When you're at a restaurant and your grilled hanger steak comes to the table with a small pile of microgreens on top, or your cocktail shows up with a floating edible flower, do you actually eat the garnish? If you don't, you're not alone. Garnishes are intended to make a dish look more appealing and help the empty space on the plate look fuller, but they don't always add taste to a meal.
Often in the world of cocktails, people will get caught up in the main ingredient and then skimp on the accoutrements. By now we know that the perfect garnish might be the difference between a great Gibson and a mediocre martini. And we should also know that since a margarita and many other drinks is two-thirds lime-sugar-agave mix to alcohol, it might make more sense to spend some more time making sure that mixer is great instead of the other way around.