Editorial Standards and Corrections Policy

How a subject gets chosen

Every page is settled before a word of it is written: which subject it covers, which section it belongs in, and the one question it exists to answer for a reader. A page that cannot name that question does not get written.

Then we write a brief: the exact subject, the question to answer first, the things to cover, the jurisdiction and freshness needed, the measurements required, what must not be claimed, and what makes it different from its neighbours. The last item is the one that does the work. A brief that cannot say what makes it different from its neighbours is describing something we should not write.

Where each answer lives

Ask what a drink is and the answer is on the drink's own entry. How it is made is in Production, how to judge it in Tasting, how to serve it in Service, and how long it keeps in Storage. A measured recipe is in Cocktails, what to use instead in Substitutes, and a direct choice between two things in Compare. A rule that depends on where you are is in Laws and labels. Anything about impairment, standard drinks, emergencies or support is in Responsible drinking.

We link to whichever address carries the answer rather than writing it twice. When an entry about a drink starts explaining fermentation in detail, the fix is a link to Production, not a better paragraph.

What we require of ourselves, by subject

Requirements go with the subject, not with whoever happened to write it, so two cocktail recipes cannot be held to different standards.

What we promise you by subject, and what always comes with it.
Pages	What they give you	Responsible use block	Review	Legal requirement
Category and style pages	What a category or style is, and how it differs from its neighbours.	Standard	Optional	None
Ingredient pages	What one ingredient does in a drink, how to prepare it, how long it keeps.	Standard	None	None
Place pages	What a place requires of a drink, and what that produces in the glass.	Standard	Optional	Jurisdictional
Recipes	One measured drink: yield, ingredients, method, glass, ice, garnish, strength.	Strength and pacing	Optional	None
How it is made	How something is made in a licensed facility, and every hazard that involves.	Standard	Required	None
Tasting guides	How to assess something, and what the thing you are noticing comes from.	Standard	Optional	None
Serving guides	Temperature, glassware, pouring, mixing, and sanitation.	Standard	Optional	None
Storage guides	How long something keeps, and the point at which you pour it away.	Standard	Optional	None
Food pairing	The mechanism behind a match, not a list of pairs.	Standard	None	None
Substitutes	What to use instead, what changes when you do, and when the swap fails.	Strength and pacing	None	None
History and culture	History and context, with the record's uncertainty left visible.	Standard	None	None
Responsible use	Impairment, standard drinks, emergencies, and where to get support.	Standard	Required	None
Law and labelling	One rule in one named jurisdiction, with its authority and its date.	Standard	Required	Jurisdictional
Direct comparisons	One direct question about two things, answered once.	Standard	None	None
Collections	A curated route through pages that already exist elsewhere.	Standard	None	None
Glossary entries	One term, defined plainly, with the page that explains the subject linked.	None	None	None
Calculators	One calculation, with its formula, assumptions, and limits shown.	Estimate limits	Required	None
Reviewer pages	A named reviewer, their qualification, and the scope they cover.	None	None	None

Required review means we do not publish the page without a named specialist. Jurisdictional means we cannot state the rule without naming where it applies, who publishes it, the exact reference, and when we last read it. Where either is missing, we do not publish it.

How we write

Plain, direct, and specific. One idea per sentence. Active voice. Numbers with units.

We name the mechanism rather than asserting a result. A pairing works because acid cuts fat, not because it is a classic combination. A whisky tastes of vanilla because the charred oak contributes vanillin, not because vanilla is a tasting note somebody wrote down. The mechanism is checkable and the assertion is not, and the difference is the whole point of a reference.

We do not pad to a word count. Length follows the question. A page that is thin gets more research or a clearer job, not more words. A page that is long because the subject is genuinely large gets a contents list and clear headings so a reader can skip.

Sensory writing can be vivid. Factual claims stay sourced, and uncertainty stays visible. When the historical record does not settle a question, the page says so instead of choosing the better story, which, in drinks writing, is nearly always the false one.

How we lay out what you read

Presentation is a contract here, not a preference, because a wall of paragraphs is not a reference page even when every sentence in it is true. Every guide needs, without exception:

a plain-language key takeaway at the top, before any preamble;
at least one figure, a structured diagram, an ordered step list, or a drawn illustration;
more than one kind of block, so a section is not only prose;
emphasis distributed through the page rather than clustered at the start;
never more than three consecutive paragraphs with nothing between them.

A page that fails those does not publish, and it reports which requirement it missed. This is checked in code for the same reason the legal rules are: a standard that depends on someone remembering it at the end of a long day is not a standard.

What is out of scope

Nightlife listings, retail, live prices, deals, and delivery.
Rankings and scores of branded products without retained tasting evidence.
Anything that helps a reader become intoxicated faster, drink past a service limit, conceal drinking, or defeat a breath test.
Drinking games.
Alcohol as a treatment, a sleep aid, or a heart health measure.
Home distillation instructions.
Content that reads as if it were written for people under the legal drinking age.
Fabricated tastings, scores, awards, credentials, or reviewer identities. A reviewer who does not exist is not a shortcut to a badge; it is the one failure that would make everything else on the site worthless.

Review

Some topics need a specialist before they publish: production safety, law and labelling, public health and responsible use, sensory method, and nutrition.

A review badge requires all of the following: a named person, a stated qualification, a defined scope, a review date, an approved status, and a conflicts disclosure where the role calls for one. A badge is not a decoration and it is not a general endorsement of the site. It says that one named person with a checkable qualification approved this page inside a stated scope on a stated date.

Where no qualified reviewer has been appointed, we show a visible review pending notice and we do not publish it. We do not invent a reviewer to get a page out. See the reviewer standard for the roles and what each one requires, and get in touch if you hold one.

Corrections and retirement

Errors are corrected and the page's update date changes. We do not silently rewrite a page and leave the old date standing, because the date is part of the claim.

A legal fact whose verification has expired reverts to an unverified state automatically and stops asserting the rule. That happens without anyone noticing the expiry, which is the point: the failure mode being designed against is the rule nobody thought to recheck.

A page that no longer has a distinct job is merged into the page that explains the subject, and its old address redirects there permanently rather than returning an error. Addresses we have published are treated as promises. A retired page becomes a redirect, never a dead end and never a silent deletion.

How these are written

Software is used in writing this site: for drafting, for checking, and for generating the illustrations. It changes nothing about what we have to supply. A claim still needs a source allowed to carry it, a legal fact still needs a jurisdiction and a date, and a recipe still needs its measures. Where any of that is missing, we do not publish. A tool cannot supply evidence that does not exist, and nothing is published here because software produced it.

Illustrations are generated rather than photographed, which is why they are never presented as a photograph of a specific real bottle, label, distillery, or event. Where an image would make a claim we cannot support, there is no image.

Independence

No producer, brand, importer, retailer, or trade body pays for coverage, placement, or a particular conclusion here, and none reviews a page before it goes live. There is no affiliate link, no sponsored post, and no paid placement in any list or comparison.

Where a source has an interest, a trade association, a producer's own technical sheet, the page says so, because the interest is relevant to how much weight the claim carries. If the funding arrangement ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page in question and on this one before it takes effect, not after.

Editorial policy