Do Cocktails Actually Need a Garnish? | The Cocktail Lab | America's Test Kitchen

These two martinis have identical recipes but one will taste completely different from the other. The difference is all in the garnish. Most people think garnishes are just decorations, something pretty to make your cocktail look better or maybe it's a snack, but they're actually flavour delivery systems. Today I'm going to show you how the right garnish can make your cocktail smell better, taste more complex and feel more luxurious. These are the little details that make drinks at high-end cocktail bars so incredible. Cocktails need a garnish. Absolutely not. A dark and stormy, a Negroni and a highball are all perfectly delicious without one. But a garnish will almost always improve your experience. We eat with our eyes first, and when something looks great, we're already halfway to thinking it will taste amazing too. But there's actually a very strong functional purpose. Most of what we perceive as flavour actually comes from our sense of smell. Ask anyone who's lost their sense of smell from an illness. That's why garnishes aren't just pretty additions, they're aromatic elements that literally change how your cocktail tastes. There are some things that are there for the aroma. Things like a lemon twist expressed over a martini or a fresh mint sprig to liven up a mint julep. And then there are some that you actually taste on your tongue. When you add a sugar rim to a sidecar, you can essentially choose to make each sip sweeter by drinking through the rim or not. Take these martinis. The olive version emphasizes the savory, earthy elements of the dry vermouth. Those olives add salt and umami that make the drink taste more complex. Once the drink is gone, it lives on in your martini-infused olive. The lemon twist does the opposite. Those citrus oils add a perception of sweetness to the gin and emphasize its more floral qualities. You actually taste the salty olive and you experience the lemon through your sense of smell. Either way, the martini's flavor has definitively changed. This is how you make a lemon twist. First of all, look for lemons that have smaller pores. This generally indicates that they're fresher, so will have more of the oils still in their zest. Wash it and dry it to remove its wax. Then, use a veg peeler to remove a two-inch strip, leaving just a little bit of the white pith on. With the pith side facing towards you, squeeze it over the surface of your drink. If you look closely, you can see the oils flying out of the lemon and landing on the surface of the drink. This is what cocktail nerds call expressing citrus, and you'll really smell it. Then you can rub it around the rim, give it a little twist, and drop it in. Special thanks to our sponsor Teak House. Their boards combine two qualities that we all want in kitchen tools. They're gorgeous and are designed to be low maintenance. Their extra large cutting board offers a generous work surface that makes cooking and cocktailing a pleasure. Now let me show you how to take this even further. This is a Jabberwocky cocktail. It's basically a martini variation. One ounce each of gin, dry sherry, and Cocca Americano. Plus an eighth teaspoon of citrus bitters. It gets stirred for one minute. The gin gives you depth and strength, dry sherry adds savory notes, and Coke Americano brings some lovely floral elements. Give it that twist. And if you want it to feel extra special, you can make a rim garnish. Trim off the edges of another strip of lemon. Then make two diagonal parallel cuts to make a parallelogram. Cut a small slit down the middle, and then perch it on the rim like a little boat. When you get served a drink like this, your bartender is hoping you'll keep it where it is. As you bring the glass to your nose, you get this incredible burst of lemon aroma from the oils. You see the lemon, and as you sip it, you experience its flavour. It's that triple whammy that makes this savoury floral cocktail taste fresh and fragrant. Your brain is combining the aromatics and the visuals, and it makes the drink's flavour explode. Or to bring in the fire. This is a boulevardier, which is like a Negroni but uses whisky instead of gin. It's one and a half ounces of rye whiskey, three quarters of an ounce of Campari, three quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 30 seconds. For the garnish, I peel a strip of orange zest and then I'm gently warming it over a lit match. Then I'm expressing it, squeezing it over a lit match. You want to see that spritz of oils ignite. The heat releases even more aromatic compounds than the cold expression. You get a bit of drama, but on the initial sip there's some smoky caramelised notes that weren't there before and that settles into a more subtle sort of orange flavour. But whichever route you go, it's really fun to play with this stuff. Now mint is a lovely garnish for tropical drinks, but it comes into its own with the mint julep. I muddle a third of a cup of mint leaves with a half ounce of simple syrup. This extracts the flavourful oils from the mint. I stir in two ounces of bourbon and then I strain over crushed ice. It tastes great. Slightly sweet bourbon, and you get the cooling sensation from the mint. There's some flavour, but it's not very aromatic. But if you grab a sprig of mint, give it a good slap, and garnish your julep with it, that slap releases the mint's aromatic oils from the underside of the leaves. Now your sip is heightened by this super fragrant mint that's nestled right under your nose. Let's talk about the surprisingly considerate things you can do when making a drink. As a Brit, I feel very strongly about gin and tonics, and how I like them. But a great way to serve them is to let the drinker choose. So this is your base recipe. Add some ice to a highball, two ounces of gin, six ounces of tonic water. Gently lift the ice so that it mixes well but doesn't lose its fizz. For the garnish, use a lime or lemon and cut it into wedges. If you feel fancy, cut off the strip of pith in the middle and make a little incision so it can sit on the glass. Squeeze in a wedge and put another on the glass's rim. And serve with a little extra tonic water. Want it tarter? Use the wedge. Want it sweeter? Add more tonic. You're giving the guests the control over their experience. It's nice to serve a margarita with a lime wedge for the same reason. I've been working on this Teakhouse cutting board, and it's lovely to use in the kitchen because it offers a large work surface. But when I'm hosting, space is at a premium. That's why I love their bar board. Its small footprint gives me just enough space for making or serving last-minute garnishes to add that final flourish to a cocktail. Have you ever wondered about those tiny straws you get in bars for a whiskey on the rocks or an old-fashioned? They're not for sipping. They're for dilution control. Stirring encourages ice to melt which both chills the drink and dilutes it. A good bartender serves these drinks slightly strong so you can adjust to your preference. In the same way that people like to add different amounts of salt or pepper, people enjoy their whiskies with different amounts of dilution. This little straw, the lime wedge and extra tonic all let the drinker get the drink right for their tastes. Whether it's expressing oils, adding aromatics or giving guests control over their drink, these details are what separate home bartending from professional bartending. But using any of these tricks will upgrade your drinking experience. If you liked this episode, you will love our new book, Cocktails Illustrated. It's packed with hundreds of recipes, cocktail science and explanations like these.