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Whisky Cocktail Finder

Find whisky cocktails by the ingredients you have, the style of drink you want and the equipment available. The Whisky Cocktail Finder is designed to explain why a recipe matches your choices, so you can distinguish a complete ingredient match from a suggestion that needs something extra.

[TOOL TO BUILD]

Build status: This page describes the intended tool and its matching method. It does not yet provide searchable recipes or live results.

How to use the cocktail finder

Choose your whisky category, or leave it open if you want to explore recipes without specifying a whisky. Add the other ingredients you have, then select any equipment or glassware limits. Leave a filter unset when it does not matter to you.

Use flavour and serving style to narrow the list further. Read the match explanation before opening a recipe: it should tell you what you already have, what is missing and which details remain unverified.

Inputs

The planned filters are:

How matches are calculated

First, check each selected filter other than ingredients against the recipe record. A confirmed match must satisfy every selected filter and have no missing required ingredients. A suggestion may have missing ingredients but must satisfy every other selected filter. Missing information is not treated as agreement.

For ingredient matching, compare the recipe's required ingredients with your selected ingredients. A complete ingredient match has no missing required ingredient. An optional garnish does not count as a missing requirement, but a required mixer does.

Show complete matches first. If you choose to see recipes needing extra ingredients, order those by the number of missing required ingredients, then alphabetically by recipe title. Display the missing ingredients rather than hiding them behind a match score.

What a result should show

Each result should identify the recipe, its source, its required whisky style and the reason it appears. It should also show any missing ingredients, equipment requirements and unknown fields, with quantities and the full method available in the recipe.

A result is a recipe match, not a quality ranking or a recommendation to drink more. The tool should not automatically substitute ingredients, combine different versions of a cocktail or claim that an untested variation has been tested.

Recipe records and limits

The finder must use attributed recipe records, with ingredients, quantities, method and matching tags checked before inclusion. Until those records are loaded and checked, the tool must show that results are unavailable rather than generate recipes or fill gaps by inference.

Flavour filters describe the recipe record, not a guarantee of what every reader will taste. An unknown value must remain labelled unknown, and a result with unverified information must not appear as a confirmed match for that filter.

Using a recipe

Follow the recipe's measured quantities rather than topping up by eye. Keep water and food available, take breaks and leave any drink unfinished if you wish; these steps do not remove the risks of alcohol. People who are pregnant or trying to conceive, taking medicines that interact with alcohol, living with conditions made worse by alcohol, recovering from alcohol dependence or driving should not drink. See the Responsible Drinking page for further guidance.

Sources

Research basis: desk research from the supplied P14 item brief and master writing prompt, specifying intended tool behaviour rather than reporting recipe testing or live results. No external recipe sources are used in this draft.

Last checked: November 2026