Want to toast the New Year with something unique? Experiment with flavor. Build a simple spiced syrup with cinnamon, cardamom, or cloves; brighten cocktails with pink peppercorn or grapefruit peel; or finish festive sips with a dusting of freshly grated nutmeg. These are the flavors behind our Holiday Gin Sour, Cognac Flip, and Blushing Gin Gimlet—recipes that show how a few creative pinches can turn familiar pours into new traditions.

How do natural sugars shift the flavor of your drinks and desserts? Each one offers something different—freeze-dried honey powder adds gentle floral sweetness, coconut sugar brings warm caramel notes, granulated molasses deepens winter syrups, and maple sugar powder delivers clean, concentrated maple flavor without a sticky bottle. They mix easily, rim beautifully, and give you simple ways to try sweetners beyond cane sugar.

Need a quick guide to salting cocktail rims? Our step-by-step tutorial introduces different salts, spices, and why certain flavors work better with certain spirits. Try folding in guajillo chile pepper for heat, chipotle chile pepper for smokiness, or citrus peel for a bright edge. Or keep things wintery with cinnamon, cloves, or a pinch of black cacao for deeper, darker cocktails. The guide walks you through technique, texture, and pairing ideas so you can build rims that match your drink rather than just decorate it.

Need ideas for cocktail garnishes? From citrus twists and spiced rims to herbs, flowers, and sugared edges, garnishes can change the way a drink smells, tastes, and even feels. A curl of cinnamon, a star anise, a scatter of hibiscus petals, or a single cardamom pod can shift a cocktail’s character with a simple detail. Explore how to build garnish flavor—and how to choose the right one for your drink—in Mixology Maven: The Art of Drink Dressing, Garnishes + Rims by Selefina creator Risa E.