Candied Rims for Cocktails

Candied Rims for Cocktails is a fun, tasty way to up your home bartender game! Choose your candy based on your cocktail for the full package!

Originally Posted July 16, 2012. Updated 1/5/2021

As you may have guessed from my recent Birthday Cake Martini post, I am a big fan of customizing beautiful, flavorful rims for cocktails.

In addition to the added visual interest, customized rims can add a great pop of coordinated flavor to your chosen cocktail.

A great drink suddenly becomes memorable - garnishes can go a long way to establishing a"signature" drink for your wedding, party, or other special event.

While it's not the most common application out there, I love to use crushed hard candy to rim cocktail glasses.

They work particularly well for my taste in drinks ("Diabetes in a glass"!), and I love the way it looks.

Candy color and flavor can either match or contrast with the drink, and bring a bit of sparkle to the presentation of it. Also, the possibilities are almost endless!

Use crushed peppermint candies or candy canes (Great for holiday drinks!), black colored hard licorice flavored candies (Ouzo shots!), fruit flavored candies for a jeweled look, hard caramels / toffees (perfect for a Candy Apple Martini!)... cinnamon candies, coffee flavored hard candy on a chocolate or Kahlua based cocktail...

See what I mean? Tons of possibilities!

Candied cocktail rims are quick and easy to do, and the technique comes in handy for my NEXT blog post 🙂 Have fun with it!

How to Make Candied Cocktail Rims

1. Crush your candies. I like to use a mortar and pestle, but there are many ways to do this – food processor, rolling pin, hammer, etc.

You will want any chunks to be relatively small, or they’ll just fall off.

Alternatively, you can crush the candies down to a powder, for a less chunky look.

2. Once candies are crushed, spread them out on one of the plates – you’ll want to use them fairly soon – moisture in the air will make the crushed candies sticky.

3. Pour a small amount of corn syrup onto the second plate. Carefully twirl the very edge of a martini glass in the corn syrup, until the edge is coated the entire way around the rim.

4. Hold the glass above the plate and allow any excess corn syrup to drip off of the glass.

Take your time – extra syrup will run down the side of your glass, not hold the candy securely to the rim!

4. Twirl the edge of the rim through crushed candies, gently pressing down to secure.

5. Fill glass with cocktail of your choice. Enjoy!

Interested in boozy culinary fun? You should check out my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. It’s FULL of fun, tasty recipes using spirits and liqueurs for flavour – you should check it out:

Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more.

To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here on my website, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller.

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Candied Rims for Cocktails

If you’re ever looking to up your home bartending game, Candied Rims for Cocktails is a fun, tasty way to do so!

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Total Time5 minutes mins

Course: Beverage

Author: Marie Porter

Cost: $5

Equipment

• Martini Cocktail Glass
• 2 Plates

Ingredients

• Hard Candies
• Corn Syrup

Instructions

• Crush your candies. I like to use a mortar and pestle, but there are many ways to do this – food processor, rolling pin, hammer, etc.

  You will want any chunks to be relatively small, or they’ll just fall off.

  Alternatively, you can crush the candies down to a powder, for a less chunky look.
• Once candies are crushed, spread them out on one of the plates – you’ll want to use them fairly soon – moisture in the air will make the crushed candies sticky.
• Pour a small amount of corn syrup onto the second plate. carefully twirl the very edge of a martini glass in the corn syrup, until the edge is coated the entire way around the rim.
• Hold the glass above the plate and allow any excess corn syrup to drip off of the glass. Take your time – extra syrup will run down the side of your glass, not hold the candy securely to the rim!
• Twirl the edge of the rim through crushed candies, gently pressing down to secure.
• Fill glass with cocktail of your choice. Enjoy!

Related posts:

Marie's Favorite Mojito Recipe Candy Apple Martini Recipe Homemade Wine Slush Mix Jolly Rancher Martinis