Drinks are made of characteristics which determine which products can be used. Some products are more versatile than others - for instance Cognac Brandy can be used for Brandy recipes but a flavored Vodka such as Pepper Vodka cannot be used as “plain vodka”. Characteristics also have father and flavor characteristics which determine “groups” of similar tastes for customers. A customer who very much dislikes “Orange Flavor” will have generally low scores for anything related to that flavor such as Orange Liqueur, Orange Juice, Orange Vodka, etc.

Father Characteristics are different from flavor characteristics in that in some cases, they are an ingredient encompassing ALL of the children characteristics. For instance in the drink “Shot of Tequila”, 1.5 oz of Tequila is called for. This includes all children tequila brands also such as Añejo, Gold, Reposado or Silver. To be sure your product is valid for the father ingredient also - look at the product list below the economics window. Some products CANNOT be used for their father ingredient - this is the case for many flavored liquors and vodkas.

Flavor Characteristics are different from Father characteristics in that they are NEVER used as a drink ingredient and ONLY used for grouping customer's tastes further. You can always identify characteristics of flavors by the “Flavor” in the name. These cannot be added directly to recipes and are automatically added by the game for products. NO flavor should exist on a product that is lacking one of it's children characteristics.

Taste testing a customer acts as a cascade encompassing both father characteristics AND flavor characteristics. For example testing “Apricot Brandy” will also yield results for it's father “Fruit Brandy” and it's father's father “Brandy”. It will also yield results for “Apricot Flavor”. You always want to taste test at the LOWEST characteristic as you automatically see everything higher up on the tree.

For example:

Never taste test “Vodka” as it's a father characteristic. Instead go for a child characteristic such as “Grape Vodka”. You will learn Vodka this way but also any other characteristics associated with Grape Vodka such as “Grape Flavor”.