How Cocktail Garnish Elevates Cocktails – Key Tips & Variations To Know About
Garnishes – while enhancing visual appeal – also play a key role in creating an identity and tradition of cocktail presentation. Elements like citrus peels, fresh herbs or whole spices bring a layer of aromatic richness as well as release essential oils into the drink, which impacts its flavour and composition significantly. For example, adding an expressed lemon peel to a martini cocktail or even skewering a couple of olives on a cocktail stick to drop in can improve its appeal and taste with simplistic flair. Garnishes are also a great symbolic vehicle in creating a distinction between classic or contemporary drinks – while preserving its character and conveying the ‘mood’ of a libation simply by its appearance.
Key Tips To Remember While Using Cocktail Garnishes
- Complementing the flavour profile of the base liquor is key to picking garnishes for cocktails – choose citrus peels or dehydrated citrus slices for gin-based drinks, and pick fresh herb sprigs of basil or mint for fruity concoctions.
- Release the scents of fresh garnishes before adding them as finishing touches to the drink – gently slap herbs or express lemon peel twists before dropping them into the serving glass.
- Since garnishes are a highly visual element, ensure that their size is proportional to the cocktail serving size. Use the right kind of bar tools – think peelers, tongs, zesters – to create attractive looking decorative elements.
- When it comes to cocktail garnishes, less is more; avoid over-garnishing a drink to the point where it is difficult for the drinker to take sips from the glass or using items that are hazardous if swallowed.
- Stick to the basics when garnishing – if you plan on serving classics like the margarita or bloody Mary, it is ideal to use what’s best associated with the cocktail’s general identity. In the case of contemporary or modernised versions, feel free to experiment as long as it aligns with flavour balance.
Cocktail Garnish Variations: A Guide For Beginners
Citrus
Strips of lemon or orange peels, zest from citrus fruit or even dehydrated slices of oranges and grapefruit are excellent options to consider for negronis, old fashioned cocktails and G&T’s.
Edible Flowers
Delicate, colourful and more importantly vibrant – flowers like pansies, nasturtiums and violets are great options for spring-summer cocktails that are lighter in consistency and flavour.
Fresh Herbs
A sprig of mint, rosemary or thyme – when slapped – can release their oils into the drink, considerably improving aroma and taste.
Skewered Garnishes
Think brined olives, pickled onions, cherries or even candy which are eye-catching, practical, edible and great for nibbling between sips of a martini cocktail, Manhattan or bloody Marys.
*Drink Responsibly. This communication is for audiences above the age of 25.
