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You can be the hostess with the mostest if you know how to make cocktail garnishes that really impress. There are a couple of very cool tools that you will need to create really attractive cocktail garnishes. The first is a really good bar knife and the second is a paring knife.
With the bar knife you can cut fruit and vegetables into any shape you want. The paring knife is used to make citrus rind curls called corkscrew twists
Corkscrew twists have almost become the measure of what makes a bartender more then a bartender, but rather a bartender chef! The longer your rind curls, the defter you are considered to be with the knife. A rind curl is a long spiral, slinky shaped piece of rind that can be dropped right into the cocktail or draped on the side of it. Basically, you use your paring knife to peel the rind from the fruit and keep peeling from the top around from the bottom to achieve the longest “slinky” shape you can. Some bars serve rind curls that are four to six inches long!
Your paring knife can also be used to shave chocolate curls into a chocolate drink or cucumber curls into a martini.
Another trend is to feather the ends of vegetables such as celery and carrots before you stick them in Bloody Caesars or Bloody Mary’s or fashion them into a kind of a spear that you can then use to stab an olive or cherry tomato.
If you are really creative, you can also make cookie cutters part of your cocktail garnish tool set. Small cookie cutters can be pressed into any vegetable that is sliced laterally and flat enough so that you can create a shape.
Another imaginative way to garnish your drinks is to freeze the garnish inside ice cube trays and then throw them into the drink. This especially works well with small bead like fruits such a cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, melon balls and olives.
To make your own flavored sugars to “frost” your specialty cocktails all you need to do is mix up three tablespoons of a liqueur, beverage or other flavoring to one cup of sugar and crush it to a fine dust in a blender. For instance if you wanted to make a cranberry frosting for cosmopolitans you would add three tablespoons of Cranberry juice cocktail to one cup sugar. To make a lemon frosting, add three-table spoons lemonade. Then use the dust to rim your glass!
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Perhaps the biggest trend of all in cocktail garnishes is the use of edible flowers to garnish the cocktail. Here is a comprehensive list of edible flowers and what drinks best suit the blossom.
Alliums (- Known as the “Flowering Onions.” These include onion, garlic, chives, ramps, and shallots. These spears with purple flower heads are great for any Bloody Caesar or Mary.
Apple Blossoms – Apple Blossoms have a delicate floral flavor and can be used to garnish martinis or cocktails made with brandy.
Borage – These blue star-shaped flowers taste like cucumber. They are good in bloody drinks and gin and tonics.
Calendula – Also called Marigolds. This spicy edible flower, which tastes like saffron, can turn a Bloody Mary into more of an Orange Mary.
Carnations – Carnation petals are the perfect garnish to decorate any drink made with chartreuse.
Chrysanthemums – These tangy, slightly bitter buds add a kind of Asian flavored twist to tomato-based cocktails.
Citrus blossoms (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, kumquat) – Use these highly scented waxy petals sparingly to decorate everything from champagne cocktails to screwdrivers to Old Fashioneds.
Clover – The sweet, mild licorice taste of clover buds goes well with Sambuca.
Dandelions – This peppery blossom from the daisy family can be dropped into a tomato cocktail.
Dill – Bright yellow dill flowers look great floating in a Bloody Mary.
Geranium Blossoms – These bright pink blossoms are peppery look great frozen in ice cubes and added to tall clear drinks.
Impatiens – These multicolored flowers belong to the edible violet family and can be used in any cocktail.
Lavender – Sweet, floral flavor, with lemon and citrus notes. The flowers look beautiful and taste good too in a glass of champagne.
Lemon Verbena – These cream-colored citrus-scented blossoms add a kick to gin and tonic or gin and soda.
Marjoram – The tiny pinkish flowers can be sprinkled sparingly on top of a tomato-based cocktail.
Mint -. Mint can be used to garnish any cocktail you like whether it be savory or sweet. They are particularly pleasant in rum based cocktails such as the Mojita.
Nasturtiums – This peppery multi colored blossom peps up a Bloody Mary.
Roses – The flavor of a rose can depend on its variety but they can range in taste from strawberry to green apple-like to minty to peppery. They look great frozen in ice cubes and added to a drink.
Sage – The flowers are violet-blue, pink or white clusters and suit a Bloody Mary best.
Violets – These purple blossoms have sweet distinctive flavor and compliment most clear drinks, especially if they are frozen in ice cubes.