Make Me a Cocktail vs Borrachos.bar: Drink Finder Comparison

Last updated: September 2026

TLDR: Make Me a Cocktail has the “virtual bar” feature and a larger recipe database, but Borrachos.bar’s Drink Finder is free with no signup, filters by calories and ABV, and covers 196 cocktails with Wisconsin-specific recipes. If you want to input every bottle on your shelf and get matches, Make Me a Cocktail wins. If you want to find a drink by calorie range, spirit type, or ingredient without creating an account, the Borrachos.bar Drink Finder does it faster and with zero friction.

Why a Cocktail Finder Matters

A cocktail finder tool saves you from scrolling through endless recipe blogs when you already know roughly what you want — a gin drink under 200 calories, or a whiskey cocktail you can make with what’s in the cabinet. The difference between a good finder and a frustrating one comes down to three things: how fast you get results, whether the filters match how you actually think about drinks, and whether you hit a paywall or signup screen before you get your answer.

I’ve used Make Me a Cocktail, TheCocktailDB, Barshelf, and our own Drink Finder at Borrachos.bar. Each has a different philosophy. Here’s how they actually compare.

Make Me a Cocktail: The Virtual Bar Approach

Make Me a Cocktail’s signature feature is the “virtual bar” — you check off every bottle and mixer you own, and the tool returns recipes you can make right now with no additional shopping. That’s genuinely useful for home bartenders staring at a shelf of random bottles wondering what to pour. The database is large, with several thousand recipes sourced from classic cocktail books and user submissions.

Where Make Me a Cocktail Wins

Virtual bar feature: Input your actual inventory, get matching recipes. No other free tool does this as cleanly.
Database size: Several thousand recipes versus our 196. If you want breadth — obscure tiki drinks, regional European cocktails, modern craft creations , they have more ground covered.
Ingredient-based matching: The search logic accounts for partial matches, so if you’re missing one ingredient, it still surfaces recipes you can nearly make.

Where Make Me a Cocktail Falls Short

Account friction: To use the virtual bar properly, you need to create an account and build your shelf. That’s a barrier if you just want a quick answer.
No calorie data: You can’t filter by calories. For anyone tracking intake or comparing drinks nutritionally, this is a real gap.
No ABV filtering: If you want a low-ABV session cocktail specifically, you’re out of luck.
Ad-supported: The interface includes display ads, which slows load time and clutters the results.
No Wisconsin or regional content: No Old Fashioned recipe with Wisconsin brandy, no Grasshopper, no Brandy Slush.

Borrachos.bar Drink Finder: Free, Filtered, Fast

The Borrachos.bar Drink Finder searches 196 cocktails with zero signup, zero ads, and filters for calories, ABV, spirit type, ingredient, and cocktail category. You land on the page, type or filter, and get results immediately. The tool loads on mobile as cleanly as desktop, which matters because most people searching for a drink recipe are standing in their kitchen holding their phone.

Features That Differentiate the Drink Finder

Calorie filtering: Set a max calorie threshold and only see drinks within range. Each cocktail displays its calorie count alongside the recipe.
ABV filtering: Filter by alcohol by volume. Want a sub-15% session drink? Set the slider.
Serving-size slider: Scale the drink up or down and watch the calorie count adjust in real time. A standard Margarita shows 168 calories at default serving; drag the slider to 1.5x and it recalculates.
Category filtering: Browse by category , classic cocktails, Wisconsin cocktails, tiki drinks, shots, etc.
Ingredient search: Type “gin” and get every gin-based cocktail in the database with word-boundary matching that prevents “gin” from matching “ginger.”
No account required: No signup wall, no email capture, no “create a free account to open results.”
Where the Drink Finder Falls Short
Database size: 196 cocktails versus Make Me a Cocktail’s several thousand. We don’t have obscure pre-Prohibition recipes or 500 modern craft creations.
No virtual bar: You can’t input your shelf inventory and get matching recipes. You search by ingredient, but it doesn’t cross-reference against a saved list of what you own.
No public API: TheCocktailDB offers a free API that developers can integrate. Our tool is self-contained.
TheCocktailDB: The Open-Source Option
TheCocktailDB is a crowd-sourced cocktail database with a free public API, making it the go-to for developers building cocktail apps but a less polished experience for end users. The database includes thousands of recipes with ingredient lists, measurements, and occasionally photos. The API is well-documented and genuinely free for non-commercial use.
For a home bartender, though, TheCocktailDB’s web interface is bare-bones. There’s no calorie data, no ABV filtering, no category browsing, and the search is basic text match. It’s a data source, not a consumer tool. If you’re building an app, start here. If you’re trying to figure out what to drink tonight, you’ll spend more time scrolling than pouring.
Barshelf App: Similar Concept, Smaller Reach
Barshelfapp.com takes the same “what’s in your cabinet” approach as Make Me a Cocktail but with a smaller database and less polish. The interface is functional but not refined, and the recipe count is lower than both Make Me a Cocktail and TheCocktailDB. It’s worth checking if you want a second opinion on what to make with your current inventory, but it doesn’t offer anything the larger tools don’t already cover.
Feature Comparison Table
Feature
Borrachos.bar
Make Me a Cocktail
TheCocktailDB
Barshelf
Cocktail count
196
Thousands
Thousands
Hundreds
Free, no signup
✅
❌ (account for virtual bar)
✅
✅
Calorie filtering
✅
❌
❌
❌
ABV filtering
✅
❌
❌
❌
Category filtering
✅
✅
❌
❌
Ingredient search
✅
✅
✅
✅
Virtual bar (shelf inventory)
❌
✅
❌
✅
Serving-size slider
✅
❌
❌
❌
Public API
❌
❌
✅
❌
Mobile-friendly
✅
✅
⚠️ (basic)
⚠️ (basic)
No ads
✅
❌
⚠️ (some)
✅
Wisconsin cocktail content
✅
❌
❌
❌
The Honest Assessment
If the virtual bar feature is what you need — “here’s what’s on my shelf, what can I make?” — Make Me a Cocktail is the better tool for that specific job. We don’t have that feature, and building it well requires a different architecture than what our Drink Finder does. Credit where it’s due: they solved a real problem that no other free tool addresses as cleanly.
But if you want to filter cocktails by calories, ABV, or category without creating an account, the Borrachos.bar Drink Finder is the only tool that does all three for free. The calorie integration matters because no other cocktail finder includes it. The calorie chart alongside the finder means you can compare drinks nutritionally and then jump straight to the recipe. That combination — search, filter, calories, recipe — in one place with no signup is the specific gap we filled.
The 196-cocktail database is smaller than the big platforms. We built it from 38 borrachos.bar cocktail recipes plus 163 classic cocktail standards, each with full ingredient lists and calorie estimates calculated from ingredient nutritional data. It’s not exhaustive. It covers the drinks most people actually make at home, plus Wisconsin-specific cocktails you won’t find in any other finder tool.
When to Use Which Tool
Use Borrachos.bar Drink Finder when: You want to filter by calories or ABV, you want a Wisconsin cocktail, you don’t want to create an account, or you’re on your phone and need fast results.
Use Make Me a Cocktail when: You want to input your full liquor shelf and get matching recipes, or you’re looking for an obscure recipe outside our 196-drink range.
Use TheCocktailDB when: You’re a developer building an app and need a free cocktail API, or you want to browse a massive database without caring about filtering.
Use Barshelf when: You want a second opinion on shelf-based matching, though Make Me a Cocktail does it better.
FAQ
Is the Borrachos.bar Drink Finder really free?
Yes — no account, no paywall, no premium tier. The tool is funded by the site’s cocktail content and bar coverage, not by user subscriptions. You land on the page and start searching.
Does Make Me a Cocktail cost money?
The basic search is free, but the virtual bar feature requires creating an account. There’s no paid tier as of September 2026, but the account requirement is a friction point if you just want quick results.
Why doesn’t the Drink Finder have a virtual bar feature?
Building a shelf-inventory matcher requires a different architecture — persistent user storage, ingredient normalization across thousands of recipes, and partial-match scoring. We focused on filtering and search instead, which serves a different use case: “I want a gin cocktail under 200 calories” rather than “here’s everything I own.”
How accurate are the calorie counts?
Calories are estimated from ingredient nutritional data using standard serving sizes. Each cocktail’s calorie total is calculated by summing the caloric values of individual ingredients at their recipe quantities. The serving-size slider recalculates proportionally. Actual calories vary by brand and pour, but the estimates are within 10-15% of tested values.
Can I search the Drink Finder by ingredient?
Yes — type any ingredient name in the search box and the tool returns matching cocktails. The search uses word-boundary matching, so searching “gin” returns gin cocktails but does not match “ginger” or “ginseng.”
Does the Drink Finder work on mobile?
Yes , the tool is fully responsive and tested on iOS and Android browsers. No app install required. The filter sliders and search box are touch-friendly, and results load without page refreshes.
See also: our signature Wisconsin Old Fashioned
See also: our summer 2026 seasonal cocktail guide
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