How to Frost Cocktail Glass Rims With Sugar Or Salt

Rim your cocktail glasses to add flavor to your drinks.

Make your cocktails look more professional with a sugar or salt frosted rim. You can rim a cocktail glass with almost any powdered ingredient to enhance the flavors of your drinks. Sugar goes well with sweeter drinks such as daiquiris, fruity margaritas, mojitos and tropical drinks. Salt goes well with lime margaritas, salty dogs and Bloody Marys. Mix cocoa powder and cinnamon to rim glasses for coffee-based drinks or use powdered drink mix as a rim for fruity cocktails. Use kosher salt instead of table salt when making a salt rim for a better flavor and a more professional look.

Things You'll Need

• Saucers
• Lemon or lime
• Simple syrup
• 1/4 cup salt or sugar
• Cocktail glass

Instructions

1. Pour abou 1/4 cup of your powdered ingredient onto a saucer. Use a saucer large enough to accommodate the rim of your glass.

2. Take a slice of lemon or lime and slice it through the middle just to the rind. Rub lemon or lime around the entire rim of your cocktail glass. Squeeze gently to ensure a good coating of juice. If rimming with sugar, pour simple syrup in a saucer until it is about 1/4 inch deep. Invert glass and dip in simple syrup.

3. Invert glass and dip in saucer of salt or sugar. Wiggle the glass around slightly to completely coat the rim of the glass with sugar or salt.

4. Tap cocktail glass lightly to knock off excess salt or sugar. Turn frosted glasses upright, fill carefully with your cocktail of choice and add desired garnish.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a sugar coated slice of lemon or lime for a nice garnish.

• Twisting the glass can lead to slightly uneven rims if the ingredient you are using to rim glasses is very coarse. In this case, simply place the glass in the powdered ingredient and remove.

• Rim half the glass if you want to leave you guests the option of drinking the cocktail straight or with the added flavors of the rim.

• Rim your glasses ahead of time if you are serving many people. Once dry, rims will stay in place through freezing, storage and service.

• Make sure the flavors you use to rim your glasses complement the flavors in your drink. For example, avoid salty rims for coffee-based drinks.

References

• Mix That Drink: How to Rim a Glass
• The Cocktail Stylist: How to Rim a Glass