Custom Rims

Gone are the days when only plain white salt ran circles around your margarita glass. Nowadays, sugary sprinkles and even dehydrated vegetables and liqueurs ground to a fine powder stick to the lip of stemware filled with tequila-based tipples. The result of this rimming trendlet: an added layer of flavor and texture – and a striking dose of bold, bright eye candy. At Yia Yia’s in Chesterfield, hickory-smoked sea salt clings to a glass bearing the Smoke and Fire cocktail. Bar manager Jay Olson opted to use the sea salt for this margarita makeover to “accentuate the smokiness of the peppers” he used for a chipotle-infused tequila, which gets blended with blood orange liqueur and a house-made sweet-and-sour mix. The cocktail is served sans straw; bringing the glass to the mouth is Part One of what Olson called a one-two punch: “You get the aroma from the smoked salt rim, which gives you anticipation of what you are going to taste.” For Salt of the Earth, a beet-centric twist on the tequila-based classic at cocktailian outpost Taste in the Central West End, margarita salt gets its daily dose of veggies. The ring of the glass is dipped in a mixture of finely ground dehydrated beets and fleur de sel, a colorful finish to a cocktail that combines roasted beet-infused tequila with Cointreau, lime juice and agave syrup that’s been jacked up with salted lime. Liqueurs are also getting dried out in this new age of drinking. Last summer, Tim Kosuge at Araka in Clayton turned Campari into a dust that encircled the glass rim for blood-orange juice-based cocktail The Sanguinello. A more recent liqueur dehydration project is on display at Taste, where powdered Green Chartreuse clings to the rim for Say Hello to My Little Friend: a chocolaty, mole-heavy, java jolt of jalapeno-infused tequila, rum, AGWA (an herbal green Bolivian liqueur made from coca leaves), vermouth, espresso syrup and mole bitters. Gourmet salts and sugars are more accessible than ever. Add to that fresh seasonal produce and a lineup of liqueurs just waiting for the creative types to dehydrate them, and it’s clear that the collar of the cocktail glass is going to get colorfully dirty.