Cocktail Garnishes
Ask any girl and she’ll tell you: the garnish is the jewelry of the cocktail. Imagine a classic Martini without its olive, a Manhattan without its cherry, or a tropical drink without something colorful hanging off the side. It might taste exactly the same, but somehow it looks like it left the house without getting dressed.
For centuries, cocktail garnishes were relatively simple—citrus peels, wedges, cherries, olives, herbs, and the occasional flourish. Then came the Martini-bar craze of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when bars proudly offered menus containing dozens—sometimes more than 100—flavored “Martinis.” And the garnishes went along for the ride.
Chocolate and caramel rims, honey, crushed candy, crumbled Oreos, coconut, nuts, sprinkles—you name it. If it could stick to the rim of a glass, somebody probably tried it.
For a while, you couldn't tell whether you had ordered a cocktail or a sundae.
Interestingly, this overlapped with the beginning of the modern craft-cocktail movement, sending cocktail culture toward two completely different extremes. On one end: candy-colored concoctions made with flavored spirits and bottled mixers. On the other: bartenders rediscovering classic recipes, fresh ingredients, proper technique, and elegant presentation.
It was a little like the disco-versus-rock battle of the late 1970s—except everyone was holding a Martini glass.
Today, many of those over-the-top flavored Martinis have disappeared, while the craft-cocktail movement has elevated garnishing into an art form. Since around 2010, bartenders have experimented with everything from precisely cut citrus peels and edible flowers to dehydrated fruit, aromatic herbs, elaborate ice decorations, smoke, and plenty of wonderfully ridiculous things designed to make you reach for your phone before taking the first sip.
Cocktail garnishes can include almost anything edible: fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, flowers, candy, baked goods, dairy products, and even meat. They may float on the drink, sit on the rim, rest across the glass, or be skewered, clipped, twisted, curled, carved, dried, flamed, or otherwise persuaded into looking fabulous.
There's only one important rule: the garnish should complement the cocktail.
Because, just like jewelry, the right accessory completes the look.
And sometimes one pineapple leaf is enough.
Fruit Garnishes
Olives are classified as a fruit because they are formed from the ovary of the flower. This fruit can be stuffed. Most come already stuffed with a red pimento pepper. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Vodka Martinis with blue cheese–stuffed olives were all the rage. Today, you can make your own stuffed olives. Stuffing ideas include cheese of your choice, roasted garlic, Italian sausage, nuts, jalapeño, pickled onion, pepperoni, or anchovies.
Common Fruit Garnishes
Apples, cherries, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, coconut, cucumbers, grapes, grapefruit, lemons, limes, watermelon, olives, oranges, pineapples, raspberries, and strawberries.
Not So Common Fruit Garnishes
Apricots, avocados, boysenberries, cranberries, dates, dragon fruit, figs, raisins, guava, kiwi, kumquat, lychee, mango, melon, nectarine, blood oranges, tangerine, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, pears, plums, star fruit, and tomatoes.
Vegetable Garnishes
Common Vegetable Garnishes
Celery, green onions, pearl onions, pickled beans, and pickled okra.
Not So Common Vegetable Garnishes
Beets, ginger, and rhubarb.
Herb Garnishes
Common Herb Garnishes
Basil, chives, cilantro, dill, lavender, lemongrass, mint, rosemary, sage, and thyme.
Not So Common Herb Garnishes
Borage, caraway, catnip, fennel, garlic, parsley, oregano, and tarragon.
Spice Garnishes
Mix spice garnishes with salt or sugar, then place them on the rim of the glass. You can also sprinkle (or grate) them on top of a cocktail with a frothy head or on whipped cream. You can also use some whole spices, such as cinnamon sticks and star anise.
Common Spice Garnishes
Black pepper, cayenne, celery salt, chili powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, star anise, and vanilla beans.
Not So Common Spice Garnishes
Ancho chili, anise seed, bay leaf, cumin, caraway seed, crystallized ginger, saffron, and white pepper.
Flora Garnishes
A Vanda orchid first garnished a cocktail in Hawaii by bar legend Harry Yee in 1957. Since around 2005, bartenders have been searching for beautiful, nontoxic, edible flora to use in their cocktails. All common fruits, vegetables, and herbs go through a flowering stage, and all of these are non-toxic and safe to use. It’s more important to know what flora is toxic and not safe to use as a garnish in your cocktail. For example, during the holiday season, you may think that a sprig of mistletoe would be a perfect garnish for your holiday cocktail, but mistletoe is toxic. Always search the Internet before using any questionable flora as a garnish.
Nontoxic Flora Garnishes
Aloe vera, angelica, orchids, daisy, dandelion, chamomile, chrysanthemum, clover, eucalyptus, forget-me-nots, gardenia, hibiscus, impatiens, jasmine, lavender, lilac, magnolia, marigold, orchid, pansy, peony, primrose, rose, snapdragon, sunflower, tulip petals (not the bulb), violet, water lily, and zinnia.
Toxic Flora Garnishes
Angel’s trumpet, azalea, belladonna (also called deadly nightshade), bird of paradise, bluebell, buttercup, calla lily, daffodil, English ivy, foxglove, hyacinth, hydrangea, iris, lily of the valley, lucky bamboo, mistletoe, morning glory, rhubarb leaves, star of Bethlehem, sweet pea, tobacco, tomato leaves, and wisteria.
Candy and Baked Goods Garnishes
Garnishing with candy and baked goods (such as cookies) started in the late 1990s. Before then, the sweetest cocktail garnish was a sugared rim. Because you have so many ingredients to choose from, this category of garnishes is totally up to your imagination. Here are some ideas: rock candy sticks, sugarcane sticks, chocolate-covered strawberries, Tootsie Pops, fortune cookies, a glazed doughnut set horizontally on the glass rim, gummy worms, licorice straws, marshmallows, Peeps, and placing a cookie horizontally on the rim and then poking a hole for a straw.
Rimmer Garnish Ideas
When rimming a glass at home, all you need is two plates. One plate will hold your dry garnish (salt, sugar, sprinkles, crushed cookies, etc.), and the other will hold the wet garnish that acts as glue so the dry garnish sticks to the glass. You can use lemon or lime juice for salts and sugars, but you will need something stickier to attach crushed cookies, sprinkles, etc. Some good choices include melted chocolate and syrups.
There are many sugar and salt are staples in the rimming world. For sugar, you can use white, raw, brown, and powdered. If you want to color it, you just need some food coloring and plastic storage bags. When using salted rims on cocktails, use coarse kosher salt, not table salt. You can combine sugar and salt with a myriad of spices and herbs to create a new flavor. Combinations might include cinnamon-sugar, cayenne-sugar, edible gold flake and sugar, dried cilantro and salt, cracked black pepper and salt, and dried basil and salt. For crushing candy and cookies, double-bag them in plastic storage bags, then bang them with a mallet until crushed. You can buy flavored and colored sugar and salts, or make your own at home.
Other rimming garnishes to try are sprinkles, Pop Rocks, flaked coconut, Cajun spices, edible pearl dust, chocolate powders, shaved chocolate, and crushed nuts.
Dairy Garnishes
The most popular dairy cocktail garnish is whipped cream. You can make your own whipped cream by whipping cream and sugar, or in a pinch, you can pick up a can at your local grocery store. The most popular alcoholic drinks that use whipped cream are hot coffee, cider, and chocolate drinks. They also sell non-dairy whipped creams.
Bloody Mary Garnishes
Since the 1970s, the Bloody Mary has reigned supreme as the cocktail most likely to arrive with lunch attached. Vintage Bloody Mary ads from the 1930s through the 1960s show surprisingly restrained garnishes: a celery stalk, a lemon wedge, or perhaps both. Olives began appearing by the 1960s.
From the 1970s through the 1990s, bartenders started having more fun. Salted and Cajun-spiced rims appeared alongside pickles, pickled beans, green onions, cherry tomatoes, peel-and-eat shrimp, oysters on the half shell, and blue cheese–stuffed olives. The Bloody Mary was beginning to realize its full potential as a salad.
In the 2000s came the Bloody Mary Bar. Vodka companies approached popular restaurants and bars with promotional signage, menus, infusion jars, and discounts on their vodka. Establishments set up tables loaded with garnishes, hot sauces, seasonings, and mixes, letting guests build their own Bloody Mary.
Naturally, competition kicked in.
Soon the garnish choices became increasingly outrageous: beef jerky, bacon strips, Slim Jims, cheese cubes, meatballs, and more. There were pizza-inspired Bloody Marys with Parmesan-and-red-pepper-flake rims, spaghetti-inspired versions topped with meatballs, and bottles of olive brine for making them dirty.
At some point, the celery stalk must have looked around and thought, “Well, I had a good run.”
By the early 2010s, Bloody Mary bars began giving way to another trend: the over-the-top Bloody Mary. Restaurants competed to see just how much food could possibly be balanced above a glass of tomato juice. Milwaukee restaurateur Dave Sobelman took the concept to spectacular heights at Sobelman’s Pub & Grill with a Bloody Mary famously garnished with an entire fried chicken.
Yes. A whole chicken. At that point, the Bloody Mary stopped being a cocktail and became a table reservation.
Another evolution was the personalized Bloody Mary checklist. Instead of walking through a buffet of ingredients, guests receive a printed card and simply check off their preferred spirit, spice level, rim, garnishes, and other additions. The bartender builds it to order, essentially keeping the Bloody Mary bar behind the bar.
And considering how Bloody Mary garnishes have evolved, that's probably wise.
There isn't enough room on the buffet table for the chicken.
Bloody Mary Fruit Garnishes
Cucumbers, lemons, limes, olives, and pineapple.
Bloody Mary Vegetable Garnishes
Asparagus, avocado, Brussels sprouts, carrots, celery, baby corn, cocktail onions, fried onion rings, green onions, jalapeño poppers, mushrooms, peppers (all types), pickles (all types), pickled beans, pickled okra, radishes, and tomatoes (all types).
Bloody Mary Animal-Based Garnishes
Bacon, beef jerky, calamari, cheese (all kinds), cheeseburgers, cheesecake, chicken (all kinds; parts and whole), clams, cocktail sausages, crab, crawfish, fish (all kinds), ham, hot dogs, lobster, mac & cheese, meatballs, mussels, oysters, pepperoni, pizza (whole and sliced), ribs, salami, sandwiches (all kinds), shrimp, Slim Jim, and steak.
Cocktail Decorations and Tools
Probably the most iconic non-edible cocktail decoration is the paper parasol (also called the cocktail umbrella).
Cocktail decorations and tools mainly consist of picks (also called picks) and straws. Pics hold an edible garnish near the top of your drink so it doesn’t sink to the bottom, and straws help you sip the cocktail—if you choose not to drink from the rim—and stir it up if you want.
Picks range from three to twelve inches and can be made of bamboo, wood, plastic, or metal. Hundreds of pick designs exist, and companies specialize in creating logo picks.
Straws can come in lengths from five-and-a-half inches to eighteen inches. Most are made of plastic, but they can also be made of paper, bamboo, metal, and glass. Some can bend and some are fat.
Other popular nonedible decorations are little plastic animals and creatures that sit on the rim of your glass. These shapes include monkeys, mermaids, elephants, and giraffes. Many bars have special decorations for signature drinks. For example, Tropical Isle in New Orleans has a drink called the Shark Attack that comes with a blue hollow plastic shark. The bartender pours grenadine (blood) inside the shark and then nose-dives it into your drink. Other decorations you may run across include a bamboo back scratcher, Krazy Straws, rim-hanging shot glasses, hot test tubes filled with booze and pushed into your drink, and indoor drink sparklers.
Unusual Cocktail Garnishes
Every day, bartenders come up with new garnish techniques. International bartender competitions tend to have amazing, intricate, food-styled garnishes that replicate those of a five-star chef. Others are clever, experimental, or just plain over-the-top. Here are several examples to give you inspiration:
Edible paper plane on a twisted classic Aviation Cocktail, Old-Fashioned garnished with an edible wax seal; a glass pipe that you can suck to drink and blow to blow bubbles; a cocktail with a small bag of pineapple caviar clipped on the rim with a mini clothespin; a cocktail with a swipe of white chocolate then torched coconut on the side of the glass as opposed to the rim; and several smoking cocktails.
There's more!
A treasure chest (for eight) filled with a rummy drink and garnished with orchids, skulls, and other items one might see in a treasure chest.
A cocktail that is rimmed with salt and crushed black ants. The Mexican black ants are supposed to be an aphrodisiac.
A bubble bath martini garnished with rose foam and a baby rubber ducky.
