Get ahead of the curve with the latest cocktail trends, from seaweed to cheese, and learn how to incorporate them into your bartending skills.
Why Unconventional Ingredients Matter
The difference between a competent bartender and a truly skilled one often comes down to flavor understanding. Anyone can follow a recipe. What sets exceptional bartenders apart is the ability to look at an ingredient — whether it's a jar of miso, a bunch of fresh pandan, or a sheet of dried kombu — and immediately understand how it will behave in a glass.
This guide covers four categories of unconventional ingredients that are becoming increasingly important in professional cocktail programs: savory and umami, botanical, fermented, and tropical. For each, we'll cover the flavor science, specific techniques, and practical applications behind the bar.
Category 1: Savory and Umami Ingredients
Umami — the fifth taste, characterized by a deep, savory, mouth-coating sensation — was once exclusively the domain of food. In cocktails, it opens up entirely new flavor dimensions.
Seaweed and Kombu Tinctures
Dried kombu seaweed is one of the richest natural sources of glutamates, the compounds responsible for umami flavor. A kombu tincture is made by cold-steeping dried kombu in a neutral spirit (vodka or a lightly peated spirit works well) for 24–48 hours, then straining.
How to use it: A few drops of kombu tincture in a gin martini or a Bloody Mary adds a deep oceanic savoriness without making the drink taste like seaweed. It enhances the perception of other flavors by activating different taste receptors.
Technique: Start with 1–2 drops per drink. Umami compounds amplify at low concentrations; too much becomes off-putting. Always taste as you go.
Miso Syrup
White (shiro) miso dissolved into simple syrup creates a savory-sweet component that pairs beautifully with whiskey, aged rum, and even tequila. Combine 2 parts sugar syrup with 1 part white miso by weight, whisk until smooth, and strain if needed.
Pairing: Miso syrup + bourbon + lemon juice = a riff on a whiskey sour with remarkable depth. The miso's saltiness reduces the need for additional salt while adding complexity.
Salt in Cocktails
Salt is not a trend — it is a fundamental flavor tool. A small pinch of flaky salt or a saline solution (20% salt dissolved in water) suppresses bitterness and amplifies sweetness. A few drops of saline solution in a Margarita or a Daiquiri rounds out sharp citrus edges.
Bar standard: Many professionals keep a dropper bottle of 20% saline solution at the bar. Two to three drops per drink is typically all you need.
Category 2: Botanical Ingredients
Botanicals — herbs, flowers, grasses, and leaves — bring aromatic complexity that transforms a drink's nose and overall character.
Pandan Syrup
Pandan is a tropical leaf used extensively in Southeast Asian cooking. Its flavor is often described as a combination of vanilla, coconut, and fresh grass — sweet but herbaceous. Pandan syrup is made by blending fresh or frozen pandan leaves with water, straining the liquid, and then making a simple syrup with it.
Pairing: Pandan syrup with white rum, coconut cream, and lime creates a version of a Piña Colada variation with much more aromatic depth. It also works well with gin and sparkling wine.
Note: Pandan loses its color quickly when exposed to heat. For a visually striking bright green syrup, work quickly and cool immediately.
Fresh Herb Fat-Washing
Fat-washing is a technique where a fat — butter, oil, coconut cream, or lard — is melted and combined with a spirit, then frozen and the solidified fat is removed. The fat carries fat-soluble flavor compounds into the spirit, leaving behind a richer, more textured liquid.
Application: Basil-infused olive oil fat-washed into gin creates an herbaceous, savory spirit base. Rosemary butter fat-washed into bourbon adds a deep, woody herbal note.
Process: Combine melted fat and spirit in a ratio of 1:4, shake to combine, let sit at room temperature for 4 hours, then freeze overnight. The fat solidifies on top and can be removed, leaving a crystal-clear flavored spirit.
Floral Waters
Rose water and orange blossom water are powerful aromatic tools — but they demand restraint. A full bar spoon of rose water in a cocktail tastes like soap. A few drops transforms the finish of a Ramos Gin Fizz or a French 75 into something memorable.
Category 3: Fermented Ingredients
Fermentation produces complex acids, esters, and flavor compounds that are impossible to replicate with fresh ingredients alone.
Fermented Citrus
Lacto-fermented citrus — lemon or lime halves packed in salt and left to ferment for 2–4 weeks — develops a funky, intensely savory-sour character that is completely different from fresh juice. A small amount blended into a sour gives it an almost brined, complex backbone.
Use case: Swap 25% of fresh lime juice in a Daiquiri for fermented lime liquid. The result has more depth and a longer finish.
Drinking Vinegars (Shrubs)
Shrubs are fruit-and-vinegar syrups that predate refrigeration. The acid in a shrub is gentler and more complex than citrus acid, with fruity undertones from the macerated fruit.
Basic shrub recipe: Combine equal parts fruit (by weight), sugar, and apple cider vinegar. Let macerate for 48–72 hours, strain, and bottle. The result keeps refrigerated for 2–3 months.
Application: A raspberry shrub in a gin sour replaces part of the lemon juice with a fruitier, more nuanced acidity. Shrubs also make excellent non-alcoholic drink components.
Tepache
Tepache is a lightly fermented pineapple drink from Mexico, made from pineapple rinds, piloncillo sugar, and cinnamon. It ferments for just 2–3 days, producing a mildly alcoholic, funky, sweet-tart liquid.
Bar use: Tepache as a mixer in mezcal cocktails adds fermented complexity that enhances the spirit's smokiness. It can also be used as a non-alcoholic float or mixer.
Category 4: Tropical Ingredients
Coconut Water vs. Coconut Cream vs. Coconut Milk
These three coconut products behave very differently:
- Coconut water: Light, subtly sweet, excellent for lengthening and softening spirit-forward cocktails without adding fat or sweetness
- Coconut milk: Creamy, moderately sweet, ideal for shaken cocktails where you want texture without the richness of cream
- Cream of coconut: Thick, intensely sweet, used in small quantities as a sweetener and texture agent
Tamarind
Tamarind pulp dissolved in warm water creates a deeply sour, fruity, slightly tannic liquid that works beautifully in tequila and mezcal cocktails. Tamarind's flavor is simultaneously sweet, sour, and faintly bitter — which makes it a natural fit for complex, layered cocktail designs.
Technique: Dissolve 2 tablespoons of tamarind paste in 4 oz of warm water, strain to remove fibers, and use in place of some or all of the sour element in a drink.
Putting It Together: A Framework for Flavor Experimentation
When working with any new ingredient, ask yourself three questions:
- What are the dominant flavor compounds? (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, aromatic)
- Which spirits share or complement those compounds? (e.g., umami + whiskey; floral + gin; funky fermented + agricole rum)
- What role will this ingredient play? (base, modifier, accent, or aromatic element)
Start with small amounts. Unconventional ingredients are powerful precisely because they are unfamiliar — your palate hasn't calibrated to them yet, and guests haven't either. Build slowly and document your ratios.
Develop Your Palate at ABC Bartending College
Advanced flavor knowledge is part of what separates bartenders who follow recipes from those who create them. At ABC Bartending College, students build hands-on experience with a wide range of ingredients, techniques, and flavor principles. Find a school near you and start developing the skills that open doors to the best bars in the industry.
