Getting Started
Install the app
muddler is a mobile app. Install it on your phone from your platform’s app store:
- iOS: search “muddler” in the App Store
- Android: search “muddler” in the Play Store
The app is free to install. You can use the scan, browse, and reference features without an account. Signing up unlocks custom ingredients, saved scans, and anything else added as the app grows.
Your first scan
- Open muddler.
- Tap the camera icon on the scan screen.
- Point the camera at a cocktail menu. Printed menus with clean lighting work best. Handwritten menus work sometimes.
- Hold steady until the scan bar clears. The app reads the menu, matches ingredients against its database, and lays out a structured recipe for each drink it found.
- Tap any cocktail to open the full spec: ingredients, estimated measurements, flavor profile, glassware, method.
You can also paste menu text directly on the scan screen if you don’t have a physical menu in front of you. That bypasses OCR entirely and usually gets cleaner results.
Menu formats that tend to work
The OCR pipeline is not picky, but it has preferences. It does best with:
- Inline:
Negroni: Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth 14 - Block: cocktail name on one line, ingredients on the lines below
- Comma-separated:
Vodka, Persimmon, Velvet Falernum, Guava, Lime - Measured:
2 oz Bourbon, 0.75 oz Sweet Vermouth, 2 dashes Angostura - Photographed: printed menus, reasonable lighting, page flat
It struggles with handwriting, ornamental fonts, dark-on-dark color schemes, and anything photographed in a dim bar. See What it gets wrong on the home page for the full list.
Next steps
- How it works — a walk through the OCR, matching, and template-inference steps
- The ingredient database — categories, flavor profiles, and how matching handles aliases and brand names
- FAQ — common questions and troubleshooting
- Privacy — what the app does and doesn’t store