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By Elyse Glickman and Kathleen Furore
Garnishes have been integral to the cocktail experience for generations. And while the edible and non-edible accents that land in, atop, and around the rim of bar beverages have changed over the decades, the role they play has remained the same.
“A good garnish is like the finishing touch to an outfit,” says bar consultant Chris Hopkins of DrinxPlus, who works with the team at Blue Iguana Tequila Bar aboard Carnival Cruise Lines. “It is supposed to provide a flavor accent, a color contrast, or even be the star of the show given the right technique or application.”
Garnishes are more than fashion accessories of the cocktail world; they can transform cocktails into conversation starters, according to Mike Ryan, general manager of La Mar Cocina Peruana in San Francisco.
"Cocktails are an excellent icebreaker to start the flow of conversation between guests and bartenders —whether they’re asking for recommendations, questions on ingredients, or spying an eye-catching libation of another patron,” explains Ryan, who says the restaurant’s beautifully garnished cocktails such as the Yasashi Mariposa (Tokubetsu sake, cocchi americano, lemongrass orgeat, lemon, egg white, and rice paper butterfly) and the Ojo de Tigre (St. George Botanivore Gin and rocoto leche de tigre, topped with octopus, shrimp, and cilantro) regularly spark conversations.
“The white foamy top of the Yasashi Mariposa beautifully contrasts the black matte coupe glass and is topped with a delicate, edible wafer butterfly. Frequently, guests ask how the detailed butterfly was made and if they can indeed eat it,” Ryan explains. “Similarly, the Ojo de Tigre gets inquisitive looks with its over-the-top garnish that includes halibut, shrimp, and octopus. When one goes out at the bar, someone else is almost guaranteed to ask which cocktail it is and it usually leads to a conversation about how the savory garnish complements the acid-forward, gin cocktail."
Those conversations, of course, often turn into orders for the cocktails.
Garnishes also can tell stories — something the creative garnish on The Wall, a signature cocktail at Bakan in Miami, Florida’s trendy Wynwood neighborhood, does quite well.
The drink is made with mezcal, fresh pineapple juice, activated charcoal agave and fresh lime, then garnished with a tiny doll and ladder. “It was created during Donald Trump's campaign when he was saying he was going to build a wall. It was created in honor of the people who risk their lives to come to the USA for a better life and who do the rough work and contribute so much to our society,” Lalo Durazo, the owner of Bakan, explains.
Rules for Garnishing
Carlos Ruiz, a Peruvian-born, New Jersey-based mixologist and bar consultant who has developed cocktail menus for Meximodo Cocina & Cocteles, Centrada Cocina & Cocteles, and Chico’s Mexican Grill and Cantina, all in New Jersey, has a few rules when it comes to garnishing cocktails: Make sure the garnish doesn’t overpower the cocktail, make sure it has a purpose, and make sure it elevates the drink’s appearance with its presence so it makes the impression you want it to make when a customer inevitably posts a picture on social media.
“It must have an application, and if it doesn’t, there’s no place for it on your cocktail,” Ruiz says.
Picking garnishes that are at home with Mexican and Latin flavors is another important part of playing the garnishing game. Durazo and the Bakan team consider the flavors, colors and textures that pair well with the restaurant’s cuisine when creating cocktails. Some of Bakan’s popular garnish-cocktail combos include Tajin and mint in the Mango Petacon (mezcal, house made margarita mix, mango puree, mint); jalapenos in the frozen El Tucanazo (mezcal, mango puree, fresh lime juice, fresh jalapeño juice); cilantro in the Verde te Quiero Verde (tequila, cilantro agave, fresh lime juice); watermelon in the Sera Melon, Sera Sandia Margarita (tequila, house made margarita mix, fresh watermelon juice); and worm salt that’s served with mezcal but also can be requested as a garnish.
When guiding bartenders on his team, Gabriel Rivera, the regional director of F&B for Mehzcla at The Balfour Hotel in Miami, Florida, emphasizes that glassware plays a role in how to garnish a cocktail. The more elaborate the glassware, the more help it needs from fruits, flowers or any other attention-getting garnish — think origami paper planes on a Paper Plane cocktail, and Szechuan/buzz buttons (small, edible flowers that produce a tingling, numbing sensation when eaten) on tequila-based beverages.
According to Hopkins, how elaborate a garnish is should be in accordance with the type of drink being created. A simple Margarita with delicate flavors can go next-level with an elevated garnish whereas a bolder, mezcal-based Margarita benefits from a more understated garnish, allowing the drink itself to shine.
“You can use flavors and textures that either complement or contrast the drink. Also, sometimes making small tweaks is hugely impactful,” he continues. “A smoky negroni is almost always garnished with an orange twist or slice, so remember that swapping that out for a lemon twist or slice changes the whole drink.”
Dehydrated Garnishes
Using dehydrated ingredients to garnish drinks is a great way to add preserved seasonal fruits, add visual interest, save prep time and eliminate waste behind the bar.
“I have always been a big believer in dehydrated fruits, house-made or sourced from local producers, which stay shelf stable longer, have consistent color and flavor, and save labor,” says Hopkins, noting that dehydrating is a great way to make use of produce that would otherwise spoil and preserve fruits that are in season. “This offers the double benefit of the freshest fruit at its peak of flavor and at its best cost.”
Hopkins stretches his house-dried dehydrated fruits by turning them into powder form using a spice grinder or dry blender, then combining them with sugars or salts. While raspberries are his favorite fruit to work with, they can be difficult to handle when fresh as they spoil easily and may either be too sweet or too tart. When dried and ground down, they impart a rich flavor. With citrus fruits, meanwhile, one can also use the pith, which adds a nice bitterness.
Ryan of San Francisco’s La Mar Cocina Peruana also is a fan of dehydrated garnishes.
“We dehydrate some of our fruits if we’re looking to highlight concentrated and earthy flavors,” Ryan says. “While we look to Peru and our local markets for inspiration, we try to stay away from trends and focus more on what is crave-able and delicious. If our team is at the farmer’s market and we see beautiful strawberries, we’ll bring those in and create a cocktail with that ingredient.”
They make the most of that ingredient by repurposing it into a garnish. "We could take the husks of the strawberries, dehydrate them, mix them with crystalized ginger, and make that a sweet and tangy rim on a glass,” Ryan says.
Sidebar: The 7 Pluses of Dehydrated Garnishes
Who better than pros who teach bartending classes to weigh in on the benefits of using dehydrated garnishes behind the bar? These come from The Nimble Bar Co., a Canadian company that offers virtual cocktail classes, bar consulting and more.
#1 They save you the time of having to cut / prepare a cocktail garnish a la minute
#2 They reduce waste by ensuring that every part of the fruit gets used (particularly in the case of citrus)
#3 They look beautiful -- dehydrating darkens the fruit itself quite significantly. This can provide a dramatic, intriguing contrast against your drinks
#4 You can dehydrate just about anything as a cocktail garnish
#5 Dehydrated cocktail garnishes last a very long time
#6 Dehydrated cocktail garnishes let you control cost-per-garnish
#7 Dehydrated citrus holds aromatics more effectively
For more information, visit nimblebar.co.
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