Proof - An Interactive Whisky-Tasting App

Boozing and tech seldom go together well, save for those moments when drunk dialling your ex seems like the best idea in the world. But webapp Proof (proofwhisky.com/proofapp) seems out to change all that, dragging your laptop or iPad into the mix as techno accompaniment for your next whisky tasting. The app is set up when you’re dragging out the bottles of the amber from the cupboard, and once you’ve numbered the guests and named the whiskies, guests take turns diagraming their tasting notes for each.

The app is a good tour of the Scottish whisky landscape, with well-designed little details about every region and bottle you can find. For those after a well-researched guide to the water of life, one could hardly do better.

All that said, it’s easy to think that the fancy pass-about tasting notes will go by the wayside by the fourth glass, to say nothing of your senses. Whisky’s never taken itself quite as seriously as wine when it comes to tasting, so opining about the peatiness and strength like the professionals doesn’t really seem in the same spirit.

Proof is a good example of what can happen when good design meets a healthy obsession. It’s exactly the right kind of thing for those who want to get deeper into their glasses and the stuff in it, and it’s exactly the kind of thing liable to drown your iPad in a sea of single malt.