Beachbum Berry’s Total Tiki 17+

Though I've made and enjoyed numerous drinks and cocktails over the decades, I never went very far beyond a few comfortable favorites, that is, unless I was sitting at a competent bar somewhere and could order a drink that was outside my comfort zone! Along with "The Bar Book" (Kindle version) by J. Morgenthaler, and this publisher's Easy Cocktails (Shaken and Stirred) app, I feel I've received a fairly inexpensive, but surprisingly thorough, mixology starter course -- that is, inexpensive if you don't count the liquor store bill! Features such as the ability to track your available ingredients (including across their various apps via the included sync service), making journal entries, and knowing what drinks you can build given your current inventory (or with one or two more ingredients), made the cost of this app a non-issue for me. Very useful. Basically, this is what one good cocktail might cost you at a decent Tiki bar! I've only tried a couple of the recipes so far, but am looking forward to many more. I hope lots of fellow drink aficionados will also purchase these apps, such that the publisher will maintain and update this suite of apps for many years to come.

Okay, so that review title may be a little bit hyperbolic, as we all know that delicious tiki is, by nature, pretty complex. Layers of exotic flavorings and spirits meld together to make an ethereal, boozy experience, but they also usually make for an expensive and hard-to-find shopping list.
This is exactly where the strength of Total Tiki lies. First off, finding a single anthology with this much authentic tiki is all but impossible. Just try. Second, this app makes it so that there is no more thumbing through lengthy books, aimlessly searching for something you think you can make with what’s on hand.
Total Tiki takes the digging and guess work out of finding the perfect cocktail for your tropical evening. Simply selecting the ingredients you have filters down results to the available recipes you can make right then and there. Even better is the feature that auto-applies substitutions based upon your inventory selections. This just further widens your available tiki drink options without requiring you to spend another penny. It’s honestly like having a professional mixologist on standby, catering to your every budget-minded whim.

Back to my original point: tiki isn’t simple. Hasn’t ever been, and never will be (at least not without sacrificing a lot of flavor). However, it doesn’t have to be frustratingly complicated or expensive... and Total Tiki proves it!

Take a sip and slide into your Polynesian pjs, this app is worth the snag.

I have learned so much from this app, both from the historical notes about the cocktails and from the amazing amount of information it offers about the various ingredients. You can create an inventory of ingredients you have on hand and then search by “drinks you can make” (or drinks where you may be missing one or two ingredients). I also love the fact that for the most iconic cocktails it has several different recipes, showing the evolution of the cocktail through the decades and as it appeared in different venues.

One fix I would suggest: when you mark a cocktail as “Need to try,” it never leaves that list even after you remove the label and mark it as “Tried/Like.” That seems like an easy correction. (Not a huge thing, but when I’m looking for new drinks to try, it’s a pain to have to go through them all to see if it’s something I truly haven’t had before.)