Section Four ~ All The Trimmings

Part One: How To Earn Maximum Returns On Your Liquid Assets

Section Four ~ All The Trimmings

In this section, Mario lays out the essential garnishes and mixes that your bar will need. The list is six pages long. He separates the frequently used from the others with an asterisk. And here they are:

Bitter lemon - For the gin and tonic crowd.

Bitters - Trinidad’s Angostura is the best.

Cherries - You can’t make a good Manhattan without a maraschino. And there are also those weird minty green ones, brandied red and black cherries.

Club Soda – For the fizz you need in many concoctions.

Fomee or Frothee – Great for providing the foaminess that egg whites provide, but doesn’t give that eggy taste some people dislike, albumen.

Ginger Ale – The drier the better.

Lemons – Firm.

Limes – Smooth green skinned ones, rather than yellowed.

Lime juice, Rose’s – A tart syrup, not a lime juice substitute. Great for Gimlets.

Olives – I can’t imagine having a Martini without one…or two. You should always keep the traditional unpitted on hand, but it’s fun to experiment with the many different stuffed ones.

Onions, cocktail or pearl – My favourite cocktail of all time may be the Gibson cocktail, yet there is only one lounge in my city that keeps onions on hand to make it. It seems a shame that this simple delicious drink is being forgotten about.

Oranges – Fresh juice is always better than frozen or bottles. Keep oranges on hand for fresh squeezing.

Quinine water – For warm-weather drinks.

Seven-Up – Mario thinks this can be mixed with “almost any conceivable potable.”

Sugar – Superfine sugar only. You’d only ever need brown sugar for hot mulled drinks.

Tomato juice – For those breakfast/brunch cocktails like the Bloody Mary or Caesar. Not tomato cocktail, tomato juice.

Water – This is something most of us have on hand at all times, but if your tap water is pretty gross, invest in some bottled.

So, out of six pages, these are the essential trimmings every home bar should have. Smaller containers are best, to keep the contents their freshest.  I did notice that there was nothing about little swords, tiny umbrellas or toothpicks being “essential.” Perhaps there will be a whole chapter dedicated to the art of adorning your beverages.