Rim a cocktail glass (3 ways)

Adding salt or seasoning to even the simplest cocktail turns a regular drink into something special, or makes a great drink into something extraordinary.

There is an infinite variety of salts or spice blends you could use. Table salt is a fine start. Or, right out of the bottle, any flavored salt could be great, or pink peppercorns, or any chile powder blend. Experimentation is fun.

Thinking about the flavor affinity between the rim salt and the cocktail is helpful. What taste(s) would complement the drink? For some heat, use chile or peppercorns. For sweet, use sugar or even cinnamon, nutmeg, or cocoa. For ideas, look in the spice drawer, or where your baking goods are stored.

You may also need a tiny bit of liquid to enable the salt or seasoning to bind to the glass. Usual choices are water, lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice, or simple syrup. As above, consider the flavor profile of your cocktail, and … that experimentation is part of the fun. If you choose method C below for rimming the glass, no liquid is needed.

At the end of this article, see the recipe for my go-to “Essential Rim Salt”. This blend works nicely with the flavor profile of many cocktails.

Since salt as an ingredient is not actaully a requirement to rim a glass, I will use the word “seasoning” for the remainder of this post.

Preparing the Glass

Prepping the glass is best done before creating the cocktail, so that when the cocktail is ready to be poured, you can do so immediately, when the concoction and temperature are perfect.

By doing so in advance, this will allow time for:
- the glass to be chilled;
- the rim seasoning to dry onto the glass a little bit; and
- the glass to be cleaned of drips if necessary.

Setting up:
> Put the cocktail glass(es) in the freezer. This is necessary for Method C below (but optional for the other methods).
> Choose / create a rim seasoning. About a tablespoon per cocktail is all you’ll need. (Actually, less than a tablespoon of seasoning will end up on the glass. But the larger amount is needed for the process of rimming. With the leftover seasoning, if dry, you can save it for another time or discard it.)
> Find two saucers, plates, or bowls with a center cavity that is slightly wider than the rim of your cocktail glass.

Method A: Inside, Outside, With Liquid

With this method, the rimming liquid and the seasoning will be on the inside and on the outside of the glass. As a result, this will effect the look and flavor of the cocktail inside the glass after the first sip. This may be ok… it just depends on what you have in mind for the cocktail.

1. Setup the two saucers:
   - One with your chosen liquid (as per above, such as water, juice, or simple syrup) about ¼” deep; and
   - The other with the seasoning.
2. Dip the top edge of the glass (i.e. upside down) into the liquid saucer, then into the seasoning saucer, then remove and set on the counter as normal (on its base).
3. If the liquid spills down the side of the glass, either leave it or wipe away with a towel. A streaked glass, if messy to handle or look at, diminishes the apeeal of your cocktail.

Method B: Outside Only, With Liquid

With this method, the rimming liquid and the seasoning will be on the outside of the glass only.

1. Setup two saucers as above in step 1.
2. Roll the top edge of the glass (holding the glass almost horizontally) into the liquid saucer, then into the seasoning saucer, then remove and set on the counter as normal (on its base).
3. Tidy up the glass if needed (see step 3 above)

Method C: Outside Only, No Liquid

With this method, no liquid is used, and the seasoning will be on the outside of the glass only. It relies on having a chilled glass, and the condensation on the outside.

1. Setup just one saucer, for the seasoning.
2. Dip the top edge of the glass (i.e. upside down) into the seasoning saucer.
3. No tidying up will be needed, since there’s no liquid involved.

Voila! All done. Pretty easy. Your rimmed glass is now ready for your cocktail to be made and poured.

Here’s how a thickly rimmed glass looks for Orange Coriander Sangria, using a recipe from Spice, by Ana Sortun, of the amazing restaurant Oleana in Cambridge, MA.

cocktail with coriander, brown sugar, and OJ on the rim

Essential Rim Salt

Here’s the recipe for a go-to rim seasoning that works with the flavors of many cocktails. (With appreciation to the recipe’s co-creator Hannah.)

• 1 part chile powder.
  - Be sure to use a powder, else the person drinking the cocktail will get a mouthful of heat, overwhelming the cocktail.
  - A blend like Old Bay is fine, or a pure powder like cayenne. If you choose something with high heat, you’ll probably want to cut back on the amount of powder relative to the other ingredients.
  - (We prefer “maras” chile, which is low on the heat scale and has additional fruity notes, and double it to 2 parts. But it’s not available in any supermarket I know. A good source is Whole Spice Napa Valley.
• 2 parts pink peppercorns, ground
  - These beautiful little berries — technically, they are not peppercorns — are available in many supermarkets in the spice section, usually on a bottom shelf. They often are packaged in a plastic grinder. But if not, be sure to grind them into a powder for this recipe. They have a fruity peppercorn flavor, and a beautiful color.
  - (For a fun experiment, hold your nose, and bite into a pink peppercorn. You’ll taste fruitness. Then release your nose, and you’ll smell the pepperiness. Flavor and aroma are complex and interrelated!)
• 1 part salt
  - Any fine grain salt will do.
  - A flavored salt could work nicely too if the profile fits your cocktail.
  - (We prefer the color and flavor of Himalayan salt, also generally available at many supermarkets, usually on a bottom shelf of the spice section.)

Simple! Feel free to play with the ratios based on your tastes and the specific ingredients you choose.

Here’s a look at Essential Rim Salt on grapefruit / gin / tequila cocktail:

Rim salt of chile powder, ground pink peppercorn, and fine salt.

Enjoy the creation process and the drinking!