name	substitute-an-ingredient
description	Decide whether a cocktail ingredient can be swapped for one on hand, and find adjacent drinks with cocktail.glass.

Substitute an ingredient

A recipe asks for an ingredient the person does not have. Decide whether a swap is safe, and if it is not, use cocktail.glass to find a drink that fits what they do have.

Judging a substitution

Not every swap works. Use these rules of thumb:

Same family, similar role — usually safe. Bourbon for rye, one London dry gin for another, light rum for a different light rum. Expect a shift in emphasis, not a broken drink.
Same family, different intensity — works with care. An aged rum for a light one, reposado tequila for blanco: the drink survives but turns heavier or oakier. Say so.
A modifier or bittering agent — do not swap blindly. Campari, Chartreuse, absinthe, and the bitters each define the drinks they are in. Replacing them turns the cocktail into a different one.
Citrus is not interchangeable. Lemon and lime behave differently; swapping one for the other rebalances the drink.

When a swap only shifts emphasis, suggest it and name the effect. When it would change the character of the drink, say so plainly.

Finding an adjacent drink instead

If no safe swap exists, do not force it — find a different cocktail that uses what the person already has. On the MCP server at https://cocktail.glass/mcp:

find_cocktails_by_ingredient — every drink built on an ingredient they do have. Good for "I have mezcal, what else can I make."
find_makeable_cocktails — pass everything on hand and get the drinks that need no substitution at all.
get_cocktail_recipe — re-check the original recipe's other ingredients before recommending a swap, so the whole drink still balances.

The catalogue is also one JSON file at https://cocktail.glass/cocktails.json if you cannot reach the MCP server.

Always

Link any cocktail you suggest to its page at https://cocktail.glass/<slug>/ so a person can open the full recipe.

Substitute an ingredient

A recipe asks for an ingredient the person does not have. Decide whether a swap is safe, and if it is not, use cocktail.glass to find a drink that fits what they do have.

Judging a substitution

Not every swap works. Use these rules of thumb:

Same family, similar role — usually safe. Bourbon for rye, one London dry gin for another, light rum for a different light rum. Expect a shift in emphasis, not a broken drink.

Same family, different intensity — works with care. An aged rum for a light one, reposado tequila for blanco: the drink survives but turns heavier or oakier. Say so.

A modifier or bittering agent — do not swap blindly. Campari, Chartreuse, absinthe, and the bitters each define the drinks they are in. Replacing them turns the cocktail into a different one.

Citrus is not interchangeable. Lemon and lime behave differently; swapping one for the other rebalances the drink.

When a swap only shifts emphasis, suggest it and name the effect. When it would change the character of the drink, say so plainly.

Finding an adjacent drink instead

If no safe swap exists, do not force it — find a different cocktail that uses what the person already has. On the MCP server at https://cocktail.glass/mcp:

find_cocktails_by_ingredient — every drink built on an ingredient they do have. Good for "I have mezcal, what else can I make."

find_makeable_cocktails — pass everything on hand and get the drinks that need no substitution at all.

get_cocktail_recipe — re-check the original recipe's other ingredients before recommending a swap, so the whole drink still balances.

The catalogue is also one JSON file at https://cocktail.glass/cocktails.json if you cannot reach the MCP server.

Always

Link any cocktail you suggest to its page at https://cocktail.glass/<slug>/ so a person can open the full recipe.

substitute-an-ingredient