15 Tips and Resources From Beverage Stylist To Make Beautiful Drinks

Fancy, colorful and stylish cocktails and beverages are so fun, right?  As a Lifestyle Stylist it’s one of my favorite things to style.  We stylists love to collect our resources and brands to make “just the right” stylish drink!  Here are my “go-to’s” to bring style to your drinks. 

Before anything, I make sure I incorporate my 3 “must-do” to all beverages:  Freshness.  Add a fruit, flower, herb, or vegetable garnish.  Movement.  Yes, some drink are served “neat”, but I love to see some ice or some foam. (or even some dry ice “dramatic” action!)  No ice, no “action” in a drink can fall “flat” and Fun.  Add something unexpected.

On to ideas on how to style your drinks!

 1.  FLAVORED SUGAR CUBES

Sugar cubes come in SO many flavors now!  I’m lovin' the summer collection by Teapressa. You can also get these at Anthropologie too.  These are fun to place on the side of a drink so your guest can place them in drink themselves.  A little “interaction” drinks are fun.  I place them in a tiny pinch bowl with a couple cubes and some small mini flowers. Some fun flavors:  Salted Carmel, Mimosas, Martini and Champagne, and Tiramisu

These go along with my “movement” rule.  Drop these cubes in a champaign glass!  Or want to have your sugar cube hang off of your glass? These heart sugar cubes would be a great option.  Or how about some sugar bees.  These would be great for some tea and honey drinks.  In styling, oftentimes the "rule" is to give an indication of what is in the drink visually.  For example, you can add a honey stirrer into a drink with honey, instead of a straw.

2.  DEHYDRATED CITRUS SLICES

So, I know this breaks my "freshness” rule.  But sometimes it's fun to get in on the trends, right?! Citrus slices are on trend.  Here is a great citrus set as well. You can purchase them or even make your own.  Monique over at Ambitious Kitchen teaches you how to make dried citrus yourself.  Or you can do quick and simple candied citrus. Just jest your citrus into thin strips, toss in egg whites and then toss in sugar and you have yourself a fun, zesty, delicious, stylish beverage!

Photo By Ambitious Kitchen

3.  INFUSION

Infuse your drink with a mult-layers of flavor.  You can do it easy (& cost effective) with a infusion kit.

4.  EDIBLE DECALS & WAFERS

Personalize your drinks.  You can get any design you want on edible decals.  Your favorite flower, design, logo, pattern, person or pet!  Creativity is endless.  Decals work the best on a foam like surface, like whipped cream or a milk froth.  A restaurant in my area of Boston, Citrus and Salt Restaurant does drinks right with their custom decals and details.  Want a colorful dose of inspiration for your drinks? follow them on Instagram.

Photos by Citrus and Salt

Edible Wafers are an great option if you want to add a more 3 dimension look to your drinks. Butterflies can be fun! You can get edible butterflies here.

5.  MARSHMALLOWS ~ TOAST IT! 

Hands Down! Best. Marshmallows. Ever!  Mitchmallows. The only marshmallows I will use for photo styling and my own beverages.  I attended an NYC event years ago where Mitch was a vendor,  Ever since that night I have ordered my marshmallows from Mitch.  They are so light, fresh and delicious!!!!  (Sorry, supermarket brands.)  These are “where did you get these” showstoppers.  They are not just for winter drinks.  You can toast these, place them on a long cocktail pick and place on any drink.  (When I was first introduced to these at event, Mitch was serving them in appetizer size with long toothpicks with a custom decal of the event logo on the marshmallows.  (Strawberry is my go to!)  Also have gotten these to make custom smores made with thin sugar cookies. Delicious!

6.  SUGAR AND SALT

Gotta love some sugar and salt on a drink rim.  I tend to lean more toward a more vibrant color for drink garnishes and rims.  This chile salt rimmer is a go to for me, but I do love the taste of a sweet and salty citrus rim.  (I kinda have an obsession with citrus styling ~ as you can see by my Styling with Citrus Pinterest Board.) 

7.  EDIBLE SPARKLE, SHIMMER, GLITTER DUST

Add some sparkle to your drinks by a shake on your ice cubes. Want sparkle with some color? Sweetapolita has a great collection and variety of colors for your drinks.

8.  HERBS

While herbs like basil, thyme and rosemary are popular for drinks ~ I like to use lemon balm.  It's different and smells amazing!  I like to use herbs with that are very delicate, small/micro sized for drinks.

9.  VEGETABLES

Like the herbs, I like to use small, mini size vegetables for drinks.  Vegetables like mini peppers are great for spicy drinks ~ but you can get creative!  I use mini (with stem, not the bagged small carrots.) carrots as a garnish for vegetable juice drinks.  Carrots, of course are hard so I use my mini drill to drill a hole in them.   Tip when using vegetables is cut the vegetable and then put on metal cocktail pick.  For example, with cherry tomatoes, I always cut them open.  You want to see the life, vibrancy and freshness (seeds) of the vegetable.

10.  SPRINKLES

Sprinkles will always add fun to hot and cold beverages.  I coat glass rim with cake frosting before I dip it in sprinkles.  Frosting will give you a heavy coating of sprinkles.  For 10 years now, the only sprinkle brand I have used is sweetapolia.  They have sprinkle medleys that are colorful and fun. (& they have holiday mixes that will bring a holiday theme together.)

11. CANDY

Candy on a cocktail pick is fun.  Sugarfina is where I go for unique choices. My favorites for cocktail garnishes are their gummy selections.  The tropical mix, pineapples and strawberries. 

Photo By Sugarfina

12.  COLOR IT PRETTY

We do “drink” and eat with our eyes.  When I'm in the mood for a joyful, fun, pretty drink ~ I’m goin’ for one with a pretty pink hue!  For a pretty, pink color ~ I’m grabbing the “prickly pear” concentrate.  Love the flavor AND the color. (Us Photo Stylists tend to use food coloring or grenadine to get that pretty color for a drink photo, but now we lean toward “fresh and natural” techniques to styling.)

13.  EDIBLE FLOWERS

Flowers are fun to add to your drinks!  (See this guide to help you find flowers and safety precautions to keep in mind when you are using them.) Also, Giusti, over at Domestically Blissful has a great tutorial on how to make flower ice balls!   Head on over to Ode ala Rose for some flower suggestions and recipes.

My mantra for using flowers in drinks is always "fresh is best".  The fresher the flower the more life and vibrant color is added to your drinks!  Your goal is always for your drink to be an "experience".

14.  STRAWS

Part of being a commercial lifestyle photo stylist, is doing sourcing and researching. We are always on the search for new products to use and trends in the lifestyle industry that we can add to our clients/brand photo shoots. Twice a year I go to NYNow Trade Show in NYC.  It was there that I met My Minds Eye paper products.  Minds Eye is where I go for any type of paper product for drinks, likes straws.  Love that their products give a couple drink print patterns in one box.  Like the gingham and flowers box.  It's great to add two patterns/two straws to drinks.  Another great straw source is Shop Sweet LuLu.  I go there for jumbo straws which are great for milkshakes.


15.  DRY ICE.

How can I do a "Round Up" without dry ice, right!? Most often used around the Halloween season ~ but really is used anytime. It does go along with one of my 3 rules ~ movement in a drink!  When you are served a drink with dry ice it's always fun and dramatic. Always adhere to strict safety precautions when using this method to style your drinks.

On to the tools you will need to bring your stylish creations to life!

TOOLS of THE TRADE.

As with anything, you need “tools of the trade” to make drinks efficiently and effectively.  These are in my Beverage Stylist Toolkit:

ICE MOLDS.  Ice molds of course do “double duty” adding the cold and the fun.  Instead of water, I will always freeze a flavor full of color or add in flowers to make a drink more colorful and stylish.

DUSTING WAND. This twisting tea ball is the exact one I use.  I use it to dust powered sugar onto foam for cold coffee drinks.  You could also use a dusting wand too.

METAL COCKTAIL PICKS. To hold all those garnishes, I use a metal cocktail pick instead of a bamboo or toothpick.  Just one more step to “adding the pretty” to drinks.

STENCILS.  Easy way to add a design on top of your drinks!

MILK FOAM FROTHER HANDHELD MIXER.  Easy to use and adds such a great froth to your drinks. This milk foam frother is great for both summer cold drinks (hello, Starbucks Cherry Chia foam, I'm lookin' at you.) and for hot drinks.

COCKTAIL SHAKER.  I have a basic 3 piece cocktail shaker kit with a long spoon.  The long spoon is great to help with placing garnishes.

MINI DRILL.  This is great for hard vegetables, like carrots.

Want to know what is in my entire Photo Stylist Prop Kit? Check out my post on everything you need in your prop styling kit. or my Prop Styling Kit Video and Checklist to get all the details and tips of the trade.

Remember, you don’t have to use just one method.  I love to layer, layer, layer!  Use several of these techniques at once.  Love the way Citrus and Salt does the dramatic layer!  Here they went with the flowers, butterflies, and the liquid "float" color.  Can you imagine being given this drink!  So fun, right?!

Cheers!

Bonnie

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