Do you want to enjoy perfect aperitifs aperitifs at home, with friends, on a trip, on a boat, wherever you are? Nothing could be easier, if you have two allies with you: NIO cocktails, with recipes designed by Patrick Pistolesi and only high quality ingredients, and the right garnish for every cocktail.
What is a garnish?
A garnish is a decoration that accompanies your cocktail, which can be inside drink or resting on the glass. In many cases, it can give an added flavor or a touch of contrast.
One of the most loved - and recommended by Patrick on the packaging of our cocktails - is the orange, a delicious passe-partout for all seasons, tastes and situations. How to cut the orange for cocktails? Nothing could be simpler: get ready to discover how to serve perfect, beautiful, properly garnished cocktails.
How to cut orange for cocktails: what you need
If you think you need complex instruments, we’ll make you change your mind. Just a few things that you definitely already have at home:
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- A knife with a thin blade to peel like the classic paring knife and/ or a potato peeler.
Choose quality
Another important element for a perfect garnish is the quality of the orange: choose them organic, with an untreated skin, to be washed carefully before cutting.
How to cut orange for cocktails
Round orange slice
It is the simplest of decorations, quick to prepare even for the most inexperienced: you just take the orange, cut the ends to remove them and then, with the normal serrated knife, obtain a rounded slice with a thickness and a size that depends on the size of the glass in which you pour the cocktails. If you want to put it on the glass, create a small slit in the pulp and the peel.
Round orange half slice
The most common garnish is a slice of not too big orange that you can get by cutting in half the slice obtained before. In this case you can play a bit on the thickness: leave it thicker for a touch of extra flavor or stay on a thin cut.
Orange Zest
Very aromatic and fragrant, the orange zest is nothing more than a strip of orange peel, obtained without digging deeply into the citrus. It is ideal to garnish many cocktails because it’s rich in essential oils, but getting the orange zest is easier than you think.
Here is in a few steps how to make the classic garnish with orange zest:
- wash citrus fruit well
- get a potato peeler or a paring knife
- hold the orange firmly with one hand and with the other engrave the skin obtaining a thin "slice", possibly without the bitter white patina
- before inserting it in the cocktail you can squeeze it slightly over the glass to enrich your drink with orange aroma
Spiral Orange Zest
Very scenic, the spiral orange zest is a beautiful garnish, but slightly more complicated to create.
Here’s how to make a spiral orange zest for your cocktail
- Wash orange very well
- hold it firmly in your hand and with a paring knife slowly and more deeply carve the peel around the orange, creating a strip
- peels thoroughly from the fruit
- wrap it tightly around a straw or spoon to give it the shape of a spiral
- you can hang it on the edge of the glass or place it on a colored toothpick.
Build your box for aperitif wherever you want and with whoever you want.