you'll notice that a lot of cocktails call for a garnish but the purpose of that garnish isn't just to make the drink look pretty it actually offers a really bright citrus note right on the nose so we're going to go over how to correctly make and then express the citrus peel for your favorite bourbon cocktails you have a choice you can use a standard potato peeler a knife or what we call a wide peeler personally I always go for the potato peeler because it gives you a really good grip on the fruit so you start holding the fruit sideways latch on with the peeler and hold onto it with your finger then you go all the way down to get the most peels out of your fruit you want to go pole to pole if you want to do a horse's neck you're going to go all the way around the equator of that lemon slight diagonal will help you get a really good consistent piece most importantly outside of the length of appeal is that you express it correctly the outside of the peel not the white side should face the cocktail as you squeeze it all of that oil is going to pop out and missed over the drink so every time you go to take a sip you get that bright citrus smell coming through that sort of elevates the cocktail gives it another dimension