Garnishing tools

Start with what you do most often. If you mainly work with citrus, a zester and a peeler are the two pieces you pick up every day. A zester takes off fine threads of peel to go over the drink, a peeler takes a wide strip that you squeeze over the glass for the oils and then use as a twist. The multifunctional zester combines both and saves space in a small bar.

If speed is what counts, the lime cutter is the gain. It divides a whole lime into wedges in one movement, with a blade you can replace as soon as it goes blunt. For placing the garnish itself you choose between garnish tongs, which grip soft fruit, and a universal clip that lets you hang something over the rim without touching it.

Always squeeze a strip of citrus with the peel side facing the glass and from about ten centimetres away, so the oils spread across the whole surface. Then wipe the rim with the peel before you drop it into the drink. With an old fashioned that is orange, with a negroni as well, and with gin drinks and sours lemon works better.

Grate nutmeg over the glass and not in advance, because ground nutmeg loses its aroma within minutes. With the printing pens you put a figure or a logo on the foam of an espresso martini, on chocolate or on a slice of dried fruit. Always work on a dry surface, otherwise the ink runs and the lines disappear.

Stainless steel can go in the dishwasher, but blades and graters stay sharp longer if you rinse them by hand and dry them straight away. Citric acid that dries in the teeth of a zester can only be removed later with a small brush.

Store cutting tools separately rather than loose in a drawer. A zester that rubs against other steel loses its edge, and you notice that when a peel tears instead of coming away cleanly. Replace spare blades for the lime cutter as soon as cutting starts to take force.

If you are after the garnish itself and not the tools, the dried garnishes hold slices of fruit and flowers you can use straight from the bag. For aroma without anything sitting on the glass, look at the aromas and sprays. Heavier presses are with the citrus presses, picks to hold the garnish in place with the cocktail picks, and the matching glassware with the cocktail glasses.