On May 31, Microsoft made available the next milestone in their development of Windows 8 – the Windows 8 Release Preview. I have it installed and running on two laptops and while my colleague Abhishek Baxi has covered some topics about the operating system itself, I look at one of the most beautiful apps in the Windows Store at the moment, Cocktail Flow.
Windows Phone users will recognize the name, since it was one of the first apps available on the platform and it is one which truly utilizes the Metro design philosophies. Since the launch of this app on Windows Phone, the creators of this app, Team Distinction have released versions for iPhone, Android and Android tablets.
In case you are not familiar with the app, it is designed to help you make cocktails. It provides the capability to search by base or mixer drink, by type (cocktail, shooter, etc.) and also by a combination of what you have “in your cabinet”. While the concept of a bartender-style app is not new, the way it has been designed makes the app simply beautiful to look at and a pleasure to use. What follows is a screenshot tour of the various features of their latest version, that for Windows 8.
Once you open the app, you are brought to a beautiful panorama of selections you can make to look for information about cocktails. You can see drinks by kind of drinks, by color, by type of drinks, etc.
Main screen
Main screen with more selections
Once you click through one of those selections, you are brought to a list of drinks. You can swipe across to see more drinks.
Whiskey-based drinks
Vodka-based drinks
Green-colored drinks
Shooters
If you want to see what kind of cocktails you can make with what you have, you can use the “cabinet” view which lets you mark the spirits, mixers, and liqueurs you have and it adds drinks which you can make from those selections, in the “My Bar” section.
My Bar: Choose your spirits
My Bar: Choose your mixers
My Bar: More mixers
My Bar: Liqueurs
My Bar: Cocktails which you can make
See the next page for cocktail details screen, adding as a favorite, pinning to Start Screen, etc.
