Printable cards · Classic specs · Keeping your own straight
Free 4×6 and 3×5 card templates, the classics laid out one per card, and honest notes on the part nobody solves: keeping track of the recipes you actually make, and the version you liked.
Letter-size PDFs, no email, no watermark. Print on card stock and cut on the lines.
Two blank 4×6 index-style cocktail recipe cards per letter page, with a spec table, method, glass, garnish, and notes lines. Free PDF.
3 × 5 inThree blank 3×5 cocktail recipe cards per letter page for a standard index card box. Same spec-table layout, tighter type. Free PDF.
4 × 6 inTwelve classic cocktails as printable 4×6 recipe cards, two per letter page, with specs in oz and ml, method, glass, and garnish. Free PDF.
Each one is a card you can print, with the spec in ounces and millilitres, the method, the glass, and a line on why the ratio is what it is.
Whiskey, sugar, bitters, and a big piece of ice. The drink every other cocktail is a variation of, and the card most worth getting right.
stirredRye, sweet vermouth, and bitters, stirred cold. Two-to-one is the spec; the vermouth you choose is the recipe.
stirredEqual parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. The easiest classic to remember and the hardest to get wrong, which is why it's on every home bar.
shakenRum, lime, sugar. Three ingredients, one ratio argument, and the best test of whether your citrus is fresh.
shakenBlanco tequila, lime, and orange liqueur, shaken. The most-ordered cocktail in America and the one most often made badly at home.
shakenBourbon, lemon, sugar, and optionally an egg white for the silk. The template every shaken sour is built on.
stirredGin and dry vermouth, stirred very cold. The ratio is the whole argument, so the card carries the one you actually like.
shakenGin, lime, and sugar, shaken. The fresh-lime version has replaced the Rose's original almost everywhere, and this card is the fresh one.
shakenGin, lemon, sugar, and soda over ice in a tall glass. The long drink that's really just a sour with bubbles, which makes it the easiest one to scale.
builtWhite rum, lime, sugar, mint, and soda, built in the glass. The card that stops you over-muddling the mint.
stirredA Negroni with bourbon in the gin's place, and slightly more of it. Richer, warmer, and the better of the two in winter.
shakenEqual parts bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon, shaken. The modern classic that proves a four-ingredient drink can be memorised in one go.
Six iOS cocktail apps, four tests each: getting your recipe in, whether edits stick, whether you can get it out, and whether anyone still maintains it.
guideEvery way people keep their cocktail recipes, what each is actually good at, and where each one quietly fails. From someone who has used all of them.
guideScale any cocktail spec to a bottle or a pitcher, add the right amount of water, and know which drinks fall apart when you try.
guideThe format bartenders use to write a drink down so it can be made the same way twice, and why "a little less sugar" is not a recipe.
guideYou dialed it in, then lost the good version. Why "a little too sweet last time" isn't a recipe, and a small habit that fixes it.
comparisonTwo popular cocktail apps haven't shipped an update since 2018 and 2019. A four-step exit test to run before you type your fiftieth recipe into anything.
Every year somebody asks r/cocktails the same question: how do you organize your recipes? The answers are always the same mix of screenshots, a notes app, a notebook or two, and a spreadsheet. Printed cards are the oldest answer and still one of the best for the drinks you've settled on. This site is the cards, plus what I've learned about the rest of the mess. There's a short version on the about page, including who makes this and why the app link is in the footer.