Suggest me a Drink

What this tool does

What do you feel like drinking? It is a simple question with too many answers. It could be a cold soft drink, a proper cocktail, a mocktail, or something hot, and on the spot none of them jumps out. This tool picks one for you, pulling a drink at random from a wide list, so you can stop scanning options and pour something.

Press the button for a drink. Press it again for another. Ask for a few at once if you would rather choose from a short set than be handed one thing. It works for a quiet night in, a party where nobody can agree, or just a change from your usual glass.

How to use it

1. Number / Quantity. How many drinks to pull at once, from 1 to 100.
2. Generate. Pulls a fresh drink, or a fresh set if you asked for several.
3. Starts with, Contains, Ends with. Optional filters that pare the list down before it picks. Leave them blank to draw from everything.
4. Copy. Drops the current drinks onto your clipboard as a plain list.

A drink is on screen the moment the page loads, so there is always something to react to.

How it works

A fixed list of drinks sits behind the tool, and every press pulls one at random, never repeating inside a single set when you ask for several.

The filters let you aim. Contains keeps any drink with your text in it, so typing tea brings up Tea, Iced tea, and Long Island Iced Tea, a neat reminder that the list runs from the plain to the boozy. Starts with goes by the opening letter and ends with by the closing one.

What is on the list

It is a wide spread of close to a hundred drinks, alcoholic and not. The everyday end has Water, Orange juice, Lemonade, and Iced tea, the cocktail end runs to Negroni, Margarita, and Old Fashioned, and there is a good run of mocktails like Virgin Mary and Sangria mocktail for when you want the fun without the alcohol.

Because it mixes all of that together, a single pull could land anywhere from a glass of water to a stiff cocktail. That is the point when you genuinely do not mind, and when you do, the Contains box lets you lean it the way you want.

Why the drinks menu freezes you up

A long drinks list is a classic case of too much choice. When the options pile up, we tend to pick slowly, or stall and fall back on whatever we always get. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper showed the freezing effect plainly in a 2000 study where shoppers offered two dozen jams to taste bought far fewer than those offered six. A cocktail menu, or a fridge full of options, does the same thing.

The psychologist Barry Schwartz tied the rest of it together in The Paradox of Choice, that more options often leave us less satisfied, since we keep wondering about the drink we did not order. A random pull cuts through both. It hands you one drink to react to, which is far easier than weighing the whole list, and you can always pour something else if it does not suit.

Steering it to the right drink

If the first pull is not it, a couple of quick calls help. The first is alcoholic or not, since that one decision halves the list, and the Contains box or another press sorts it fast. Then think about the moment, because a bright soft drink or a long mocktail suits an afternoon, while a proper cocktail suits an evening, and a hot drink suits a cold night. Match the pick to the occasion and it usually falls into place. And since the list does include cocktails, the usual good sense about alcohol applies, so keep it sensible and have water alongside.

Questions people ask

Is it free, and is anything saved?

It is free with no sign-up, and nothing you generate is stored. Everything runs in your browser, so copy a drink before you leave if you want it.

Can I get a few at once?

Yes. Set the quantity to the number you want, up to 100, and press Generate for that many different drinks in one pull.

Does it include both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks?

Both. Soft drinks, juices, cocktails, and mocktails are all on the list, so type a word into the Contains box if you want to lean one way, or leave it blank for anything.

Can I get just mocktails or just cocktails?

Type a word like mocktail, or the name of a spirit you have, into the Contains box, and the list trims to matching drinks.

References

1. Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, "When Choice Is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000, the study behind choice overload. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
2. Barry Schwartz, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", his talk on how more options can lower satisfaction. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice