The past couple of weeks (and, at this rate, for the rest of my natural-born life) I’ve been reviewing iPhone cocktail apps, and I’m continuing the stretch for a bit longer before taking a break. Today’s review is an extra-special edition and, I’ll wager at the end of it all, features one of the best of the lot (and the “lot” is large, upwards of 20 or so at last count). But, before we get to the nitty-gritty, you should know that I’m evaluating the applications in 5 areas:

• Usability: Intuitive search functions? Screen go dark too quickly? Conversion options? This will tell you.
• Quality and Depth: Does its Mai Tai call for Creme de Noyaux? Is it chock-full of 20 “Sex on the Beach” variations? If so, fail.
• Features: Is it feature-rich with background information on drinks? Does it allow favorites and ratings to be stored/sorted. If so, it should fare well.
• Likability: Subjective, but important. If the app is fun to use or gorgeously-designed or is simply a pleasure to use, it will gain high marks here.
• Value: Charging me $1.99 for an advertisement-addled flaky piece of crap? Screw you, buddy! Giving me 2,000 recipes with quality photos and background information on the drinks from trusted sources for $3.99? Not bad! You get the idea.

All of these factors, at a weighting of my own choosing at that particular moment, will go into a final overall rating. Today’s review is on Tiki+, a cocktail app designed around and inspired by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s books Intoxica, Grog Log, Sippin’ Safari, and Taboo Table:

Tiki+
	Usability	Tiki+ starts up with a splash screen featuring Jeff Berry in full-on Zombie mode and immediately drops you into the full list of drinks with a sensible row of buttons along the bottom and a search bar at the top. Simple, inviting, and intuitive. The recipe list gives a preview of the ingredients involved in the drink and includes icons indicating the type of preparation and glass required to serve it. Very handy given that tiki drinks can often lead you to the depressing dead-end of a road saying to yourself, “Wait, I can’t make this, I don’t have ‘Don’s Spices’ …what the crap?” So having a preview of what’s involved and the potential difficulty-rating is a big plus. Once you access a recipe it gives a very straight-foward display of the ingredients, the method of preparation, and then a picture or drawing of the drink along with background information on its origins. You also have options to make the drink a favorite of yours or forward it via email, twitter, or facebook. Berry has always done a great job of being explicit and detailed in his instructions and the proper methods for making the drinks, as Tiki drinks, by their nature, rely on specific combinations of rums, spirits, syrups, and juices to create their unique profiles. As far as other niceties, the app allows you to adjust its settings to provide measurements in “Imperial”, two styles of metric format, and, for heaven’s sake, gills. Tiki+ also offers a feature I greatly treasure in an iPhone app, the ability to remain lit while viewing a recipe. Sure, you have to be careful to not leave the recipe up and drain your phone, but it’s far superior to having to unlock the phone and access the app again each time it times-out. Big win, especially when the drinks are Tiki-style and require the sub-contracting of several architects, civic planners, and mechanical engineers to create precisely to spec.
Price: $3.99	Quality/Depth:	The quality of drinks and depth of information on them, and Tiki in general, is unsurpassed. Granted, there aren’t 1,500 recipes- I clock it in around 200- but I defy you to find another iPhone cocktail application, aside from 101 Cocktails, that is so reliable in its recipes and the quality of drinking you’ll experience in trying them (except that Fog Cutter, damn that version is tart). It should also be noted that almost every recipe found in this app is unique to it. You won’t find the Cobra’s Fang, Penang Afrididi, or the Jet Pilot in any other source. Or, if you do, caveat emptor. Granted, except for the Mai Tai, this application doesn’t score well on the Mojito, Old Fashioned, or Bronx cocktails, but that’s because those sorts of drinks aren’t its purpose. Its purpose is singular and, for what it’s attempting, it’s unparalleled in achieving it.
	Features:	Tiki+ has a fairly basic set of features and, in addition to the recipes, has very good information on tiki’s history and origins, the use of crushed ice in tiki drinks, and a decent amount of helpful information on using the app and its features. The social networking component feels a bit tacked-on and restricts you to using specific Twitter apps from the iPhone. The default drink-sorting option, “Base”, seems a bit needless since of the nearly 200 drinks, 120 or so fall under “Rum.” However, once you go deeper into the app the drinks can be sorted by “Type”, “Flavor”, and “Tag” (e.g. 1930s, 1940s, Breakfast drinks, etc.) which are infinitely useful and interesting to browse through. No, there’s not a feature to “find the nearest bar” but, if you’re making use of this app, chances are you have no interest in visiting said bar and the likelihood of its being able to make 1/4 of the drinks found here is roughly the equivalent of Danny Bonaduce not being creepy in the extreme at any given moment.
Producer: Skorpiostech	Likability/Value:	This app is very likable in its design and feel as the Tiki elements play a role throughout and you’re almost certain to glean a new piece of information on any recipe or page you view. At $3.99 it is on the high end of the price range for cocktail apps but its unique content, reliability, and quality make it worth the purchase. The fact that it also includes recipes for the ingredients that may be hard-to-find or that have to be made at home (see: Don’s Spices mentioned above) also increase its value and ensure you’ll get the most from the intricate, and sometimes frustrating, recipes it includes.
	Overall:	Rating: This is one of my “must have” apps for any cocktail enthusiast that has an iPhone. Eminently usable, reliable in its recipes, and considerate in its design, this is one that will not steer you wrong and you’ll find an endless stream of gems to explore and enjoy. Sure, it would be nice to be able to add your own recipes and the photos could, occasionally, have a higher level of production-value but, my god, the garnish and mugs alone are feasts for the eyes. Jeff Berry has done all the footwork for us in researching, uncovering, and cajoling these recipes from the depths of ancient bartender’s secret notebooks and scribbled-upon drink menus. That it all comes together at $3.99 ranks it among the top 20 wonders of the modern world. You may get frustrated at the demands tiki drinks make of you and the effort you find yourself putting forth, but that only lasts until you’re into your second one.

BONUS

Want a chance to talk to Jeff Berry online and celebrate a night of Tiki drinks? Join us this evening, September 3rd, for Thursday Drink Night’s 1st Anniversary party. The Mixoloseum will be all a-buzz and a-twitter about this special event. here’s the announcement:

A year ago, this week, the revelry began. And if my sundial displays truth, the Mixoloseum has hosted 50 Thursday Drink Nights since that first mixological day. In that time, cocktail enthusiasts, writers, and bartenders have created over 500 original cocktails using everything from Fernet Branca to buttermilk. Guests who once came in fear of all the homemade syrups and bitters being slung about like fool’s gold in the chat room now make their own cinnamon syrup, have two local sources for Ting (in case one runs out), and don’t bat an eye when someone calls yellow Chartreuse instead of green.

We’ll be celebrating with rum, rain gods, and back scratchers this week, and Jeff Berry will be making an appearance to sling potions and generally be jealous that we have more homemade syrups than he does. The prizes are profuse, and the last tiki torch won’t be doused until the first rays of light creep across my sundial.

The Prizes

• Best Original Tiki Drink – 50cm gold Japanese bar spoon (pictured at right)
• Best Gin Cocktail – Bottle of Port of Barcelona gin signed by the distiller.
• Best Absinthe Cocktail – Bottle of Obsello absinthe signed by the distiller.
• Best Spiced Rum Cocktail – Bottle of Old New Orleans Cajun spiced rum
• Last One Standing – If you close the doors on our party, you will get yourself a pick of one of Mud Puddle’s six new cocktail book releases.
• First two newcomers who submit a drink – More books! Pick from Mud Puddle’s line-up.

We’ll also be giving out Annual Awards throughout the night (e.g. Person who consistently submits the worst drinks).

Festivities start at 7pm Eastern, Join Us!

Read more on the Tiki+ app:

• Jeff Berry discusses Tiki+ on his blog
• Mixology Magazine covers the release of Tiki+
• MacWorld gives a glowing overview of the Tiki+ application

Read cocktailnerd’s other iPhone Cocktail App Reviews:

• 101 Cocktails
• iShot Machine
• Pocket Cocktails

If you don’t know by now, and really, you should, there’s a weekly online drinking event called Thursday Drink Night hosted by the indomitably-spirited Rick of kaiserpenguin.com at the Mixoloseum Bar. Now, normally, this is your run-of-the-mill affair whereby bartenders, enthusiasts, and mixologists get together and mix drinks that are submitted on-the-fly and put them through the gauntlet of criticism of the sort not seen since Baby Geniuses. Which is to say, unlike the movie, it’s an absolute blast.

So, “what’s special about this one?” you don’t ask? Well, firstly, it’s the first sponsored Thursday Drink Night the Mixoloseum will be having. The good folks at Leblon have seen fit to sponsor the event, take questions, and, hopefully, use the recipes we develop to solve the global financial crisis, reduce poverty by 45.71% and solve the looming energy crisis by using our drinks to catalyze cold fusion. As you can see, they got a hell of a deal.

Secondly, after much whining on my part about being stuck in Vegas sans my home bar, they’ve taken pity on me and kindly set myself and Rumdood (who will be joining me after a drive from L.A.) up at a location on the Las Vegas strip where we, our laptops, and hopefully a small crowd of people will take part in TDN live and on-site at Trader Vic’s in Planet Hollywood. We will be there featuring Leblon in the drinks submitted by the online bar crowd, requesting the crowd or the bartenders submit drinks for TDN, or generally running up legendary bar tabs and ensuring the resulting mayhem and awesomeness doesn’t lead to a destroyed laptop or two.

So, if you’re in Vegas, come by and visit. We’ll be there around 6:00pm and would love to see you and, if the bartenders aren’t already sick to tears of us and giving those smoldering withering stares only barkeeps can, we may even buy you a drink. If you’re not in Vegas, join us at the online bar, pull up a seat, mix a drink with Leblon cachaca, and enjoy the show. It will prove to be a fun, informative (we’ll have Gerry and Steven from leblon on-hand to field questions and provide the edutainment of the evening), and lively time.

Over at The Mixoloseum we’ve been having a lot of fun rambling and rousing and what-not and, to be honest, the “Bar” has become a great resource for me to quickly find out information of things not in my area of expertise. We also get to give and share opinions on cocktails and spirits such as the Singapore Sling, “porn campaign” cachaca, and the merits, or lack thereof, of various vodkas, gins, and rums .

We’ve also held several events to trial-run interest, involvement, and to learn how to manage scheduled chats and I think we’ve had great success with our Rum Chat and our Blogging/Marketing chat. So, I would like to point out several features that are on the The Mixoloseum’s Blog as well as here at cocktailnerd and elsewhere.

Who’s Chatting:

You can easily see who’s in the Mixoloseum’s Bar at any time in my sidebar, the Mixoloseum Blog’s sidebar, or at Tiki Drinks and Indigo Firmaments

The chat room is always open and, of course, always open to anyone interested in sharing their cocktail experiences or looking to have questions answered. No guarantee made about our answers’ accuracy or assurance that following our advice will not cause emotional or physical harm. There’s no closing time or last call and we have a regular Thursday night “Drink Night” where we share, and try, recipes in real time and discuss, mock, and ridicule each other about them . Which brings us to:

Event Calendar:

To find out what we’re up to at the bar besides hanging out (sometimes we do manage to get organized) you can view the events calendar in the blog’s sidebar. We’re currently meeting every Monday night to discuss specific topics and the transcripts are posted after each gathering. Up next is a discussion about Tales panel ideas (September 15^th) and soon after we’ll be discussing cocktail garnish and garnish techniques and topics ranging from absinthe to making your own ingredients to the history and current state of gin (not to mention what to do with Sloe Gin)

Upcoming:

The Mixoloseum will also roll-out several new areas over the next month or so including:

• Mixolopedia: a wiki where drinks and any variations that can be found will be rated, discussed, and explored by registered Mixoloseum Wiki members and, once the cocktail is put through the crucible of our analysis, one may be crowned “Mixoloseum Certified!” (or something).
• Port Royal: a booze-swapping site where the have’s and have less’s can meet and trade their various and sundry homemade ingredients, hard-to-find ingredients, and local flavors free-of-charge or fees. A raising of the Port Royal villainy sunk so long ago.
• Mixoloseum Library: a search and research engine bridging the gap between classic and modern recipes and including recipe background and sources while being intelligently structured, screened, and designed (i.e. no 128 “Screaming Orgasm on the Beach 3 Ways” recipes).

Look for them soon and to see what we’re up to over there at any time visit the Bar or the Blog.