Here's The Point Of A Cocktail Garnish (Besides Making You Feel Fancy)

Garnishes provide the finishing touch to any cocktail — be it the miniature umbrella on your frozen tiki drink, the olive pick on your martini, or the citrus wedge on your margarita rim. But while some cocktail garnishes are purely aesthetic, many do serve a purpose that goes beyond presentation. Those are the exact kinds of garnishes that Lexi Parker, the beverage manager at Poka Lola Social Club in Denver, Colorado, tells Tasting Table she uses. 

"Cocktail garnishes can definitely enhance the flavor of a drink. In fact, trying to use primarily 'functional' garnishes is something that we're conscious of at Poka Lola," she says. Apart from some of the garnishes she despises using (the coffee beans sometimes found in an espresso martini getting a special mention for not only being annoying to work with, but serving as an example of how cocktail garnishes drive the food waste conversation), Parker shares a few cocktail embellishments that go beyond making you feel fancy. 

"Something like an orange twist or a salt rim, by contrast, both enhances the flavor (and smell in the case of the orange twist) of the drink. Smoked cocktails or drops of bitters in a cocktail are other examples of garnishes that can alter the flavor of a cocktail," she tells Tasting Table. So, while we do eat with our eyes first, cocktail garnishes aren't only about looking good. Many add essential aromas, oils, textures, and even flavors that your cocktail simply wouldn't be the same without. You can, however, easily go overboard on them.

As Parker explains to Tasting Table, there are cocktail garnishes that work to enhance or alter the flavor of the drink they're in. Some cocktails, on the other hand, would do better without them — or, at least, would benefit from having them pared down. Not only are certain cocktail garnishes rather useless aside from the way they look, but some of them can actually take away from the drink itself — and that's especially true if you're using too many of them. One of the best examples of such a drink is the bloody mary.

Restaurants have leaned into the Instagram-virality of these brunch beverages by going over the top on the garnishes, progressing well beyond the tried and true bloody mary recipe's celery stalk or pickle spear and topping them with everything from bacon strips to soft pretzels and fried chicken. The same thing goes for super-garnished micheladas, which even Tasting Table has a recipe for. In addition to the standard lime wedge, it includes shrimp kebabs, jalapeños, pineapple rounds, celery, and a Tajín rim. 

While some of these garnishes do add to the flavor, you certainly don't need all of them. In fact, too many can make your cocktail difficult to drink — which brings us to Parker's point about the espresso beans: Some cocktail garnishes are just annoying. Whether it's a big rosemary sprig poking you in the cheek or a dehydrated lime wedge that just seems to be getting in the way, certain drink additions just aren't necessary.