Cocktail Making 101: What's Your Poison? Cool Recipes & Garnishes
- Valentina Pérez
- Apr 2, 2021
- 5 min read
Last week we expanded on the art of mixology with accessories and helpful tips. This week it’s all about fancy techniques, wholesome recipe ideas, and knowing how to decorate your concoctions.
Once you’re over the easy drink mixes, you can have more variety of alcohol that will allow you to expand your cocktail choices. What flavour do you want to go for? Something sour, sweet, or dry? Do you feel like having a short, concentrated drink or rather go for a long, thirst-clenching one?
You can start by expanding your liquor collection with gin or tequila. Here are some special recipes that require some extra ingredients but are so worth making.
Amaretto is an almond liqueur that’s a terrific choice to have always on your shelf. It pairs particularly well with vodka, whiskey, coffee, or a cola drink. It can be used in baked goods like almond cookies or desserts too!
For your amaretto sour, simply add whiskey (or bourbon), lemon juice, and simple syrup. You can also add egg white to the mix to create an extra layer of froth on the top. Garnish with a lemon twist and a couple of skewered cocktail cherries.
Eternally obsessed with this glamorous cocktail after a visit to a Tiki bar in Prague, this drink features an exceptional dark-red liqueur, Crème de Cassis, which is basically blackcurrant liqueur. You’ll need vodka, cranberry, lime, and passionfruit juices for the cocktail, with an extra shot of thick peach juice and angostura bitters. This will create the most intense, berry-like, creamy concoction you’ll ever have. It’s so worth it!
The big star of the show here is elderflower liqueur, a delicate floral spirit that is quite versatile. It pairs really well with fresh flavours like mint or cucumber, and white wine, prosecco, or any type of aperitivo liquor (think Campari or Aperol). You’ll add gin, white wine (Chardonnay works super), and dry vermouth (Martini for instance) for this recipe. You can either stir it or shake it, but finish it with a lime twist and serve it in, you guessed it, a Martini glass!
Dry shaking
You can use an egg white to make your cocktail more of a mousse-like texture. If you’re using egg whites, you should shake your mix first without ice. This will ensure to emulsify your drink perfectly and create a gorgeous layer of froth on top. You can add the ice later on and shake it for a second time briefly to chill your drink. Ten seconds of mixing won’t do this time; make sure you spend a good minute shaking first. Best arm workout!
If you’re worried about consuming raw egg whites, you can either invest in organic eggs or buy pasteurised egg whites for extra safety.
Angostura bitters
What the hell is that? Regularly used in cocktail-making, this spice, and secret botanical blend started as a medicinal product. Angostura bitters was initially made to cure stomach aches and aid digestion. It’s now used to balance out flavours in cocktails, from a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned to a classic Mojito. If you’re getting serious about cocktails, it’s an excellent investment since you only need a couple of dashes of it for a drink. It’ll last you pretty much forever.
Pro tip: add a few hints of it to your gin for a beautiful pink drink that’s actually one of Queen Elizabeth II’s favourites! Angostura is the most famous bitters of them all, but you can find many others in the market or can even make your own with your favourite spice blend.
The cherry on top: Garnishes!
Twists
Let’s start by saying that a garnish must be beautiful, of course, but it should have a purpose as well. When using citrus fruits, for instance, lemon or lime, we see why they’re used. Their peel is packed full of essential oils that you can incorporate by gently squeezing them over your glass. This way, you can enhance your cocktail’s flavours and cut through the sweetness of it as well. Get a sharp knife or a vegetable peeler and peel a thin strip of your citrus (try to avoid the white part of the flesh). Then gently fold the edges inward, with the peel facing out, and watch the magical mist happen! After that, simply let the twist hang off the glass or use a toothpick to help it stand on top of it.
Fruit
Fruit garnishes are a superb way to give a visual clue of what we’ll find in the glass, apart from adding their flavour and aroma to the finished drink. This includes cocktail cherries, citrus slices or wedges, cucumber ribbons, or melon balls, and don’t forget olives! You can use items that you probably have on hand to make them, like a vegetable peeler or a cookie-cutter, so get crafty!
Herbs & leaves
Using leafery in your drinks ensures that your creations appear fresh and luscious, and not only that! Smell is way more powerful than taste, so it makes sense to add it to your cocktail bouquet. Herbs like mint or basil are usually used, but you can expand your horizons with pineapple leaves, rosemary, thyme, lavender ...you name it! Pro tip: herbs also contain essential oils, so the best way to wake them up is by simply smacking them between your hands to release their oils.
The same thing goes for flowers, just make sure they’re edible before using them. (Just because you’re not going to eat them doesn’t mean you can use anything. Remember that cocktails are mostly made out of alcohol, which is a solvent!). Try rose or chamomile to get started since they’re easy to get. Other flowers such as hibiscus, violas, or elderflower are also options.
Rims
The easiest way to decorate your drinks, since there’s always salt and sugar in your kitchen. Turn your glass upside down, wet the rim with lemon, lime, or grenadine, and dunk it into your dry mix. You can incorporate other ingredients such as cinnamon, chilli flakes, or dried mint, for instance. This is just the base, but you can play around with flavours, just make sure to use a liquid element first so everything sticks to the rim.
Ice cubes A super fun way to get creative, you can incorporate pretty much anything in an ice cube form. Try chopped-up fruit or dried herbs for the most stunning visual effect in your glass. Pro tip: next time you have some coffee leftover, don’t pour it down the sink! Fill your ice cube tray with it and add it to your next White Russian.
Illustrations by Valentina Pérez
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