collins, French 75	2 - 3 days (fresh)
Simple Syrup	Sweetener	0%	Old Fashioned, Daiquiri, Mojito	1 month (refrigerated)
Angostura Bitters	Bitters	44.7%	Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Champagne Cocktail	5 years
Grenadine	Syrup	0%	Tequila Sunrise, Shirley Temple, Jack Rose	1 - 2 months
Coconut Cream	Mixer	0%	Piña Colada, Painkiller	5 - 7 days (opened)
Soda Water	Carbonated Mixer	0%	Tom Collins, Mojito, Whiskey Highball	Use same day
Tonic Water	Carbonated Mixer	0%	Gin & Tonic, Vodka Tonic	Use same day
Ginger Beer	Carbonated Mixer	0 - 0.5%	Moscow Mule, Dark & Stormy	3 - 5 days
Kahlua	Coffee Liqueur	20%	White Russian, Espresso Martini, B-52	4 years
Baileys	Cream Liqueur	17%	B-52, Mudslide, Irish Coffee	6 months
Amaretto	Nut Liqueur	21 - 28%	Amaretto Sour, Godfather	2 years
Absinthe	Herbal Spirit	45 - 74%	Corpse Reviver #2, Sazerac, Death in the Afternoon	Indefinite
Champagne	Sparkling Wine	12%	French 75, Bellini, Mimosa	1 - 3 days
Orange Juice	Juice / Mixer	0%	Screwdriver, Tequila Sunrise, Mimosa	7 - 10 days
Cranberry Juice	Juice / Mixer	0%	Cosmopolitan, Cape Codder, Sea Breeze	7 - 10 days

Frequently Asked Questions

The tool displays partial matches ranked by match percentage M. A cocktail needing 5 ingredients where you have 4 scores 80%. This helps you discover drinks you're close to making. Missing ingredients are highlighted so you can decide whether a quick store run is worthwhile.

The tool queries TheCocktailDB which catalogs over 600 recipes with standardized ingredient names. Matching is case-insensitive and uses normalized strings. However, the database treats variants separately. For example, "Light Rum" and "Dark Rum" are distinct entries. Selecting "Rum" alone will not match recipes requiring a specific rum type.

No. The geolocation feature uses OpenStreetMap's Overpass API which returns points of interest tagged as bars, pubs, or liquor stores. Operating hours depend on whether the venue has published that data to OSM. Most entries lack hours metadata. Treat results as location references and verify hours independently.

Partially. The ingredient list and any previously fetched cocktail data are cached in LocalStorage. If you reload without internet, the tool restores your last ingredient selection and cached results. However, new API queries for cocktail lookups or nearby places require an active connection. A toast notification will inform you if a request fails due to network issues.

TheCocktailDB hosts images on their CDN. Some entries, particularly user-submitted or lesser-known cocktails, may lack an image. The tool displays a styled placeholder with the drink's initials when no image URL is returned from the API. This is a data completeness issue upstream, not a rendering bug.

Distance uses the Haversine formula which computes great-circle distance on a sphere with radius R = 6371 km. This assumes a perfect sphere and ignores terrain, roads, and elevation. Actual walking or driving distance will always be longer than the displayed straight-line value. Accuracy of your GPS coordinates (typically ±10 m outdoors) also affects results.