THE MILLIONAIRE MARTINI - IS THIS THE ULTIMATE MARTINI?

Is this the ultimate martini? I don't know, but it's certainly the most expensive I've ever made.  This martini actually has REAL GOLD in it. . . Read More about the Millionaire Martini Here

HOW TO RIM A COCKTAIL GLASS

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For the sake of democracy in alcohol I will refer to your glass as a "cocktail glass" instead of a "martini glass". No one can ever say I have anything against a good margarita, mojito or other beverage!

Okay, let's get on with it. It's truly simple to rim a "cocktail" glass. You can buy a professional bartender's glass rimmer and follow the instructions (if there are any.) Or you can:

• Get two small plates
• Pour in your rimming sugar or salt in one plate (You can also create unique rimmers like crushed candies - see my tip on how to make your own martini rimmers
• Pour one liquid ingredient from your "cocktail" mixture in the other plate (remember this liquid will be adding flavor to the rimmer so choose one of the more flavorful ingredients like fruit juice or one of the liquors)
  
• Take your "cocktail" glass and dip the rim in the liquid then lightly shake off the excess
• Dip your moist "cocktail" glass rim into the sugar or salt

You will often seen a bartender rub the glass rim with a lemon or lime wedge to moisten the rim, but I find that creates a stingy rim. I like a nice thick, crusty rim on my glass that adds another taste dimension to my drinks! But whatever floats your olive!

So, my fellow Martini (oh, okay!) Cocktail Aficionados, there you have it. How to rim a "cocktail" glass!

MAKE CHEAP VODKA TASTE EXPENSIVE

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Did you hear right? Did I say make your cheap vodka taste expensive? Yes, I did and it's just this simple:

• Take your cheap vodka (and let's not get too cheap - at least shell out 8 bucks for a fifth!)
• Pour it through a Brita Filter. (get a dedicated - for this use only - pitcher and filters)

That's it. Fini. Done. Now with all that money you're going to save over the years buy some of my cool COCKTAIL HOUR art! It will benefit my martini cabinet and you will have wonderful art to decorate your party room, bar or martini area!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN MARTINI RIMMERS!

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SAY GOODBYE TO A NAKED GLASS RIM!

HOW TO RIM A MARTINI GLASS - THE BASICS

Updated 10-21-2015

 

There's a lot of ways these days to add a little bling to your cocktail, including adding a flavored rim.  It's the easiest and fastest way to dress up your drink and it can be done in just a few seconds. You don't need any special equipment either. Yes, you can go out and buy a professional bartender's rimming kit and follow the instructions. The problem with this is sometimes your glass rim might not fit into the rimming area and you have another piece of equipment that just sits on your bar and takes up room. Why bother when you can use what you already have in your kitchen?

• Get two small plates making sure the food area is large enough for your full rim to fit nicely.
• Pour in your rimming sugar or salt or rimming ingredient in one.
• Pour one liquid ingredient from your "cocktail" mixture in the other plate - remember this liquid will be adding flavor to the rimmer so choose one of the more flavorful ingredients like fruit juice or one of the liquors.
• Take your glass and dip the rim in the liquid then lightly shake off the excess.
• Dip the moistened glass rim into the rimming ingredient - at which angle? That depends on what you want the rim to look like. (Current trends are to wrap the top half of the glass rim instead of just the top edge, but that does add a lot of rimming element as you sip. I've taken to rimming just half the glass rim, this allows the person drinking some control over how much of the rimmer they want.)
• Shake off any excess by holding the glass upside down and tapping the bowl gently.
• Yes, you can also use a lemon, lime or orange to rub the rim of your glass then dip in your salt or sugar. If you're using some of my more creative ideas below you might want to use one of the "stickier" cocktail ingredients.

ADDING A LITTLE FLAVOR TO THAT SALT OR SUGAR RIM:

Rimming your cocktail glass with a flavored rim is a tasty touch to adding zing to any drink. You can, of course, go out and buy fancy colored and flavored salts and sugars, but why bother when you can make your own? It's fast and easy with items most people already have in their kitchen. Simply add some natural food coloring and some flavor extracts:

TO COLOR: Take the sugar/salt and place it in a heavy duty plastic baggy, then simply add food coloring until you achieve the desired color (remember to start with small amounts first and add until you get your color depth.) Allow to dry.

TO FLAVOR: Add a few drops of food flavoring (I use Schillings orange, vanilla, and others) until you get the degree of flavor you like. This will also add an aroma to your rim which enhances enjoyment.

GET CREATIVE:

Rimming a glass is usually done with salt or sugar, but with a little creativity you can come up with some really fun and festive ways to rim! I've used crushed candies, cookies, spices combined with sugar and even a few edible flowers!

Here are just a few of the food items I've used to rim a glass:

• Cocoa Powder - add some to sugar if you want or just plain - it's very popular to add chili powder to chocolate right now too.
• Ground Chocolate – dark, milk or white - this creates a less bitter chocolate flavor than cocoa powder and it's my preference.
• Ground Herbs & Spices - you can do great combinations and add these to sugar and salts.
• Candies – Pop Rocks are a wild and truly party-down choice (check out my National Martini Day Martini!) and I've also used a variety of crushed hard candies with the same flavor profile of my cocktail of the moment.
• Cake Decorations - Jimmies, Sprinkles, Edible Glitter. Yup, I've even used those tubed frostings!
• Crushed Cookies & Crackers, Graham Crackers, Vanilla Wafers, Bacon flavored crackers. If you can smash it into tiny bits you can use it as a rim!
• Crushed Pie Crusts - I will use my pie crust scraps, bake them up then crush them in a baggie and freeze for later use. I usually add sugar to the pie crust crumbs before baking but not always. This is great on something like my Key Lime Pie Martini or any of my other pie martinis.
• Edible Gold or Silver Flakes and Dust - use alone if you just won the lottery or mix with another ingredient. Elegant and impressive and adds such nice bling!
• Nuts - sure, why not? Especially if you're using Frangelico or Castries Peanut Rum Cream. Grind the nuts up and dip away - just make sure you ask your guests if they have nut allergies!
• Jello - Dip your glass rim in water and then into the dry Jello mix. This is especially nice on Jello shots!

HOLIDAY COCKTAILS

 

I had so many holiday cocktail recipes they had to move to a bigger house!

 

You can find all my

CHRISTMAS & HOLIDAY COCKTAILS

on this page here.

The THANKSGIVING PUMPKIN PIE MARTINI

Post Halloween and the jack-o-lanterns are being turned into pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin cupcakes. Of course, being the martini obsessed diva that I am I had to figure out how to make a pumpkin martini.

You are never going to find me digging the innards out of a real pumpkin - that's just a little too squishy for me. However, I did find Hiram Walkers Pumpkin Spice liquor and grabbed up a bottle for experimentation. Frankly, I was a little leery of a pumpkin drink and wasn't too sure it could be pulled off.

When I opened up the Pumpkin Spice and tasted it I was even more sure it couldn't work, the liquor had a very strong butterscotch overtone to it and I'm not fond of butterscotch. The bottle had a recipe for a pumpkin pie martini that used kahlua along with the Pumpkin Spice, but I didn't think a coffee/chocolate flavor would create the essence of pumpkin pie! I decided instead to use the Baileys, added the pumpkin pie spices and the whipped cream and, what do you know, a decent dessert martini that really did taste like a liquid pumpkin pie!

So, here is my recipe for the

Pumpkin Pie Martini 

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!