20 TikTok Cocktail Hacks That Will Level Up Your Bartending Game

Whether you make cocktails for yourself or you're making them for others, TikTok has plenty of hacks that can turn you into a better bartender. And whether you want to improve your technique or the flavors and visuals of your drinks, the collective ideas presented on social media offer something new for you to try.

TikTok hacks apply to a variety of drinks. So, no matter what your favorite cocktails are, you're bound to find something useful. Our list starts with alternative tools you can use from around your kitchen without having to go out and buy dedicated bartending tools. There are also flavorful drink add-ins and upgrades, garnish and rim ideas to pretty up your drinks, new ideas regarding chilling your drinks, and elevated techniques to improve your bartending skills. Perusing these cocktail hacks from various TikTokkers should provide plenty of new ideas to add to your bartending repertoire.

If you're only using your French press for making coffee, you're letting a perfectly good multipurpose kitchen tool go to waste. Once you're done making coffee for the day, it can double as a cocktail maker. Ereka Vetrini of @erekasfood shows how to use a French press to create a delicious aperol spritz sangria. Rather than putting coffee grounds at the bottom of the press, simply add your cocktail ingredients and chill. 

When Vetrini makes her aperol spritz sangria, she adds fruit, alcohol, and juice. Then, like with cold brew coffee made in a French press, she refrigerates all the ingredients for a few hours to let it macerate. Finally, when it's ready to serve, she presses the fruit down with the plunger to provide a more concentrated flavor to the cocktail. It's a brilliant way to infuse and strain your ingredients using the same gadget.

Another item you have in the kitchen that can double as a cocktail mixer is an ordinary Mason jar. It's a little more versatile than you might think. Granted, to get the full benefit of using one, you'll need to locate two lids instead of just one. While it's helpful to also have something to use to measure your shots, the measuring lines on the sides of some Mason jars may help with that, too. 

Obviously, you can use a closed jar to shake your drinks. However, @cocktailcards shows how helpful a singular lid disk can be for pouring your drink while straining out anything you want to keep in the jar. If you happen to have a second lid or lid disk, you can punch holes in it to make a strainer. Simply replace the shaker lid with the strainer lid when you're ready to strain, et voila.

Next time you're browsing the kitchen section at Marshall's, you'll want to notice if the store has a cocktail infusion mixer. This is essentially a drink mix with all the dry ingredients you need to infuse alcohol with flavor to make tasty cocktails. TikTokker @_elaysia shows several New York Cocktail Infusion mixers she found there. They come in a bottle and contain dried mix and dried fruit at the bottom with plenty of space to add alcohol. Plus, they come with a small strainer. 

She found a Margarita mix that only requires adding a bottle of tequila and an "On the Beach" mix that requires adding vodka. At just $7.99, it seems like a fairly good deal. You can also find other brands online, like this Rokz Mojito Spirit Infusion kit (just add rum).

Sometimes, leveling up your bartending game is about making your drink more aesthetically interesting. Next time you plan to have people over for drinks, you can create a drink with a tilted ice slide if you do a little pre-planning. We loved the idea @cocktails presented, which involves freezing ice directly in the cocktail glass at a 45-degree angle. The result is a tilted ice slide that separates your drink from your ice by creating an interesting diagonal divide. 

To achieve this, you'll need to have something to hold your glasses at a 45-degree angle in the freezer, like a silicone Winrock Super Ice Cube Tray. If you're using alcohol that freezes more easily, like Aperol, you can make your tilted ice slide with alcohol instead of water for any drink you want cold but don't want to dilute.

With the right garnishes, making your cocktail directly in your soda offers an aesthetically pleasing option for cocktails. Plus, it leaves you with fewer dishes to wash afterward. To do this hack, @clarapeirce uses a can opener such as the Draft Top Lift Topless Can Opener (as seen on Shark Tank) to remove the top of a soda can. This handy device cuts off the top of a soda or beer can easily and in a way that prevents you from cutting yourself on the metal — even if you want to sip from it without a straw. 

Simply make your cocktails as usual, using the topless cans instead of a cocktail glass. Of course, this may require removing some of the soda. But, as long as you wash the outside of the cans, you can even add a sugar rim like you would on normal glassware.

You can make a simple cocktail a little more magical with a pretty garnish. The @cocktails TikTokker shows how turning a lemon into flowers can be a simple option to elevate any lemon-infused drink. There's no need to turn this task into a labor-intensive endeavor if you have a channel knife like the one from the A Bar Above Store. Simply create a fairly deep channel vertically along one side of the lemon, tunneling into the white of the peel but not to the lemon pulp. Then, do the same every ½ inch or so until you've circled the lemon with vertical stripes. 

Now, when you make lemon slices, they'll have divots in the side of the peel that will make the lemon rounds look more like flowers. Sometimes the simplest ideas can make a big difference. Obviously, you can apply this idea to other citrus as well, such as limes or oranges.

Another fun garnish is to create fruited cocktail ice. The TikTok @cocktails profile shows how adding just a few pieces of fruit to your normal ice cubes can make your drink look more interesting. While you can make smaller fruit ice cubes, it's even more distinctive if you use a silicone tray like this Big Square Ice Cube Maker to make large ice cubes. First, you add fruit (like berries) to the bottom of the ice tray square. Then, you pour water over the top and freeze as normal. Since it's on the bottom layer, the frozen fruit should drop into your drink as the ice cube begins to melt.

Flavored water enhancers are an excellent way to add flavor to your drink without having to invest in various mixers or flavored alcohols. TikTokker @barchemistry also introduces this idea as a tip for "staying fit while drinking in the summertime." Since it adds flavor without calories, it's a great option if you'd prefer not to get a high-calorie flavored cocktail full of syrups and sugary alcohols — or if you'd otherwise settle for a boring drink to avoid the calories. 

Instead, you could order something like a vodka soda and flavor it with a flavored water enhancer like Mio that comes in all kinds of flavors. Then, suddenly, you're not drinking a plain vodka soda, but a cherry blackberry or blueberry lemonade vodka soda instead. Just follow the directions on the flavor pod to know how much to add and enjoy.

If you want to make some striking candy, sugar, or sprinkle-covered rims for your drink, @mistieknight has shared an interesting way to do it with cake frosting. Simply dip the rims of your glasses into cake frosting. The more you get on the outside, the more of the glass you can cover with your sugar or sprinkles. If you manage to get a couple of inches of frosting encircling the glass, you can even do multiple layers to mix different colored sugar and sprinkles. You'll probably want to pair this with a cocktail that seems frosting-appropriate, like a candy cane martini with a peppermint candy rim or a chocolate cocktail.

To upgrade cucumber-based cocktails like the cucumber gin gimlet, try a pretty cucumber swirl garnish. TikTok's @cocktails profile shows how ridiculously easy it is to make. All you need is an ordinary vegetable peeler, like the OXO Good Grips Y-Peeler, along with some short wooden skewers (these 6" Natural Bamboo Skewers work great). 

Simply use the vegetable peeler to peel two long, thin strips of cucumber. Then, fold them like an accordion and skewer the folded cucumbers through the folds. Make your drink as usual, and place the garnish on top, using the skewer to balance it across the rim.

Another hack from @cocktails provides you with a way to level up your margaritas in both flavor and spicy heat. Your first step is to freeze two whole jalapeños: A green one and a riper, hotter red one. Then, make a classic margarita cocktail. Using a small grater, grate a little of each of the peppers into the drink. You'll want to choose a grater like the OXO Good Grips Etched Ginger & Garlic Grater (not a cheese grater).

If you want a milder margarita, use more of the green pepper than the red. However, if you'd like a more fiery drink, you can grate the red and green jalapeño proportions to suit your tastes. The higher the proportion of red pepper, the hotter your margarita will be.

An innovative ingredient you may have never considered for lining the rim of your cocktail glasses is honey. Since it's sticky enough to adhere anything you want to the glass, @amynahsdish suggests it as an alternative to citrus. Plus, it provides its own added flavor notes. While you could double up on sweetness with a sugar and honey-rimmed glass, we're thinking more in terms of using it to add spices to your rim for your favorite holiday cocktails (especially the ones that already contain spices). It can also work well for honey-based cocktails like this hot honey apricot margarita.

Most of us who have tried making frozen cocktails at home with our blender have experienced a mixture that falls in frozen clumps everywhere but into our glass. Luckily, there's a trick to making frozen drinks more pourable, even with the ingredients you have at home. The trick is called "dry blending" and TikTokker @drinksbywild explains the method. 

First of all, you should use dry sugar instead of simple syrup to eliminate extra liquid. You should also be adding the coldest ingredients possible. So, chill your liquors in the freezer before using them to make a frozen drink. Finally, you'll blend all the cocktail ingredients with crushed ice and a ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum to help stabilize and emulsify the drink. It should only take 20 seconds or so to blend the drink. Pouring it into a chilled glass will help keep everything frozen longer.

If you want to improve the flavor of your homemade cocktails, it's time you swapped out your simple syrup for Demerara syrup. While simple syrup is made from refined white sugar, Demerara syrup is made from Demerara sugar. Since it's processed less, Demerara sugar has a richer flavor from the molasses left behind. 

TikTokker @driftersjoint makes his Demerara syrup by dissolving 6 ounces of Demerara syrup over low heat in 4 ounces of water. You can add your homemade Demerara syrup to any cocktail that calls for simple syrup once it's cooled. Since it will last two to three weeks in the fridge, be sure to adjust the recipe to make as much as you think you'll use in that time.

A good citrus stock can be just as integral to your bartending game as a savory stock can be to your cooking game. You can use it to intensify the flavor of citrus drinks like margaritas — or as an alternative to keeping fresh lemons and limes on hand. Since you make the stock from used lemons and limes, it gives you something to do with all that citrus you've already squeezed dry for other drinks without wasting the peels. 

According to @punch_drink, the process for making it is fairly straightforward. Just boil your used lemon and lime peels in water for 15 minutes and strain out the solids so that all that's left is the citrus stock. If you would like, you can turn it into a sweet syrup by adding sugar. You can also intensify the citrus flavor by adding citric acid or malic acid to the stock.

Just like how dry blending makes a better frozen drink, dry shaking creates a more impressive foam on foamy cocktails. This is especially important for drinks that have foamy ingredients like egg whites. To achieve better foam, @cocktails explains that you should be shaking your cocktail twice. First, you'll shake all the ingredients together without any ice (your dry shake). Then, you'll add ice for a second shake. So, next time you're making something foamy like an espresso martini, give this method a try to see how much more height you get on your foam.

If you want the buzz of alcohol without the burn of alcohol, this TikTok cocktail hack might be for you. To neutralize the alcohol and make your cocktail taste so smooth that you forget that it contains alcohol at all, @callmebelly suggests adding a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of salt, and plain sparkling water. Even with a heavy pour of liquor like vodka, gin, or tequila, just adding the three other ingredients will smooth away the alcohol flavor. Of course, this means it's easier to drink a lot without noticing. So, take care that the amount you imbibe doesn't accidentally take you by surprise since you're not experiencing the normal alcohol burn.

If you want more bang when infusing a cocktail with fruit, opt to start with frozen rather than fresh fruit. The @moodymixologist shows a comparison between alcohol infused with fresh fruit and frozen fruit. It turns out that frozen fruit makes a more intense infusion that's stronger, more intensely colored, and more flavorful. After just five minutes, you end up with an intensely infused drink if you use frozen fruit. Whereas, you won't see much of a change in the color of the liquid if you just add fresh fruit. 

This hack can actually do double duty for you. Since frozen fruit works so well to flavor a drink, why not opt for frozen fruit instead of ice to both provide more flavor and to chill your cocktail next time around? Instead of diluting your drink the longer it sits as regular ice does, it will intensify the flavor. 

If you want a chilled cocktail glass and didn't plan ahead and chill it in the freezer, all isn't lost. You can still have a chilled glass, and it doesn't take a whole lot of time and effort to do. The method @join_jules explains takes mere seconds. All you need to do is add ice water to your cocktail glass, stir the water around in the glass with a spoon, and wait 30 seconds or so for the glass to get cold. Then, simply dump out the ice water and your glass will be cold and ready for your cocktail. 

Some of the most surprising TikTok cocktail hacks provide lots of flavor with just one ingredient. According to @notjustabartender, salt is the secret ingredient to add to every cocktail as a flavor enhancer. Start with just a pinch of salt and adjust based on the flavor it adds. However, if you make a lot of cocktails, you can also create a saline solution that you can use to add to your drinks rather than having to hunt down the salt shaker every time. He suggests a mixture of 1 part salt to 4 parts water that you can keep on hand for cocktails just as you would simple syrup.