Cocktail Optimization, an Integer Programming Problem

38 points by ftgregg 6 days ago|6 comments

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TobyTheCamel 3 days ago

There's a fantastic website called Difford's Guide [1] that allows you to list the cocktail ingredients that you have and will then provide a long list of cocktails you can make (optionally allowing substitutions).

It is however a bit of a dangerous game for those who feel the urge to collect things, as it somewhat gamifies your drinks cabinet by telling you how many drinks you're missing out on unless you buy XYZ ingredient.

[1] https://www.diffordsguide.com

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CivBase 3 days ago

A hundred bottles in my cabinet and I'm still always missing one to make the drink I want. And so the collection keeps growing...

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ponco 3 days ago

Writing a custom solver seems kind of absurd to me. There are 10s(/100s?) of open source ones out there. HiGHS in particular seems to be challenging the paid solvers with its LP improvements of late. But now I want to write my own.

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quibono 3 days ago

It's very interesting how _flat_ the curve (of # of drinks vs # of ingredients). I expected a HUGE bump when going from 2 to 3 to 4 ingredients; instead it only starts to go noticeably up after 7 ingredients or so.

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mauvehaus 3 days ago

The problem with a French 75, which is a mighty fine cocktail, is that you'd have to drink an unhealthy number of them to finish a bottle of champagne before it went flat.

This has nothing to do with TFA and the math therein other than it's a cocktail on the list.

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dgently7 3 days ago

just invite more friends over and make it batch style in a punch bowl. still will be an unhealthy amount unless you have a lot of friends, but you will have a good time.

no idea on the accuracy or veracity of the history of the name (as is pretty common for cocktails) but i always loved the explanation that the drink is called the french 75 because it "kicks like a french 75" meaning the 75mm artillery gun used in ww1.

I do know that gun exists and you can see it on display at the ww1 museum in kansas city. Having never seen one fired i can only assume how much it kicks but it is pretty large, and working backwards from the efficacy of the drink i suspect it packs a whallop. still a great name, great drink.