The App Store has loads of great apps for everything. When it comes to mixing drinks, there are some really good apps as well. Lush for iPhone is a tasteful addition to the growing portfolio of drink mixing apps on the App Store.
Lush has a gorgeous app icon. There’s no two ways about it. The app is full of delightful details. Basic things like the tab bar at the bottom and search fields are implemented brilliantly with subtle animations. Switching tabs in particular is really nice — the colour changes as the view changes.
The app is split up into 5 sections. The Drinks section lists all the 100 drinks in alphabetical order with small icons next to the names. Tapping the alphabet sort icon on the top left will switch the sort to one by glass type. Tapping a drink name slides the detail page in, with a drink sliding animation akin to ones seen in movies where the bartender slides you a drink across the bar. The ingredients are listed below the custom drink image that has the ingredients and proportions indicated visually in a nice flat style. Tapping the ingredients will switch the units from ounces to ml and vice versa. Each drink also has the alcohol by volume mentioned at the bottom with a short description on how to go about making said drink. There’s a greyscale heart symbol on each drink page that lets you add the drink to your favourites.
The Ingredients section lists the various ingredients as expected and has lovely circular icon representations of each ingredient. Each ingredients page lists the various cocktail possibilities with another ingredient. When multiple drinks are possible with two ingredients, you can swipe across drink images to switch drinks.
The Shortlists and Flavors sections of the app are the highlight for me. There are lists like Classics, Mocktails, Movies, and Shotz and scrolling has various drinks in each category slide in. You will find yourself playing with this often. The movies section in particular features drinks like the Vesper Martini from Dr No and The White Russian from The Big Lebowski. Flavors lets you browse by flavours as the name suggests.
Lush is a really really great app. If you’re even remotely interested in cocktails or mixing drinks, it should be an instant purchase. It is available on the App Store for just $1.99.