If you need to mash for the drink then it definately hasn't been working for me becasue that's what I was doing (both on the local version and the browser) (I think you might need to left click instead of a? I didn't manage to find this again and I'm trying to answer fast)
I am aware that you need to be close for the arrows to work but I was able to check the entire board a few times over and find nothing pretty consistently if I mashed through text. (Pretty easy to replicate on both versions of the game)
Further testing has revealed that the "a" button doesn't seem to be working for a few minigames and the download version is much less stable. I can't seem to replicate the stretching sprite issue I had at all.
Not sure if this would break things but I'm using a widescreen monitor. The jam version doesn't full screen so it can't really break in that way.