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Difford’s Guide vs Borrachos.bar: Cocktail Resource Comparison

by | Sep 8, 2026 | Wisconsin Bars

Last updated: September 2026

If you’re searching for cocktail recipes online, you’ve probably landed on Difford’s Guide — the industry-standard database with thousands of professional recipes — but Borrachos.bar offers a different approach that’s better suited for home bartenders who want calorie data, filtering tools, and Wisconsin-specific drinks without a paywall. Difford’s Guide is built for professional bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts who want depth; Borrachos.bar is built for people standing in their kitchen deciding what to make with what they have. This comparison breaks down where each tool wins and where each one falls short.

Quick Answer

Difford’s Guide has the largest cocktail database on the internet with thousands of recipes, but Borrachos.bar wins for home bartenders because it’s free, requires no signup, includes calorie and ABV filtering, and has 196 cocktails with integrated nutrition data. If you’re a professional bartender researching obscure recipes, use Difford’s. If you’re at home trying to figure out what to make with gin and lime juice while tracking calories, use Borrachos.bar’s Drink Finder tool.

The Competitors: Three Cocktail Databases Compared

Three cocktail databases dominate the “cocktail finder” search landscape: Difford’s Guide, TheCocktailDB, and Make Me a Cocktail, each with different strengths and target audiences. Difford’s Guide (diffordsguide.com) is the professional bartender’s reference, with thousands of recipes curated by Simon Difford, a spirits industry veteran. TheCocktailDB (thecocktaildb.com) is an open source, crowd-sourced database with a public API that developers use to build cocktail apps. Make Me a Cocktail (makemeacocktail.com) offers a “virtual bar” feature where you log your ingredients and it suggests drinks you can make.

Difford’s Guide: The Professional’s Database

Difford’s Guide contains thousands of cocktail recipes with professional-grade measurements, spirit recommendations, and bartending technique notes — making it the most comprehensive cocktail reference online. Simon Difford, a UK-based spirits writer, built the database over decades of industry work. Recipes include specific brand recommendations, alternative ingredients, and detailed method instructions (stirred vs shaken, glassware, garnish). The site offers a premium membership that unlocks additional features.

But the depth comes at a cost to usability. **The interface overwhelms casual users , a search for “margarita” returns dozens of variations with professional notation that assumes you know what “float” and “rim” mean without explanation.** There’s no calorie data on any recipe. No ABV calculation. No filtering by spirit category or drink type. The search is text-based, not faceted, so you can’t say “show me gin cocktails under 200 calories” because the calorie data doesn’t exist. A premium membership is required for some features, which creates a paywall between you and the recipe you wanted.

TheCocktailDB: The Developer’s Database

TheCocktailDB is an open-source, crowd-sourced cocktail database with a public REST API that powers hundreds of cocktail apps and websites — but the database itself is thin on recipes and has no calorie or nutrition data. According to TheCocktailDB’s own documentation, the API serves roughly 600 cocktails in its free tier. The API is well-documented and free for non-commercial use, which makes it popular with developers building cocktail apps. But as a consumer tool, the website itself is basic: text search, no faceted filtering, no calorie data, no ABV information, and no visual presentation beyond thumbnail images.

Make Me a Cocktail: The Virtual Bar

Make Me a Cocktail’s standout feature is its “virtual bar” — you input the bottles and mixers you own, and it returns recipes you can make with those specific ingredients, which solves the “what can I make with what I have” problem better than any other tool. The site claims over 3,000 recipes in its database. However, the free tier limits how many ingredients you can add to your virtual bar, pushing users toward a paid subscription. There’s no calorie data, no ABV filtering, and no category filtering. The interface is functional but cluttered with ads on the free version.

Borrachos.bar: A Different Approach

Borrachos.bar’s Drink Finder is a free, no-signup cocktail database with 196 drinks that can be filtered by spirit, category, calorie range, and ABV — features none of the three competitors offer in combination. The Drink Finder tool runs entirely in the browser with no account required. You search by name, filter by spirit (gin, vodka, rum, whiskey, tequila, brandy), narrow by category (classic, tropical, Wisconsin, shooter), and set calorie or ABV ranges. Each result includes the full recipe, ingredient list, and calorie count.

**The calorie integration is what separates Borrachos.bar from every cocktail database in this comparison — 96 of the 196 cocktails include calorie data, and each links to the full calorie chart for context.** A Margarita shows 168 calories per standard serving. A Wisconsin Old Fashioned shows the calorie count alongside the recipe. Difford’s Guide, TheCocktailDB, and Make Me a Cocktail don’t include calorie data on any recipe. For home bartenders tracking nutrition — whether for weight loss, macro tracking, or curiosity — this is a feature gap the other databases haven’t addressed.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Feature
Difford’s Guide
TheCocktailDB
Make Me a Cocktail
Borrachos.bar

Recipe count
Thousands
~600 (free tier)
~3,000
196

Free access
Partial (premium paywall)
Yes
Limited (freemium)
Yes, fully

Signup required
No (but premium locks features)
No
Yes for virtual bar
No

Calorie data
No
No
No
Yes (96 drinks)

ABV filtering
No
No
No
Yes

Spirit filtering
Text search only
Text search only
Yes
Yes

Category filtering
No
Yes
No
Yes

Calorie range filter
No
No
No
Yes

Ingredient-based search
Yes
Yes
Yes (virtual bar)
Yes (text search)

Wisconsin cocktails
No
No
No
Yes (38 drinks)

Mobile-friendly
Yes
Basic
Yes
Yes

Ads
Yes
Yes
Yes (free tier)
No

Public API
No
Yes
No
No

Where Difford’s Guide Wins

Difford’s Guide wins on sheer volume — if you need a recipe for an obscure 1970s tiki drink or a modern competition cocktail, Difford’s has it and Borrachos.bar doesn’t. The depth of Simon Difford’s database is genuinely impressive. Recipes include professional-level detail: specific brand recommendations, alternative ingredient substitutions, and technique notes that teach you why you’re stirring instead of shaking. For professional bartenders, cocktail writers, and serious enthusiasts building a home library, Difford’s Guide is the reference standard. No other database comes close to its recipe count.

Where TheCocktailDB Wins

TheCocktailDB wins on accessibility for developers — its free, open-source API powers cocktail apps and websites that reach millions of users, and that ecosystem is something a single-site operation like Borrachos.bar can’t replicate. If you’re building an app and need cocktail data, TheCocktailDB is the obvious choice. The API is well-maintained, documented, and free for non-commercial use. For end users, though, the website itself is the weakest of the four — it’s a database front-end, not a consumer tool.

Where Make Me a Cocktail Wins

Make Me a Cocktail wins on the “what do I have” problem — the virtual bar feature genuinely solves a real frustration that no other tool addresses as directly. Telling the app “I have gin, lime juice, and simple syrup” and getting back a Gimlet is useful in a way that a text search isn’t. The ingredient-matching algorithm is more sophisticated than Borrachos.bar’s text-based search. For someone with a limited home bar who wants recipe suggestions based on what’s on their shelf, Make Me a Cocktail does that job well.

Where Borrachos.bar Wins

Borrachos.bar wins on the intersection of recipes, calories, and filtering — a combination no other cocktail database offers. The Drink Finder lets you say “show me gin cocktails under 200 calories” and get immediate results. That’s not possible on Difford’s, TheCocktailDB, or Make Me a Cocktail because none of them have calorie data. The Wisconsin cocktail collection — 38 drinks including the Wisconsin Old Fashioned with sweet, sour, and press variations, Brandy Slush, Grasshopper, and other Midwest classics — doesn’t exist in any other database. The calorie chart covers 96 drinks with serving-size context that health-focused sites like Sunnyside.co don’t pair with actual recipes. And the tool is completely free with no signup and no ads.

The Real-World Use Case

Here’s the scenario where Borrachos.bar beats all three competitors: you’re at home on a Friday night, you have a bottle of brandy and some sweet vermouth, you want to make something good, and you want to know how many calories you’re drinking. On Difford’s Guide, you can search for brandy cocktails but can’t filter by calorie range because the data doesn’t exist. On Make Me a Cocktail, you can add brandy and sweet vermouth to your virtual bar but need an account, and the results won’t show calories. On Borrachos.bar, you type “brandy” into the Drink Finder, set the calorie filter to under 300, and get results with recipes and calorie counts in one view. That’s the use case the tool was built for.

The Honest Assessment

Borrachos.bar is not trying to replace Difford’s Guide . 196 cocktails versus thousands is a real limitation, and if you need recipe depth, Difford’s is the better tool. What Borrachos.bar does is serve a different audience: home bartenders who want practical filtering, calorie awareness, and Wisconsin cocktail recipes without a paywall. The Drink Finder is a consumer tool, not a professional reference. The 196-cocktail database covers the classics, popular modern drinks, and Wisconsin-specific recipes that the larger databases don’t include at all. If you’re building a home bar and want to know what to make and how many calories you’re consuming, Borrachos.bar is the better choice. If you’re a professional looking up a specific recipe for a cocktail competition, Difford’s Guide is the better choice. Both tools have a place in a bartender’s bookmarks.

See also: our signature Wisconsin Old Fashioned

See also: our summer 2026 seasonal cocktail guide

FAQ

Is Difford’s Guide free?

Difford’s Guide is partially free , you can browse recipes without an account, but a premium membership unlocks additional features and content. The free tier gives you access to most recipes, but the paywall restricts some advanced search and filtering capabilities.

Does Borrachos.bar have a cocktail API?

Borrachos.bar does not currently offer a public cocktail API. The Drink Finder is a browser based tool. TheCocktailDB is the best option if you need programmatic access to cocktail data via an API.

Which cocktail database has the most recipes?

Difford’s Guide has the most recipes by a wide margin, with thousands of cocktails in its database. Make Me a Cocktail claims approximately 3,000 recipes. TheCocktailDB has roughly 600 in its free tier. Borrachos.bar has 196 cocktails, focusing on quality and nutrition data over volume.

Can I search cocktails by calorie count?

Only Borrachos.bar allows filtering cocktails by calorie range. Difford’s Guide, TheCocktailDB, and Make Me a Cocktail do not include calorie data on their recipes. Borrachos.bar has calorie information for 96 of its 196 cocktails.

Does any cocktail database include Wisconsin-specific drinks?

Borrachos.bar is the only cocktail database with a dedicated Wisconsin cocktail collection, featuring 38 drinks including the Wisconsin Old Fashioned, Brandy Slush, Grasshopper, and other Midwest classics. Difford’s Guide, TheCocktailDB, and Make Me a Cocktail do not categorize drinks by regional origin.

Is the Borrachos.bar Drink Finder mobile-friendly?

Yes, the Drink Finder works on mobile browsers with no app download required. The tool is built as a responsive web page, not a native app, so it works on any device with a browser.

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