Welcome back friends - it's Anders.
Today we are talking simple citrus garnishes for your cocktails.
I've received a lot of questions from you regarding the garnishes I put on my cocktails.
And now, I don't put garnishes on all my cocktails because it's not always necessary.
But if you decide to put a garnish on your cocktail, you want it to look good, you want it to serve a purpose,
and that's what we're going to talk about today.
We're not going to do anything over the top.
These are just good go-to garnishes for your drinks.
I'm going to be using lemon, lime, orange. Those are my main citrus garnishes.
Swaths, coins, spirals, when to use a wedge, when to use a wheel.
Any questions so far, before we get started?
Not a one!
If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button for more sips, tips, and recipes.
And let's go make some garnishes.
To the bar.
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Before we jump in..
..I'm going to say something very basic that a lot of people already know.
This is a lemon.
And just really quickly, we've got three parts that we're going to be dealing with.
One is the juice - the flesh in the middle. That's the acid and what we mix into the cocktail.
Then you have the pith - and that's going to be really bitter, but it actually gives the fruit its structure.
And then on the outside we have the skin, which holds all the oils. And the oils are really fragrant.
And each piece of this fruit you can use to your advantage, so keep this in mind as we move forward.
Also keep in mind you want to wash your fruit.
There can be a lot of different chemicals on it, wax, things that you don't really necessarily want in your drink.
Take the stickers off too.
You don't want stickers on your fruit when you are making garnishes.
First we've got the swath.
This is a long, flat piece of the skin of the citrus.
And it contains all of the fresh, aromatic oils that are going to go right on top of the cocktail.
And the idea is to make the cocktail more fragrant as you go in for a sip.
To get the swath, you either need a knife or a peeler.
I find a peeler works the easiest because it's a nice even thickness.
Now to express the oils over the cocktail, you want to point the outside of the skin over the drink.
So the pith side is facing you, and push the oils straight over the cocktail.
Remember to also hit the sides of the glass.
Now a lot of people will do different garnishes for the swath.
Some people will drop it right in,
and if you do that I would say cut off the pith because it can impart bitterness.
Me - if I'm gonna use the swath as a garnish, I like to clean up the edges with a sharp knife.
I like to make a parallelogram - if you know your geometry.
And then I like to fold that into a triangle shape,
stick it with a pick, and lay it across the top of the cocktail.
That way whoever is having the cocktail - myself or somebody else -
you can remove the garnish if you want, or if you want you could actually drop it right in.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Next we have the spiral, which is a really festive garnish.
And what makes this easy is a straight channel knife.
Now I talk about my preference in channel knives in our second tools video,
but having a nice channel knife just makes it really easy to get nice long tight spirals.
A good thing to keep in mind -
you can see there's a lot of real estate, so you can actually get a fair amount of twists out of one lemon.
You want to maximize the amount that you can get out of each fruit - minimize waste.
When I do this - you work your way around the perimeter of the fruit - I just follow where I've already been.
And it is going to pull some of the pith with it, so before I wind it up tight, I like to pull away the loose pith.
The remaining pith is gonna give that spiral some structure.
A lot of people will wrap this around a bar spoon, or a straw, to make a nice tight spiral.
I just twist it up with my hands.
It might take a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's really fast and easy.
Then you can lay it across your drink, or drop it in and let it hang over the edge.
And that's really all there is to it.
When you're using the channel knife to make your twist, do it over the cocktail
because it's going to express a lot of the oils, and you want that on your drink.
Next bit involves fire because citrus oil is flammable.
If you scorch the citrus oil as you express it over the cocktail, you get a nice toasty flavor with your citrus,
but also it's impressive as long as you get a nice big flame.
And for that I like to cut a coin, or a cheek, of the citrus. In this case orange.
Orange is nice because it's bigger, easier to handle, and it has thicker skin.
It's a smaller, more concentrated area that you're going to be expressing the oils.
You're getting some of the pith, which makes for a thicker piece, and it's easier to squeeze.
Personally I like expressing the oils through a flame that is burning something wood as opposed to butane.
I don't know that there's any science that backs that up.
I'm sure it's fine to use a butane lighter. I've just come to like using a wooden stick.
So up to you.
It helps to heat up the skin of the fruit to loosen up the oils before you do this.
Hold the flame over your drink, and simply express the oils through the flame.
And if you do it all at once - like one good push - you're gonna get a nice big flame.
All right, then we've got the wedge and the wheel. And a lot of people use these interchangeably.
And you're probably thinking,
"Anders, why do I need to know the difference between a wedge and a wheel?"
But, look at this -
the wedge is easy to squeeze.
The wedge I like to have on a cocktail where I might want more citrus in it - like a Dark 'n' Stormy.
A classic Dark 'n' Stormy doesn't call for any citrus, but I like having a wedge of lime at the edge of my Dark 'n' Stormy
because then if I want lime in there - which is really good in that cocktail -
I can go ahead and squeeze it in.
I cut the center piece - that piece of pith - I cut that away just because it makes it easier
to squeeze the lime - or lemon, and the juice comes right out.
I also cut a little slice in the middle. I actually go a little off-center with this.
I personally just like having a little bit more on the outside edge, but you don't have to follow those rules.
That's just how I do it.
The wheel, on the other hand, isn't there to squeeze into the drink.
It is there if you want to drop it into the drink because it will impart a little bit of extra limey goodness,
but it really is just pretty. And it just signifies that,
"Hey, you're gonna experience lime in this cocktail!"
That's how I use the wheel.
Now, when I do cut the wheel, I like a good thick cut. And that is just so it holds its shape.
But wheels are not for squeezing. So if you have a cocktail
that has plenty of citrus in it, you don't need to put this wedge on it
because people are gonna pick that up and they're gonna squeeze more lime into it -
throwing off the balance! All that hard work you put into it.
Like a daiquiri - a daiquiri's got lots of lime juice. You don't want to give them a wedge of lime with that.
That'll give them more lime juice.
But give them a wheel - you can see them try to squeeze it into the drink, and they'll get a little bit
if they really are determined, but it's not the intent for them to squeeze that into the drink.
Hey wow - that's it!
Obviously there are a number of different garnishes out there.
These were just to get you started because all of these serve a purpose.
Thank you for watching, like and subscribe, tell your friends about us, I'll see you next time.
Cheers!
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