Cocktail garnishing is in essence a kind of visual art that is practiced by great mixologists all over the world. It is educational as well as inspirational to look at the latest trends in cocktail decoration.

Ever since Smirnoff started pushing the chocolate martini, bartenders have been going wild trying to come up with garnishes for this drink.  This has included everything from perching a Hershey’s Kiss at the side of the glass, to frosting the rim with chocolate Jell-O pudding powder to dropping a chocolate covered coffee bean at the bottom of the glass.

Another trend is to soak your own cherries in a liqueur and then use that as a garnish.  A chocolate martini in that case could be garnished with a cherry that has been soaked in kirsch or Kahlua; an old fashioned cocktail or martini could be garnished with a cherry that is pickled in dry French vermouth.

Another huge trend is star fruit.  It has replaced the kiwi of the garnish “of the moment.” This is an oval tropical fruit that once sliced vertically, concedes a beautiful yellow star shape. This fruit is used to garnish everything from the simplest of martinis to the most foamy of tropical drinks.  In the name of simplicity” many bartenders are simply dropping a single cranberry, pomegranate seed or blueberry into the bottom of cosmopolitans or Crantinis to give the cocktail a sleek but minimalist look.

Other unusual garnishes include rum drinks that are served with a stick of raw sugar cane, vermouth drinks that are pepped up with a clove stuck into an orange segment or crystallized ginger, and gummy bears and jelly beans that are dropped to the bottom of a glass.

You can replace the olive with just about any other savory fruit or vegetable imaginable – as long as it is spiced.  Long green and yellow beans stuffed with pimento, pickled mushrooms, almonds marinated chili peppers, white pickled asparagus and pickled artichokes are making their appearance as martini garnishes across the country.

Bloody Marys and Bloody Caesars have also had a bit of a makeover, boasting asparagus spears, very long green beans, bunches of tall herbs such as thyme or oregano and vertically cut cucumber strips and carrots as “stirrers” in the drink.   You even see celery sticks loaded with blue cheese and big hunks of ham in these drinks. Some cocktails nowadays are so loaded with food that they are practically a meal in themselves.