Garnishes Galore

Modern bartenders look to finish their

drinks with a final, fancy flair.
By Jack Robertiello

Cocktails served at Zola Restaurant in Washington DC.

H
ow far has the cocktail revolution ranged?
Take a recent night at one of the Manhattan
headquarters for cocktail geeks, the Pegu Club.
Standing at the bar, a number of men were proudly hoist-
ing drinks gaudily garnished with pansies and orchids.
Drinks bearing flowers are not often beheld in the aver-
age bar east of Honolulu, but it is a sign that at serious
cocktail establishments, what finishes your drink gets as
much attention as the drink itself.

All around the country, especially in cocktail crazed cities, once unthinkable
items have been found floating in or perching on the rims of martini glasses.
Today’s mixologists have thrown open the pantry doors to seek out the final fillip
for their creations. From rosemary sprigs to dried apples, shisho leaves to lemon
grass stalks, rose petals to sliced meat, what had become a beverage afterthought
is now a key component of the creative process to help make a drink stand out
in the crowd.
A cocktail garnish, even in the golden era of drinking in the days before
Prohibition, was never more than a culinary addendum: olives, pickled onions,
pineapple wedges, cherries, lemon twists, orange curls and a sprinkle of nutmeg
were about the limit.
David Wondrich, Esquire drink columnist and recent author of the homage
to American bartending pioneer Jerry Thomas, Imbibe!, says garnishes could be
quite elaborate around the mid 1800’s; “If they had it, they’d use it,” he says. But
then drinkers reacted against that baroque style; the era of the lemon twist and
solitary cherry arrived and continued until recently.
Navan Fizz
 Wondrich favors a slightly more restrained
style than has suddenly become the rage. “A
good garnish ideally should be part of the
drink,” Wondrich says. “The way a lemon peel
gives you a slick of lemon oil on the surface and
immediately tells your nose that this is some-
thing worth drinking; this is the highest func-
tion of a garnish. It should also look attractive
– it shouldn’t look overly fussed with.”
Garnishes work best when they enhance
the aroma and presentation of a drink, says
Charlotte Voisey, who as brand ambassador for
Hendrick’s Gin, creates recipes for bars, res-
taurants and select events. One of her popular
drinks, the Poison Rose, features a floating rose
petal and gold dust. While it might sound over
the top, the drink is well-balanced and robust,
and the garnishes fit the concept.
Every Detail Counts
“You want to enhance every step of the
cocktail experience–the aroma, taste,
mouthfeel, temperature, glassware, and the
garnish–every area can be improved,” says
Voisey. “It can also be a talking point in a
bar and may be able to help you sell more,”
she says. Voisey compares an effective gar-
nish to a restaurant greeter–a good first im-
pression makes guests feel confident about
what’s to follow.
Audrey Saunders, owner of the Pegu
Club, says effective garnishes don’t need
to be gaudy or elaborate, but should give a
clue about what’s in the drink. “Flavor-wise,
it doesn’t make sense to use an orange or
lemon peel if there’s nothing going on in
the drink with those flavors; sometimes you
want something with a more exotic appeal,
like a piece of ginger, but it should be an in-
gredient in the drink.”
An example of the garnish fitting the
drink might be The Shogun, a mix of saké
with ginger-infused lemonade and hibiscus
syrup, finished with a lychee nut, served at
Zola restaurant in Washington, DC.
Especially when new restaurants
open, the cocktail menu includ-
ing house
creations
has become an
Cosmo
essential. At DC’s
L’Orange, at
Restaurant K by DC’s Restaurant K,
Alison Swope, uses orange infused vodka
the list of tradi- garnished with a wheel of
tional and con- blood orange jello skewered
on bamboo with two
temporary cock-
cranberries.
tails with a twist
The Shelf Life
of Garnishes
Whatever sort of garnish decisions
a bar operator makes needs to be
moderated by cost issues, says
Francesco Lafranconi,
Southern Wine & Spirits’
director of mixology.
“They need to make
sense and be chosen based
on the beverage and food costs.
If you use more perishable
products, like raspberries,
which after two or three days
might have a compromised aes-
thetic value, you must think like a
chef, and plan to use them in other
ways, like puree them and put
them in another drink.”
Employing other fruits means
fighting oxidation. “When the
Apple Martini was on fire, every-
one wanted to cut a Granny Smith
apple for the drink, but they were
frustrated when trying to keep
them fresh,” he says. Some bar-
tenders discovered the apple slices
turned brown too fast; others used
too much lemon juice and found
the slices would cook like ceviche.
Lafranconi suggests dried fruits
as a great alternative, for aroma,
appearance and cost control.
He points out that some high
volume operations tend to cut too
many limes at one time and store
them in jars together; when they
are in extended contact with each
other, the limes can cook down
because of the high acid lime juice
and turn brown and bitter, ruining
the next vodka and tonic served.
“I think whenever possible you
should cut as you go,” he says.
“The bottom line is with all these
garnishes, if it doesn’t look good
to you, it doesn’t look good to
your guest.”
feature not only infused spir-
its, but also signature garnish-
es. Their Cosmo L’Orange uses or-
ange infused vodka garnished with a
wheel of blood orange jello skewered on
bamboo with two cranberries. The garnish
rests on top of the glass and as the jello melts,
the colors streak throughout the drink, says
manager and bartender Bill Torrance.
Maximizing Creativity
Beverage consultant Jerri Banks, who de-
velops cocktail recipes for spirit brands,
restaurants and special events, has worked
for years with fresh herbs and aromatics in
garnishes, and for a recent event made veg-
etable ric racs (a sewing term for a zigzag
ornament used in dressmaking), by slic-
ing carrots with a mandoline, steaming
them with thyme and when they cooled,
cutting them with a paring knife into shapes.
The pieces were then adhered to the inside
of the cocktail glass.
She’s also finished drinks with fresh basil
leaves pinched into little vessels holding a
drop of balsamic vinegar and floating on the
top. If this sounds too complicated to em-
ploy at a busy bar, Banks disagrees. “I don’t
create out of theory; I don’t create precious
drinks,” she says. “I create drinks for real
bartenders.” And she points out high-end
restaurants charging $12 and up for cocktails
should be prepared for some extra execution
so that the customer feels satisfied that the
drink has value.
In developing new garnishes, bar opera-
tors should be price conscious, says Francesco
Lafranconi, director of mixology for South-
ern Wine & Spirits. “You need garnishes
that last and do not spoil easily, whether it’s
a cucumber or savory herbs or blueberries,
which can last a week when properly refrig-
erated.” (See sidebar.)
Things could be getting even more
garnish-mad, depending on your outlook.
Are foams garnishes or ingredients? It’s a
coming question, as bartenders like Daniel
Stern from Fenouil in Portland, Oregon, ex-
periment. He uses a nitrous oxide charged
cream whipper to create gelatin-based
clouds for drinks such as La Grenade, made
with pomegranate vodka, crème de cassis
and a mint cloud. “What’s nice about clouds
is they bridge the gap between garnish and
ingredient,” Stern says.
And recently, Remy Cointreau devel-
oped with Dale DeGroff a method that allows
the average bartender a chance to become a
molecular mixologist and create flavored gel
spheres for inclusion in cocktails. Once that
technique becomes widespread, we might
look back on the day of flowered drinks as the
time when garnishes were modest. n