A journal for every pour
A rating, tasting notes, photos and the evening around it, kept in one place so you can find the bottle again.
Start your liquor journalWhat a pour entry holds
Only the spirit or cocktail you poured is required. A star rating out of five, notes and photos come next, and most of the rest sits behind Add details, so a quick pour stays quick and a long evening has somewhere to go.
- The spirit or cocktail, picked from the catalogue
- A rating out of five stars, in whole stars
- Your own notes, and up to ten photos
- The date and time, which you can change to log a pour from last weekend
- Separate ratings out of five for nose, palate, finish and balance, with room for your own nose and finish notes
- Tasting notes picked from a list, up to twelve
- What you paid and where you bought it
- The serving size: 1 oz, 1.5 oz, 2 oz or a double, or your own
- The food you had with it, from a short list or in your own words
- The occasion, and where you were, including a cocktail lounge from the community list
- A cigar you smoked with it, and how well the two paired
- Whether you would buy it again
- For a cocktail, the spirit it is built on
Cocktails count too
A cocktail is in the same catalogue as the bottles, so you log it like any other pour, and an entry for a cocktail can name the spirit it is built on. Signed in, Log this on a cocktail's recipe page starts the entry for you.
Log it from the bottle
Tap Pour on a bottle in your Bar and the journal opens with that spirit already chosen, and the price you paid filled in if you recorded one. A switch reading Finished this bottle starts off, so a pour leaves the bottle on your Bar. If you have just finished it, turn the switch on and saving the entry takes one bottle off your Bar.
A pairing with a cigar, rated on its own
If there was a cigar with the pour, search for it in the entry, pick the size and rate how well the two went together. That rating is its own, separate from the one you gave the spirit. A superb pour and a superb cigar can still be a poor match, and scoring them apart is how you record that.
Public or private, entry by entry
Every entry has its own Public review switch under Add details. Public means it shows in the community feed and as a review on that spirit's page; private means it is yours. An account setting decides which way the entries you log in the journal start, and unless you change it they start public.
A private entry's notes, photos and your name are not shown to anyone. Its star rating still counts, with nothing identifying attached, toward that spirit's community average, which is why the average reflects everyone who rated it and not only the people who wrote a public review.
Common questions
- Is the liquor journal free?
- Yes. Log as many pours as you like, and every part of an entry is included: the separate ratings, tasting notes, photos, what you paid, where you poured it and the per-entry privacy switch.
- Can I keep my journal private?
- Yes. Every entry has its own privacy switch, and an account setting makes the entries you log in the journal start private. A private entry is never shown to another member: not the notes, the photos or your name. Its star rating still counts, anonymously, toward that spirit's community average.
- What if the spirit I poured is not in the catalogue?
- Add it as a custom spirit with a name, a type and, if you know it, a distillery, then log it or keep it in your Bar like any other. A custom spirit is private to you; other members do not see it in the catalogue.
- Can I record more than a star rating?
- Yes, and most of an entry is not the star rating. Nose, palate, finish and balance are scored separately from the overall mark, alongside your own notes, tasting notes picked from a list, photos, the serving size, what you paid, where you bought it, the food you had with it, the occasion, where you were, a cigar you paired with it and whether you would buy it again.
- Does the journal work on my phone?
- Yes. Liquor Vault runs in any mobile browser, and there is an Android app on Google Play; entries sync to the same account either way.