Dusting cocktail glasses is a unique way to garnish a cocktail. You can see glasses coated in every color in bars, online, and on social media.
Perhaps you wonder what that powder is and how you can apply it to a cocktail glass? Then you found the right place.
I will explain how to do it and how to make dusting powder from ingredients you have at home.
Using powder and dust to garnish cocktails
Dusting isn't a recent invention. It has existed for a long time already.
However, it's a skill that had been mainly used in restaurants. There, it is used mainly for decorating plates, not so much for glasses. And it wasn't something you would often come across in people's homes. But with social media, that changed.
When applied to a plate, the visual effect is the most important. But used on a cocktail glass, it's different.
You might touch it when holding the glass, or you smell and even taste it while sipping your drink should the dusting be applied to the rim of the glass.
Consequently, dusting cocktails alters the drinking experience as a whole. It can improve the visual appearance while adding another dimension to experiencing the drink.
How do you dust a cocktail?
Applying powder or dust to a cocktail glass is fairly simple. There are several ways to do that, depending on the result you want to achieve.
The easiest method is to chill your glassware in the freezer, then fill it with ice after taking it out. That will cause condensation on its outside, which in turn helps the dusting or powder to stick.
If you want to highlight or complement certain ingredients in your cocktail, you can also work with flavored variations. For that, you can use an atomizer to vaporize a liquid and apply it to the glass.
Then spend the powder equally on a plate or a chopping board and roll the glass in it. - The Powder will stick to the moist parts and fall off the rest.
For instance, spray a rose-flavored cocktail with rose water and apply rose petals (whole or ground into powder).
Diluted orange flower water and water mixed with citrus juice, Absinthe, or other kinds of alcohol also work perfectly.
What to use to dust cocktails?
There honestly are no limits on what you can use to dust cocktails. Cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and salt are just some examples.
You can create a powder from all kinds of things and apply them to your glass. Think raspberry, strawberry, matcha, mango, or even powdered flowers. Just ensure they're edible.
How to create your own cocktail dust or powder
There are many readily available options available to dust cocktails with:
Cocoa powder, matcha powder, or coconut flakes are all fantastic choices to improve the appearance of your cocktail. Yet, if you are after something more fruity to match a raspberry or strawberry cocktail, you best create it yourself.
The simplest way to do this is to use dried fruits and then pulverize them. For that, you need to dehydrate your raspberries, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, pineapple, or even lemon peels:
Dice the fruits or cut them into discs, place them individually on a baking tray, and put them in the oven at low temperature. Then crush and ground them until they transform into a fine powder. If that sounds too time-consuming, you can also use a blender.
Just check beforehand that the fruits are thoroughly dried and crispy before you start creating your fruit dust. Otherwise, you end up with a sad version of a dry, flaky raspberry mush.
If you work at a bar or restaurant and have access to liquid nitrogen, this will save you quite some time. Frozen with liquid nitrogen, you can take fresh berries and pulverize them within minutes.