Recipe Categories

Ask three bartenders what makes a drink a Sour and you'll get three answers and one argument. Cocktail categories have always been fuzzy – built on tradition, vibes, and a long list of "except when…" Tipply takes a different route: every category is defined by a formula.

The formula approach

Before anything gets categorized, Tipply breaks each recipe down into a set of structured facts – does it contain a spirit, a liqueur, a fortified wine, dairy, bitters, juice? Is it shaken, stirred, built, swizzled, heated? How much of the volume is sweetener, juice, or mixer? Every ingredient and technique becomes a measurable attribute.

A category is then just a precise rule over those attributes – a formula that is either true or false for a given recipe. An Old Fashioned, for example, is roughly:

has_spirits > 0 AND (has_sweetener > 0 OR has_liqueur > 0) AND has_bitters > 0 AND has_carbonation = 0 AND no juice, no dairy, no wine AND it is stirred, built, or shaken

Because the rule is explicit, categorization is consistent and reproducible. The same recipe always lands in the same place, the edge cases are handled by the conditions themselves (no juice, no bubbles, served over small ice…), and a drink can honestly belong to more than one category at once.

The families, by formula

Here is how the classic families shake out once you write them down.

Old Fashioneds

A base spirit, a touch of sweetener (sugar, syrup, or a liqueur), and bitters – diluted with ice or water and mixed by stirring, building, or shaking. No juice, no dairy, no bubbles.

Classics

A base spirit modified with a fortified wine or aperitif and sweetened with a liqueur – and nothing else. No juice, no mixer, no carbonation. The Manhattan and its cousins live here: spirit-forward, stirred, and built entirely out of other alcohols.

Martinis

A base spirit lengthened with a fortified wine or aperitif (think dry vermouth) and nothing else – no sweetener, no juice, no dairy, no dilution beyond the stir.

Duos & Trios

The minimalist's drinks – a base spirit plus one partner (a Duo) or two (a Trio), each a liqueur, fortified wine, or aperitif.

Scaffias

A spirit, a liqueur, and bitters, served with no dilution at all – no ice, no water. A Classic stripped down and kept neat.

Sours

A base spirit, a sweetener, and a juice or muddled fruit – sometimes with a splash of mixer. Mixed any way except building, and served up rather than over ice.

Swizzles

A base spirit, a sweetener, a juice, and a spice note – churned with a swizzle stick over crushed ice until frost beads on the glass. Any mixer stays under a fifth of the total volume.

Cobblers

Alcohol, sweetener, and fruit – no juice, no carbonation – served over small, pebbly ice.

Cups

Alcohol, sweetener, and fruit built in the glass it is served in, where the sweetener, juice, and any mixer each stay under a quarter of the total volume.

Juleps & Smashes

A spirit, a sweetener (syrup or muddled fruit), and an herbal note – classically mint – over small ice, with no juice.

Long Drinks

An alcohol base with a mixer – carbonated or not – added in real quantity to "lengthen" the drink. A little juice is fine; muddled fruit is not.

Shandies

Beer lengthened with a citrus-flavored carbonated mixer, and nothing else – two ingredients, long and easy.

Flips & Nogs

A spirit, a liqueur, and a dairy component, shaken hard until the whole thing is silky and integrated.

Possets

An old one: wine or beer with dairy and warming spices, gently curdled – the medieval ancestor of eggnog.

Punches

A wine base with a sweetener and fruit, usually batched up for a crowd – the Sangaree and Sangria live here.

Shrubs

Any cocktail built around a shrub – fruit preserved with vinegar – for a tangy, sweet-and-sour backbone.

Toddies

A spirit, a non-liqueur sweetener, a lemon note, a spice component, and water – served hot or cold.

Bishops

A hot drink built on a spirit, wine or fortified wine, and warming spices – no dairy.

Blazers

Barely more than a spirit and a sweetener, served hot and mixed by rolling the (often flaming) liquid between two tins. No dairy, no egg.

Pousse Cafés

Two or more ingredients floated in bands by density, so each layer stays visually distinct. The whole drink is the layering.

Categories that stack

A few categories describe how a drink is finished rather than what is in it, so they sit on top of the others. A Carbonated Drink is any recipe that has been force-carbonated; a Bottled Drink is any recipe that has been bottled or kegged; a Frozen Drink is any recipe blended with ice to a slushy texture. Each one can be based on a Sour, an Old Fashioned, or anything else – the base formula still applies, with the finishing technique layered over it.

Still being written

A handful of families are unmistakable by sight but resist a clean rule – Tiki, tropicals, and exotics, with their stacked rums and half-dozen juices, and Jelly Shots, set with gelatin rather than mixed. They are recognized categories; their formulas are still being written, and they'll click into place the same way the rest did once the rule is nailed down.

The payoff is simple: instead of arguing about which bucket a drink belongs in, you can read the rule, see exactly why it qualifies, and trust that every other recipe was judged the same way.