Gone are the days of being confused over the vast selection of beers and wines on offer at your local supermarket. A new app, called Next Glass, takes the difficult choice out of your hands and does the work for you.

The iOS and Android app makes use of a wide database of drinks, your smartphone’s camera, as well as your tastes to determine whether you will love or hate a particular beverage.

The concept behind the Next Glass app is simple. Download and install the app and, when prompted, set up a “tasting profile”, in order to give the app an indication of your likes and dislikes. It is important to include beers and wines that you like, so that the app has a good idea of your specific taste characteristics.

On the next shopping trip, you can hold your smartphone camera up to a specific bottle of beer or wine; the app will scan the label and provide a score based on your preferences. This is why the “tasting profile” is so important. In addition, the app provides a calorie count and alcohol volume for the scanned beverage. (See it in action below.)

If the app is unable to scan the label, there is also an option to manually type in the name of the beverage.

It may not recognize every available brand of beer and wine in the local supermarket; however, with a database of over 23,000 beer and wine options the likelihood of the app recognizing a specific label is high.

Download the free Android or iOS version and start scanning those beer and wine bottles.

I personally cannot wait to try it out and see if I actually do  like its recommendations.

Screenshot: SiliconANGLE via Next Glass