Elixr, so you and your mermaid can enjoy a fancy cocktail in good company
Nothing makes this cowgirl feel fancier than putting on a little cocktail dress and sipping at a fancy cocktail. Preferably with a mermaid. But it’s just not too ladylike to sit at a bar all by yourself, and my friends, well… They’re either not the party type, or not the app type. So when I discovered Elixr, a brand-new, gorgeous social app made for connoisseurs of high-class libations, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. How do you test a social app about drinks all by your lonesome when you’re a lady?
You bring in experts, that’s how. So I contacted 52 Martinis, a Paris-based meetup group whose sole purpose in life is finding the best cocktails in Paris. You can read about our party in honor of Elixr, and get our official recipe for our very own original cocktail, The Cowgirl, on the (appropriately named!) Tumbleweed Saloon.
The basic idea of Elixr is that you rate drinks (wine, beer, cocktails) and locations. You can see the ratings others have given to places and drinks. You can find places nearby that other Elixr members have rated. You can connect with friends and strangers.
Once you create a profile, all you have to do is have a drink! Tap the plus sign (on several screens) to take a photo of your drink. (Or you can choose a photo from your camera roll by tapping the martini glass icon, lower left.) There are filters if you want to add atmosphere (useful, considering there’s no smoke in bars these days to do it for you). Choose a location or type one in if it’s not in the list (Elixr knows that you sometimes have a drink at home or at a friend’s house, and lets you choose “Private Venue” as your location). Choose the drink name or type one in if it’s something unusual! Then you add your comments about your drink (this is where you’d talk about bouquets and legs and whatnot if you’re one of those wine people).
And of course you can share all this info in the usual ways.
If you’re looking for a place to have a drink, you can find locations that have been rated nearby. Tap the compass needle icon at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a map, with adorable cocktail olives as pins on locations, and a list of nearby locations below it. Swipe the black bar between the map and the list up or down to see either full screen. Tap a location name (or an olive) to get the address and see pictures and ratings. Tap “What do you think?” to leave your own comments about the place.
To see what and where your friends have been imbibing, tap the cocktail olive icon at the bottom of the screen. To see a mosaic of pictures people all over the world are uploading, tap the icon with different cocktail glasses. Tap a picture in the mosaic for more details.
There are a few things I’d like to see added. The ability to include the ingredients of your drink in your rating (separate from your comments). Some of those drinks look good, and I’d like to make them at home. The country where a location is. I follow some guy in Thailand, and I only know that’s where he is because the maps that show up for his drinks have street names in Thai! I’d also like to filter results by terms in the descriptions. If I’m looking for a place to have a drink, and I’m in the mood for “quaint,” there’s no point in showing me a bunch of “energetic” bars blasting techno music near me… And maybe add “romantic” and “dive” as descriptions… ;-)
Devices: iOS
Cost: Free
Elixr on the App Store
