How to rim a glass with salt or sugar (properly)

A rimmed glass is the cheapest upgrade in home bartending. It takes ten seconds, and it is the difference between a drink you made and a drink that looks like it came from somewhere.

Most people do it wrong in the same two ways, so here is the method bars use.

What you need

• A shallow dish, wider than the mouth of your glass. A ceramic rim dish is designed for this, but a saucer works.
• Your rim salt or rim sugar.
• A wedge of citrus, or a little water or syrup.
• A dry glass. This is the part people skip.

The method

1. Start with a completely dry glass. Straight from the dishwasher, still faintly damp, is why your rim goes patchy.
2. Pour a shallow layer into the dish, about 3 to 4mm. Deeper than that and you waste it.
3. Wet only the outside edge. Run a citrus wedge around the outer rim, not the inside. Salt on the inside falls into the drink and slowly makes it undrinkable.
4. Hold the glass sideways and roll the outer edge through the dish, turning as you go. Do not push the glass straight down, which is what puts salt inside.
5. Tap off the excess with a gentle flick, then let it sit for a minute to set before you pour.

How much do you need?

About a teaspoon per glass. Our rim dust pouches do around 25 drinks each, and whatever is left in the dish goes back in the pouch as long as it has not got wet.

Why your rim slides off

• The glass was wet, not just damp at the rim. The salt dissolves and slides.
• You used water instead of citrus. Juice is slightly sticky, so it holds better.
• You poured too soon. Give it a minute to dry before the liquid goes in.
• You are rimming a chilled glass. Condensation forms instantly on cold glass. Rim first, then chill, or work fast.

Half rims, and why bars do them

Rim only half the glass and turn the salted side away from the drinker as you serve. Anyone who wants it turns the glass. Anyone who does not, does not have to pick their way around it. It also looks smarter in a photograph, because you can see both the rim and the drink.

Salt or sugar?

Salt goes with anything sharp or bitter: margaritas, palomas, anything with grapefruit or tequila. Our chilli citrus salt adds heat as well, which suits a margarita in summer, and it doubles as a seasoning for roast vegetables and platters.

Sugar goes with fruit and cream drinks: daiquiris, mojitos, espresso martinis, pina coladas. The raspberry sugar and passionfruit sherbet are the two that get reordered most.

Either works on a mocktail, and a rim is the quickest way to stop a non-alcoholic drink looking like a glass of juice.

Beyond drinks

Rim sugars are worth keeping for baking. A pinch on a doughnut, over whipped cream, or around the edge of a dessert plate does the same job it does on a glass. The chilli citrus salt is also good on mango and watermelon, which is not what it was designed for but is how a lot of our customers use it.

You can see the whole range in our rim dust collection, made here in the Waikato in small batches.