Channel knife

Adding the proper garnish is the easiest way to stress that drinking a cocktail isn’t just about drinking something. It’s a special occasion, even when you casually make one for yourself. You have to know (or look up) the recipe. You must have all the required ingredients (and barware) on stock. You put effort and care in the preparation. When you add a garnish as a finishing touch, it marks the cocktail as a special, festive drink.

So while the addition of a channel knife doesn’t strike as being the most crucial addition to the collection of barware, it does a lot for the cocktails you serve.

Using a channel knife, it’s easy to fabricate lemon twists. These twists are elegant and cheerful; a lot of cocktail recipes specify the addition of a lemon twist. Lime twists are also possible, but it’s advisable to use a fine channel knife for the limes. For now, one channel knife that’s the proper size for lemon zest is fine.

If you pull open the twist over the cocktail before you add the garnish, it has the added benefit of releasing oils over het surface.

Just be sure to wash the peels of the lemons you are using for your garnish before you get to work with your tool.

Since we also have a knife at our disposal, almost all thinkable garnishes we can make with citrus are now possible: citrus peel (an oval shaped piece of the zest), wheels, half-wheels, wedges and twists. Sometimes the zest is cut up in a rectangular shape.

There are other ways to make a twist, by the way. But none are as easy as using this tool. The twists from a channel knife are also very slender and can be made as long as you want.

Aviation (reprise)

As promised, here’s an Aviation complete with colouring from the violet liqueur and a lemon twist, courtesy of the channel knife.