Gin and tonic garnishes: what to use, and what to stop doing

A gin and tonic is two ingredients, so the third thing you add is not decoration. It is a third of the drink.

Gin is a botanical spirit, which means it is already carrying citrus, herb and spice notes that were chosen deliberately by whoever made it. A garnish either works with those or fights them. This is why the same tonic and the same ice can produce two completely different drinks depending on what is floating in the glass.

Match the garnish to the gin

A classic London dry is juniper-forward and a bit sharp. Lemon or lime. A dried lemon slice gives you the citrus without the sourness that a fresh wedge squeezes in, which matters because you want the gin to still taste like gin.

A citrus-forward or contemporary gin usually already has orange or grapefruit peel in the botanicals. Lean into it with dried orange rather than adding a competing citrus.

A floral or pink gin suits petals. A pinch of dried edible florets floated on top looks the part and, more usefully, does not add flavour that clashes with something already delicate.

A spiced or savoury gin is the one case for something green. Rosemary or a slice of cucumber. Citrus can make these taste muddled.

Why dried, not fresh

A fresh wedge does two things wrong. It squeezes juice into the drink, which makes a gin and tonic taste like a gin sour, and within ten minutes it has gone soft and slid down the inside of the glass.

A dried slice sits on the surface or against the ice, holds its shape for the whole drink, and gives you concentrated citrus oil on the nose every time you lift the glass. That last part is most of what a garnish is actually for, because a lot of what you taste is what you smell first.

It also means you are not throwing out half a lemon every time you want one drink.

Things worth stopping

The half-wheel wedged on the rim. It gets in the way of your mouth and it drips. If you want citrus on the rim, use a full dried wheel with a small cut, sat flat.

Three botanicals and a berry. Somewhere along the way it became normal to serve a gin and tonic with juniper berries, a cinnamon stick, two slices of citrus and a sprig of something. It looks busy and most of it does nothing. One garnish, two at the absolute most.

Small ice. Not a garnish, but it ruins more gin and tonics than anything else. Fill the glass properly. A half-full glass of ice melts faster than a full one, which sounds wrong and is not.

The easy default

If you do not want to think about it: a dried lemon wheel, a full glass of ice, and good tonic poured down the side rather than straight in. That will improve almost any gin and tonic you are likely to make at home.

Our Dried Citrus Slice Trio gives you lemon, lime and orange so you can match the garnish to whatever is open, rather than committing to one.

Everything we make is handcrafted in small batches here in the Waikato, using real fruit and natural ingredients. Browse the dried citrus range, with free shipping on orders over $100.