Photo courtesy of Don Artemio
By Ed Avis
Adding accessories has always been the secret to making a basic outfit one that stands out in a crowd. The same can be true of cocktails: Putting a garnish or a rimmer on a cocktail is like adding a beautiful accessory to your dress, according to Karen Sanjuan, restaurant manager at Don Artemio in Fort Worth, Texas.
“The garnish and rim on a cocktail truly elevate the drink and catch the customer’s eye before the first sip is ever taken,” Sanjuan says.
Innovative Rimmers
A successful rimmer does two things: It adds visual appeal — often by contrasting with the color of the glass or the cocktail — and it adds a flavor that complements the cocktail.
Photo courtesy of Don Artemio
El Hunter features a rimmer called the Saltillo
The Saltillo is one of the rimmers that graces Don Artemio’s cocktails. Named for the Mexican hometown of restaurant founder Juan Ramon Cárdenas, Saltillo is a blend of dehydrated hibiscus flowers, salt and Tajin, a combination that provides a vibrant, savory-tart finish.
“We grind up the hibiscus flowers really well by hand in a molcajete, and then we put in some kosher salt and Tajin,” Sanjuan explains. The bartender swipes an orange slice along the rim of the glass to provide the moisture that holds the rimmer, she adds.
That rimmer is used on El Hunter, a cocktail made with Don Julio 70 Tequila, beet-infused Clamato, lime juice, grapefruit juice and jamaica syrup. The dark red drink is served in a black glass, which makes the bright colors of the ground hibiscus flowers in the rimmer pop against the dark background.
The Saltillo rimmer also adorns the El Zacatecas (Banhez Mezcal Joven, guava puree, lime juice, and chipotle tamarind syrup); El Chihuahua (Nocheluna Sotol, Yellow Chartreuse, lime juice, and Melón Syrup); and Cuatrociénegas (Cañada Rum, raspberry/blackberry puree, lime juice, agave, and Topo Chico).
Amor-Amor featured a chocolate shaving for a garnish
Sweet cocktails are typically enhanced with sweet rimmers. For example, for Valentine’s Day, Don Artemio created the Amor-Amor with vodka, chocolate sauce and raspberry syrup, then rimmed it with freeze dried raspberries crushed in a molcajete and mixed with sugar. The moisture to attach that rimmer was homemade tamarind syrup made with tamarind, sugar and hot water, which complemented the sweetness of the cocktail and raspberry rimmer, Sanjuan explains.
Of course, sometimes a simple rimmer is best. Don Artemio’s zero-proof El Jarrito — grapefruit, lime, tamarind chipotle, guajillo, and sparkling mineral water — is rimmed just with Tajin. However, to add a bit of sweetness, bartenders use tamarind syrup to attach the rimmer. That syrup also is stickier than juice, Sanjuan says, so it works better on the clay pot the El Jarrito is served in.
Garnishes Add Flourish
Garnishes play a similar role as rimmers — they add visual appeal and, at least in some cases, also add a touch of flavor. Don Artemio bartenders deploy a number of garnishes in their cocktails.
A key tool in the bar is a dehydrator, which bartenders use to create dried slices of orange, lime, lemon and other fruits and vegetables.
“The dehydrator is pretty fast,” Sanjuan says. “To make it perfect so you don’t get soggy fruit, you leave the slices of orange or lime in the dehydrator for 24 hours. We have done guavas, too, but those take a little bit longer because they hold more water.”
Sometimes a dried fruit slice gets a little extra treatment before it’s deployed on a drink. The El Chihuahua cocktail, for example, is garnished with a dehydrated orange slice that has been lightly burnt with a blowtorch to add a smoky aroma.
Left to right: El Zacateca, Cuatrociénegas, El Chihuahua
For the El Hunter, the bar staff dehydrate thinly sliced beets and float a slice atop a square ice cube. And the El Jarrito is finished with two dried Guajillo chile ribbons.
Sometimes the garnishes at Don Artemio go beyond fruits and vegetables.
For example, the Valentine’s cocktail Amor-Amor is topped with a garnish of shaved chocolate, and the classic Carajillo (a combination of espresso and Licor 43) features three coffee beans riding on a square ice cube.
Whatever the rimmer or garnish of choice, Sanjuan stresses that a quality cocktail must be able to stand on its own — those extras won’t make a poorly made drink much better. But if you’ve made a good cocktail and topped it off with an innovative rimmer and garnish, your guests will notice.
“When you are walking those drinks across the restaurant, people are going to ask, ‘What is that on top?’ or ‘What is that cocktail that has that red thing?’” Sanjuan says. “They definitely notice. I believe rimmers and garnishes are very important to a cocktail. They elevate the drink.”
SIDEBAR: Ice Cubes Add Something Extra
These days ice cubes do more than chill cocktails; innovative bartenders are using them to add a little something extra to the drinks they’re crafting behind the bar.
For example, at Salazar in Cincinnati, the Bruce Banner cocktail features Elijah Craig small batch bourbon and an ice cube imbued with multiple flavors. That means that as the cube melts, the flavors mix into the bourbon and transform it to a totally different drink. (Comic book fans will remember that Bruce Banner was the mild-mannered guy who suddenly turned into the Hulk when he got angry.)
“It starts very spirit-forward and then kind of evolves into more of a cocktail as time goes on,” explains Nicholas DeFilippo, Salazar’s bar manager. “That cocktail changes seasonally, but it currently has pineapple, black pepper and mint.”
Sometimes it’s the shape of the ice cube that’s innovative. Round cubes are nice, of course, and some restaurants use big square cubes. But Manchamanteles in Chicago takes that idea one step further and puts skull-shaped ice cubes in some cocktails. It’s a fun touch — especially around the Día de Los Muertos time frame — that surprises and delights customers.
So, the next time you’re changing your cocktail menu, keep in mind that your ice cubes can deliver some fun along with their chill.
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