Modern Cocktail Garnishes For National Cocktail Day

March 24, 2022 at 11:15 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, Food Holidays, The Nibble

March 24th is National Cocktail Day, a day we’re using to revisit cocktail garnishes. Many standard garnishes have been used since the advent of the particular cocktail—they’re what that first bartender used when he mixed the first Sazerac (America’s first cocktail) or Gin Fizz. We’ll look at them as well as modern cocktail garnishes.

Citrus garnishes, perhaps the most popular (or the most available), took different forms depending on the bartender: twist, slice, wedge, wheel. Still other garnishes have evolved to modern forms—blue cheese- and jalapeño-stuffed olives in a Martini, for example.

Here’s what you’d need for a retro cocktail party (we’ve included some new “classics” with the old).

> The world’s Top 10 most popular cocktails.

> The history of the cocktail.

CLASSIC COCKTAIL GARNISHES

Celery stick and Boody Mary

Lemon peel for a Sazerac

Lemon slice for a Sidecar

Lemon spiral for a Cosmopolitan, French 75, and Long Island Iced Tea

Lemon wedge for a Gin Fizz, Highball (any type of whiskey), and Paloma

Lime slice or wedge for a Daiquiri, Dark & Stormy, Gin & Tonic, Gin Rickey, Moscow Mule

Lime slice and salt rim for a Margarita, lime slice and sugar cane for a Capirinha

Lime wheel for a Gimlet

Maraschino cherry for a Manhattan (along with a lemon slice for a Tom Collins)

Mint leaves for a Mint Julep and Mojito

Mint leaves, cucumber slice, lemon or orange slice for a Pimm’s Cup

Olives for a Martini, cocktail onions for a Gibson (that’s a Martini that substitutes onions for olives)

Orange peel for a Negroni

Orange slice for an Aperol Spritz, Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour (for the latter you can add lemon a slice and Maraschino cherry),

Orange twist for a Sidecar

Pineapple spear for a Mai Tai and Piña Colada

Citrus for anything else: lemon, lime and orange slices and wedges

MODERN COCKTAIL GARNISHES

Today, bartenders are called mixologists, and they’re expected to be creative in both new cocktail recipes and cocktail garnishes. Now, the garnish lineup can include:

Berries, cherries, grapes

Candied fruit, candied ginger, candied peel (recipe)

Coffee and chocolate accents: coffee beans, shaved chocolate, whipped cream

Cucumber ribbons (photo # 1) and slices

Dehydrated or grilled orange slices and other citrus

Edible flowers (photo #4)

Dill pickles/gherkins for Bloody Mary and Martini, plus dilly beans and other pickled vegetables

Exotic fruits: dragonfruit balls, gooseberries, starfruit

Foam

Ice cubes: flavored, with fruits or herbs (recipe)

Jalapeño or other chile, or a chile spice rim (photo #2)

Herbs: basil (photo #3), lavender, rosemary, tarragon, thyme

Flavored salts for rims, or other savory and sweet rims

Fruit wedges and balls (melon, papaya, pears, pineapple)

Cocktail picks have evolved from holding 2 or 3 olives, cocktail onions or blueberries to skewers with sky-high combinations of cheese, gherkins, ham, shrimp and the more unusual, such as the Japanese California roll and dumplings atop a Bloody Mary in photo #5.

Also see the mini cheeseburger Bloody Mary skewers in photo #7, below.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COCKTAILS

Cocktails, as we know them today, have existed since the early 1800s. A reader wrote to “The Balance and Columbian Repository,” a newspaper in Hudson, New York, asking “What is a cocktail?”

The reply, published in the May 13, 1806 edition: “Cock-tail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called bittered sling….”

The first published bartenders’ guide with cocktail recipes was “How to Mix Drinks; or, The Bon Vivant’s Companion,” by “Professor” Jerry Thomas, in 1862. In addition to recipes for “cocktails,” there are cobblers, flips, punches, shrubs, slings, and toddies. Bitters was a key ingredient that differentiated cocktail recipes.

Bitters are combinations of herbs, fruits, spices and/or roots, distilled in a base liquor. As with spirits, they began as medicinal tonics. Classic cocktails with bitters include the Manhattan, Negroni, Old Fashioned, Pisco Sour, Rob Roy, Rum Swizzle, Sazerac, and Singapore Sling. The recent renaissance in artisan bitters has led to more of their use in new creations.

[1] This Aperol Spritz still has the orange slice, but tops the cocktail with a cucumber ribbon (photo © Nerai Restaurant | NYC).

[3] Fresh herbs are beautiful and aromatic. Look in farmers markets for flowering herbs, like this purple basil (photo © Sid Wainer & Sons).

[5] This Bloody Mary garnish serves as an appetizer as well, with a slice of California roll and some gyoza dumplings (photo © Campbell Soup Company).

The leading claim to the first cocktail party goes to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri. In May 1917, she invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday. The cocktail reception lasted an hour, and lunch was served at 1 p.m.

While the record is mum on the subject, the cocktail event may have followed the Sunday church service. Now there’s an idea ready for revival: church followed by cocktails with friends

[6] Serving cocktails in wine glasses makes it easy to show off multiple garnishes (photo © Pasta Eater | NYC).