Tracy Wang 2015-6-1
Have you ever been in these scenarios as follows?
Stand in front of a super big freezer which
filled up with hundreds or even thousands of beers/wines, but don’t know which
one you are going to pick;
Drink tons of interesting beers/wines, but
after you wake up with the hangover, you couldn’t name even one drink;
Want to learn more about the beverage in
your hand, but don’t have the notebook to compare laterally or vertically; (say
by varieties, or years)….
I’ve downloaded all of the apps below and
also experienced a lot more crappy ones. There are several applications which
can help you to be a better alcoholic, let’s drink socially, as Untapped says.
Beer
Buddy- Barcode Scanner
This is the No.1 APP for many people,
developed by RateBeer.com, and it has a lot of fans all over the world. With
huge database of ratebeer.com and 300,000+ beers, and more than one million people’s
comments, also has scoring mechanism of BJCP (Beer Judging Certificate
Program), also a barcode scanner which makes it super easy for the shaky and
drunk hands. You can check the beers you have before, the scores you give, also
search for the bars or restaurants nearby.
It’s based on multiple languages, like
English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Korean, and Viennese.
Price: RMB 25/$3.99
☆☆☆☆
RateBeer
It’s also developed by ratebeer.com, but in
a more simple way. It shares the same databasewith Beer Buddy, information
looks identical with Beer Buddy too. I still don’t get the reason they have two
identical applications.
Price: RMB 25/$3.99
Uh…Free ones…
I like this one not just because it’s a
free app, but it’s more like an extension of beeradvocate.com. With the white
background (the Beer Buddy is brown), everything seems clean and easy. Even
though it’s seamless to send the reviews of the forum to your phone, there’s a
weakness—it’s impossible to upload the beer you just drink to the app. What a disaster
for social hipsters!
Price: Free
☆☆☆
Whoa, this one is a supermodel among the
rest of free apps. It has everything, to review, score, toast to others, search
for bars or top beers, and even add the homebrew/microbrewery next door, say
Boxing Cat Brewery, Slow Boat, The Great Leap, Jing A, Nbeer, Arrow Factory,
Harvest, Mater Gao, Panda….you name it. And also check in with foursquare,
share to twitter and Facebook. The most charming thing is that it will award
you with badges, even though the last thing our drinkers need is stimulant. Once
you start to use this app, upload the beer (filter the photo) and are ready to
share it to all the platforms you use, under the peer pressure, your friend
either join you or block you.
Btw, IOS version is way better and more
user-friendly than the Android version, they look like different apps, and
besides it always quits unexpectedly on Android phone….so the only way to deal
with this would be…buy an iPhone just like my friend did.
Price: Free
☆☆☆
This just released program can demystify
beer and wine. Build a taste profile by rating drinks you’ve tasted, just like
other apps can do. Well, just by scanning the label, it will provide all the
information of this drink. Better to use at a supermarket. After five times of
scoring, it will predict how much you’ll like the next glass. But obviously people
from this company are too snobby to think there’s no such demand and the beers
and wines in the U.S. or Europe can’t be sent to Asia, so they block it in Asia.
Price: Free
☆☆ (boo, snobs)
Delectable
This is my favorite wine app. Even though
it’s a little slow to “read” the photo you upload (within 15 minutes), but its
identifying ability is superb. It happens to me often—wandering at the shelves
and swinging chaotically between two terrific wines, it’s time to scan those
wines and get the reviews and tasting notes. You’ll make the decision soon. It
is the most popular app among the “wine celebrities”—top sommeliers, winemakers
and wine pros. You can follow some of them, and make a wish list. Whenever the
important day is coming, you know what to do (wink, wink.)
Price: Free
☆☆☆☆
Vivino
Now there comes to the app for wines. This
one is the No. 1 wine app for now. It gathers 9 million wine lovers. You take a
photo of the label, then it pops up, you can get the reviews, rankings and
pricing. After you taste it, you can review and rate it, then share to Facebook.
Besides it’s faster than Delectable. Sometimes it’s depressed to see the price
is twice of the average here in China. Shoot, I have to drink anyways, maybe
that’s the dedication I give to the whole industry. Their website is also interesting
and smart with cool topics.
Price: Free
☆☆☆
So as a wrap, I have to repeat that don’t drink
and drive, and drink moderately. Wish I knew the real tips to get over
hangover. Cheers.
This article was also released in Precis issue 8 in 2015.
http://issuu.com/istech24/docs/precis_issue_eight_8_2015
