Tanghulu Is The Sweet And Simple Garnish Your Cocktail Needs

Garnishes are one of the simplest yet most fun ways to elevate your cocktails instantly. They're eye candy and contribute important flavor, aroma, and texture components to the drink. Bars around the U.S. use unique cocktail garnishes that wow patrons and home bartenders follow suit, flexing creative muscles to upgrade even canned cocktails. One of our favorite stand-out garnishes anyone can do is tanghulu.

Tanghulu can take the classic fruit garnish and up the ante on everything from flavor to Instagram-ability. Originally a Northern Chinese treat since around 960 A.D., tanghulu is fruit coated in a sugar syrup that creates a candy shell. This was traditionally done with hawthorn berries, but now you can pretty much use any fruit that has skin or isn't too juicy so the syrup doesn't just melt. These skewers present fruit-like glossy jewels, making for a striking finishing touch to any drink and they also bring the characteristic of crunch plus bold flavor. 

They're also easy to make and offer endless possibilities in terms of what beverages you can use them in. To make tanghulu, skewer about three washed and dried fruits or fruit pieces — you can also mix them up. Cook sugar with a little water until it's 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Then dip the skewer in and watch as it magically hardens into that gleaming shell. 

If you don't want to use sugar or want to play it safer than cooking the sugar mix — which you must be very careful with to avoid burns — you can make tanghulu with ice water instead. Freeze the fruit and dip it in ice water for a less sugary-sweet but still glassy coating. Whether you use sugar or ice water, you can experiment with tanghulu to make all the fruits you love and find their perfect cocktail pairings.

You can make a gooseberry fizz cocktail garnished with gooseberry tanghulu, simultaneously straightforward yet refreshing in its novel starring ingredient. The sweet, woody, spicy classic Manhattan cocktail with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters is customarily topped with a brandied cherry — upgrade the recipe with cherry tanghulu. That same skewer would also work with an espresso martini, as would strawberry tanghulu. You'd get a coffee-tinged, chocolate-covered cherry or strawberry effect. 

For a non-alcoholic option, make a drink with kiwi puree, pineapple juice, soda water, and lime, and add a skewer of kiwi tanghulu. Especially irresistible in warmer months is a spicy pineapple lemonade cocktail with vodka, garnished with pineapple tanghulu — the heat plus the candy sweetness of the tanghulu is a mouthwatering contrast. Ultimately, whichever type of drink you decide to add this garnish to, you won't be disappointed.