The garnish is dead.
The need for a great looking as well as great tasting cocktail has now taken us beyond the olive when it comes to the perfect garnish. But from attention grabbing and over the top, to barely there, upcycled, or molecular, drinks makers are now seriously rethinking how they finish their drinks. So where do we go from here?
Remember when you used to see whole slider burgers dangling off the side of your Bloody Mary? Or your G&T came served with at least one of your five a day, including most prolifically in recent years, a giant wedge of grapefruit and a sprig of rosemary? Attention-grabbing, and evoking a sense of decadence, over-the-top crowd-pleasing garnishes for a while, ruled. But, as the all-important finishing touch a bar gives to their creations, garnishes go through the same trend cycles that effect the rest of the drinks market.
Spirit-specific
For pubs, the volume-leader of the on-trade, a shift to spirit specific glassware has logically been followed by spirit-specific garnishes. Beyond pairing gin with a balloon glass and citrus wedge, and whisky with a hi-ball or tumbler, pubs now routinely offer specific garnishes for specific brands.
Consumers, especially during the lockdowns, have become well used to reaching for a cucumber slice for their Hendrick’s, grapefruit for their Malfy, or orange peel for their Haig Club. Such attention to detail is now expected from venues. But it’s also been largely driven by sponsored menus or menu customisation tools, put together by mixer brands such as Franklin & Sons or Fever Tree. Keen to showcase the agility of their various product lines in creating differentiated serves, individual garnishes are the cherry on top.
Serious. Fun.
But, as fun, visually pleasing, and creative as garnishes are, for some time now their environmental viability has been a topic of contention. Movements such as Trash Tiki have raised awareness of the waste associated with what they term ‘unnecessary’ garnishes. Some establishments have indeed, axed garnishes altogether.
When it comes to waste, the issue is no longer just about being environmentally conscious. Cost pressures are also driving creativity, as a growing number of bars opt to decorate their drinks only using byproducts of their serves. Call them closed loop cocktails if you will. From citrus salt or dust made from dehydrated peels in place of a wedge, as ingredients become scarcer and more expensive, their use will necessarily become more considered and sparing.
The Artesian Bar at the Langham hotel in London for example, has explored the future of drinks in general in its latest menu, aptly named Future Proof. Examining ingredients of the future, it imagines a world where the ones we currently rely on are no longer available, and suggests alternatives from soil to spirulina. For its Nopales serve, a reimagined gin and tonic, Roku Gin and London Essence tonic are combined with cactus leaves and prickly pear instead of citrus. For a garnish, there’s a prickly pear gummy, made with byproduct juices from the cocktail’s construction.
Keep it simple
In the wake of eco-drinking, OTT garnishes can seem gauche. But another factor driving garnish minimalism is the notion that well-crafted drinks may be detracted from by exuberant garnishes that take away from the initial sensorial experience of just sipping a drink.
Instead, bartenders are swerving the flavours an imbiber can expect to find. Geometric minimalism is a key feature, with garnishes belying their natural forms; fruit and vegetables are shaped into neat strips, perfect circles and jelly cut outs. A recent article in Punch termed it, the Bauhaus garnish, noting how the rise of block ice too has forced a rethink of where and how a garnish can be placed within a serve.
Liquid garnishes
And finally, liquid garnishes are an interesting development, as bars and drinks makers get their heads around eschewing fresh, perishable ingredients. Numerous producers have dipped a toe into this potential market. In 2020 we saw Cocktail Elements from Linden Leaf. Available in Orange, Lemon, and Lime flavours, these sprays used a patented proprietary chilled distillation extraction method to capture the peak season, organic flavour of each fruit, suspending these essences in alcohol rather than oil. From a sustainability point of view, just a few lemons can be used to make a spray that can garnish up to 80 drinks. Though bars such as Three Sheets took them on, they haven’t achieved mainstream awareness just yet. But that’s not to say some form of them won’t in the future.
Now Nordic brand, Crafter’s Gin has just unveiled its liquid garnish. However, the focus this time is on the experience of consumption. Its Sensory Potions are ‘aromatic’ gin sprays, available in London Dry, Aromatic Flower, and Wild Forest variants. They combine essential oils with the gin’s botanicals, and it’s their aroma rather than taste that are intended to provoke a sensory reaction.
As eco-, cost- and other pressures force a rethink of what we see as necessary and what we see as luxury, garnishes will continue to evolve. As the accessory that completes and enhances a drink, rather than forms a crucial part of it, they really have no choice but to. But with creative solutions continually emerging, their continued transformation can only be exciting.