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Garnish

The standard cuts, how to keep them, and what else works.

5 min read

A garnish is not decoration. A lemon twist is oil sprayed across the surface of the drink, and it changes what the first mouthful smells like, which is most of what it tastes like. Follow the spec: if a recipe says twist, a wedge is a different drink.

The standard cuts

CutFromKeeps
Lime squeezeOne-sixth of a fresh lime1 day
Lemon squeezeOne-eighth of a fresh lemon1 day
Orange wedgeOne-eighth of a fresh orange1 day
FlagHalf an orange slice, usually with a cherry1 day
TwistA strip of peel, as little pith as possibleCut to order
CherryMaraschino, bright redKept submerged in its own liquid

The standard cuts

where the fractions come fromlimeinto sixlemoninto eightthe flag, on a pickboth ends of the wheel, and the cherry betweenand what comes off the boardlime squeezelemon squeezeorange wedgetwistcherry
The table gives the fractions; this gives the shape, which is what you have to recognise on a board. A lime goes into six and a lemon into eight - the lime is smaller, and you want the same squeeze out of each. The twist is the only one that is not a fraction of anything, and the flag is the only one that is two things at once.

A twist is squeezed

1  hold it skin-side down2  pinch3  wipe the rim4  drop it inthe oil is the garnish; the peel is just what carries it
Four beats, because the chapter names four and the one people skip is the second. Dropping the peel in without pinching it wastes the only thing it was for - so the oil is drawn leaving the skin and landing on the surface, and the sheen it leaves stays there for the rest of the sequence.

Keeping it

  • Cut fresh before each shift, and for each drink if there is time, which on a busy night there is not.
  • Store cut fruit in a sealed container in the fridge.
  • Store whole fruit cold, dry, dark, and off the floor.
  • Never leave garnishes sitting submerged in water, because it leaches them and they go limp.
  • To refresh, cover briefly with soda water and drain immediately.
  • Refuse poor fruit. A soft or dried-out lime cannot be cut into anything worth putting on a glass.

Beyond fruit

Salt, pepper, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, Angostura, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, coffee beans, tea leaves, basil, mint, egg. A Bloody Mary uses half that list on its own.