Garnish Dessert Cocktails With Graham Cracker Crumbs For A Pie-Inspired Drink

For many people, the best part about the post-dinner evening is indulging in either a nightcap or a dessert. And if you don't want to have to decide between the two, you can always combine them into one by making a cocktail that is sweet enough to be considered dessert-like. Then, you can take it to the next level by garnishing the sweet drink with graham cracker crumbs to give it a pie-like element.

Tasting Table utilizes graham crackers in our recipe for a Key lime pie martini, which has all of the bright and refreshing flavors of the dessert but in drink form. The graham crackers are integrated onto the rim of the drink, and to do this, you'll need two shallow bowls — one filled with lime juice and one filled with the graham cracker crumbs. Grab the glass and dunk the rim into the lime juice, then into the crumbs. The Key lime pie martini is the perfect place to start with this pie-inspired rim, but it's far from the only cocktail that will benefit from a garnish of graham cracker crumbs.

Because the graham cracker crumb rim is pie-inspired, it goes best with cocktails that are sweet and dessert-like on their own. There's always a straightforward chocolate martini, which is made with crème de cacao, a cocoa-flavored liqueur. Some recipes call for sugar on the rim, but you can easily swap that out with the graham cracker crumbs. Another cocktail that uses crème de cacao is the Pink Squirrel, which requires just three ingredients to come together. Along with the white crème de cacao, the drink consists of heavy cream and crème de noyaux, a stone fruit-based liqueur with almond and cherry flavor notes. In other words, it's similar to a fruity, nutty dessert that could use a graham cracker garnish.

Speaking of fruit, maybe you want to opt for a bright and refreshing, fruit-based cocktail for the graham cracker crumb rim. This will give off the impression of a fruity pie. In this case, you can make a creamy frozen watermelon cocktail or a crema di limoncello. An apple bourbon drink can taste like the perfect fall sip with a graham cracker rim as well. 

There are also the super dessert-y cocktails, such as the frozen Nutella mudslide cocktail, the luscious black forest coffee, and the frozen Brandy Alexander. Each of these cocktails is best served with a dollop of whipped cream, so instead of placing the graham cracker crumbs on the glass rim, you can sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the whipped cream along with any extra sweet garnishes, like chocolate sauce, chocolate shavings, or a cherry on top.