Creative Garnish

I am currently obsessed with the talent and imagination that goes into mixing Tiki cocktails. When properly done they are just as much art as they are alcohol. Tiki drinks combine layers of flavor with complex combinations of fruits and spices typically added by mixing in secret ingredients as part of a myriad types of “simple syrups” with names like Falernum, Fassionola. and Orgeat. The drinks are poured into special Tiki glasses carved with mysterious (and sometimes frightening) images, and are then served to you with all manner of creative and exotic garnishes.

Your drink may come out to you with smoke wafting off of it like a witch’s cauldron, or sparks of fire and flames may cut through the darkness of the bar like an angry volcano goddess threatening to erupt, or with colorful fruits and mint sprigs and palm leaves fresh from some tropical rain forest.

This Creative Garnish takes what might otherwise be simply considered a cocktail and turn it into engaging entertainment.

Garnish is defined as providing or supplying something ornamental. Adornment or decoration. To provide food with something that adds flavor, decorative color, etc.

If the right garnish can elevate the humble happy hour to a passionate Tiki culture that has spanned decades, what could the right garnish do for your business?

When you deliver your work to a client, how do you hand it over — in a plain brown bag? In a generic presentation folder you picked-up in the clearance bin at an office supply store?

Remember your favorite cereal boxes from Saturday morning breakfasts you had as a kid?
There were colorful characters on the front, and puzzles and games and mazes on the back. You didn’t take your eyes off the box while you shoveled those clumps of sugar into your gob.

How about CrackerJack?
You may not have loved the taste of stale popcorn and peanuts glued together with sickly sweet caramel, but you loved that cool prize inside. You may have even fought your siblings for it.

Did HappyMeals make your childhood happy?
McDonald’s basically took the cereal box and turned it into a lunchbox. Their cartoon mascots and playful puzzles covered the side of their colorful cardboard boxes and inside box next to your burger and fries was a free prize.

A creative garnish should embellish and enhance your work

What can you add to your finished work that would further engage your clients? What can you add to your box of goods that would make them fight their siblings for possession of?

Can you come up with something so cool that your customers would share it in their social media feeds? Something so awesome that they would take it home and show it to their family — and then take it back to the office the next day to display on their desk?

Take some time today to brainstorm ideas for a creative garnish that you can use to add some fresh flavor to your finished work.