Creating a cocktail as delicious as one from your local watering hole is pretty simple. All it takes is a little effort and some fresh ingredients to elevate a good drink to something unforgettable. Fresh ingredients add intensity and complexity to a cocktail’s flavor, along with homemade texture and charm. With so many ways to incorporate fresh ingredients into your drinks, there’s no reason not to!

Juicing

Fresh squeezed juice is sweeter and more distinct than store-bought juice from concentrate. When you stock your kitchen with a hand-held juicer it’s almost as fast and easy!

Freezing

If you have extra fruit lying around the house, pop it into an ice tray with water and freeze it for later. It’s an innovative way to store out-of-season ingredients. Plus, it tastes delicious as it melts into your drink. 

Muddling

Release natural oils and add a unique texture to your cocktail by muddling in some fresh fruit or herbs. Just about any fresh ingredient can be muddled for a homemade flavor that would be tough for a bottled product to reproduce.    

Garnishing

Garnishes not only look great, but they let you use parts of the fruit you’d normally discard, like stems, peels and rinds. After you’ve juiced or muddled a fruit, use the outside for a memorable decoration.

Fresh ingredients may be a bit more effort than buying a bottle off the shelf, but they add layers of flavor and texture that can’t be beat.