- Hi all, welcome back to the cocktail vlog.
Today I'm gonna try and keep it a little bit interesting
by doing something different.
I've just surpassed the 250 videos,
they've all been cocktail recipes,
so I thought I'd mix it up just to keep you guys interested,
I don't wanna bore anyone
and also we've surpassed four million views
and 40,000 subscribers, so thanks for joining me,
thanks for watching, thanks for subscribing,
liking, sharing, really appreciate it.
Today I'm gonna show you how to make
citrus twists, swaths and spirals,
so a tongue twister, but I got it out there.
So this drink,
it's more of like a basics to garnishing with citrus,
it's not gonna be crazy, over the top,
everyone's gonna be able to do it,
I'm not gonna go so basic
to show you how to cut a lime wedge,
if you don't know how to cut a lime wedge,
then you probably shouldn't be handling a knife.
So first of all, I'll show you how to do a rustic swath,
this is a OXO Y peeler, it is a really sharp one,
so make sure you're really cautious.
Give it a little bit of a firm press.
As you can see, it doesn't actually get a lot of pith on it,
the more pith you have,
the more bitterness it's gonna add to your drink,
but also it's gonna add some structure to the garnish,
any finer and it's just gonna be too floppy.
That's essentially a basic swath,
if you then express the oils, give it a bit of squeeze,
all this goes straight into your drink
and if you keep it rustic,
you just can throw it in like that straight on top.
Otherwise
some people like to give it a little bit of a twist,
kind of makes it look a little bit, it's still rustic,
but it looks a little bit more elegant.
So very similar to before,
if you want to, you can stick with the peeler,
but I'm gonna change it up and use a knife just to show you.
So trim around the orange,
try and keep the peel a consistent width
and simply neaten up the edges,
keep those lines nice and tight, nice and straight,
just making it a little bit thinner
and then cut the ends at an angle.
In this one, you can see,
I probably should have done it first,
but you can see the pith is a little bit too thick,
so you can always trim that up.
Pith is gonna make the structural integrity for the garnish,
so you want some pith, but not too much,
as you can see there, that's not too bad
and then if you wanna add that into a drink,
simply twist over the top,
make sure you use a warm,
like room temperature orange as well,
it's easier to manipulate and get those oils out.
So as you can see,
there's enough pith there to hold shape.
So next up I'll show you how to make a flamed zest.
So trim the orange peel and this one,
you want a little bit of pith, but not too much,
same with the others, I guess.
So as you can see there,
I wanna trim that off just a little bit,
that's a relatively uniform swath
and then of course if you're going to be using matches,
you wanna burn off the sulfur,
you don't want that flavor within the drink
or better yet, use a gas lighter or a toothpick.
So lightly heat the citrus and then squeeze the peel
and express those oils into the drink.
So next up I'll show you how to make a dainty spiral.
So with the orange or the lemon citrus fruit,
go the entire way around the fruit,
the longer the better,
just take your time, pace yourself around the fruit.
Just check you don't have too much pith,
as you can see in this case I've gone a little bit too hard.
As you can see, not too much pith
and roll this one up,
then you can slice, discard that first piece,
of course you can use a channel knife
to do this exact same job, this is just a manual approach
and as well, as you can see,
you can get a whole bunch of garnishes at once.
So it essentially makes a nice, long ribbon,
you can see on that one, my cuts aren't very straight,
but you get the idea.
Grab a cocktail pick
and wrap it around,
again make sure the orange is room temperature,
that little bit of warmth makes it easier to mold.
So now once you've got it
wrapped around the pick or the straw,
give a bit of a squeeze
and it kind of molds it to that shape,
so it's gonna hold that shape,
so as you can see,
it's a little bit longer than what I'd usually use,
but it's just good to show you an example
and then you have a spiral.
Of course if you wanna make it look
a little bit more dainty,
you trim it up
and stretch out that spiral a little bit more
and then rest it on a glass.
Next I'll show you how to make a rose.
So this one, use a peeler and in particular,
this one works quite well,
because it doesn't get a lot of the pith,
it's a very fine peel,
peel the entire way around your fruit.
As you can see, there's barely any pith on that,
so for this garnish it works quite well.
Simply roll it up.
As you can see, it looks kind of like a rose
and then skewer it, make sure you don't stab yourself
like I was just about to.
There you have a citrus rose.
So all these garnishes are relatively simple to make.
When I need to up my garnish game,
I usually do keep them relatively easy,
as you've probably noticed in the past videos.
So you start by slicing your citrus,
get rid of that excess pith.
So in this particular one,
I don't want too much pith at all,
so I can easily manipulate and shape it
when it's on the glass.
Trim the edges
and round off those edges
and lead the end of the garnish into a bit of a point.
Then simply make multiple slices
down the length of the fruit.
(mellow melodic music)
Relatively simple, but it adds
a little bit of flair to your drink.
So there you have some very simple garnishes,
nothing too extravagant,
hopefully something that you can use at home.
Let me know if you enjoyed the video
and if you do, I'll up my garnish game
and create another video, version two.
Thanks for watching, make sure you like and subscribe
and I'll see you soon for another cocktail video, cheers.
(mellow melodic music)