Barfender Drinks, Recipes and Licenses: What We Know

Drinks are your income, and the game wraps them in three systems: licenses (what you are allowed to sell), recipes (what you know how to make), and pricing (what you charge). Here is what is confirmed at launch — and what is still being pieced together.

The three drink systems

System	Evidence	What it does
Licenses	Licensed to Pour achievement: own every license	Gates the menu — you buy the right to serve more categories
Cocktail recipes	Mixologist achievement: discover every cocktail recipe	Recipes are discovered, not handed to you
Pricing	Loss Leader / Highway Robbery achievements	Prices are adjustable per product and shape your whole day

Confirmed drink categories

• Beers — poured, the default volume seller (“pour beers, shake cocktails” per the Steam description)
• Cocktails — shaken, recipe-gated
• Expensive / Cheap tiers — prices are a per-product choice, and the game tracks both extremes

Honest gap: the full cocktail recipe list is not yet publicly documented. We will list recipes here once they are verified in-game — we don’t copy unverified lists from content farms.

Pricing strategy (from the achievements)

The two pricing achievements are opposite strategies, so you can’t do both in one day:

• Loss Leader — close a profitable day with everything priced Cheap. Requires volume: you need the full serve-clean-defuse loop running smoothly so nothing slows the orders.
• Highway Robbery — sell Expensive drinks all day. Fewer sales, better margins; watch impatience, because customers still expect speed at premium prices.

Practical default: price mid while learning, then dedicate single days to each extreme once your bar is stable.

Related drink achievements

• Bartender’s Cut — drink your own product 10 times (yes, you can drink the stock)
• Whale — land a single payment over 50 (premium pricing helps)
• Happy Hour — serve 10 customers inside 60 seconds (set up before the rush: glasses ready, floor clean)
• One Trick Pony — close a profitable day selling exactly one product (a clean license/recipe check run)

More upgrade-side spending (decorations, expansions, the jukebox) is on the staff & upgrades page.