One of things I get questions about all the time is how to take better cocktail photos for Instagram. Being a photographer and having studied fine art photography in college, it’s something I’m always excited to help people with! The following photography crash course is an excerpt from my new Ultimate Guide to Instagram Growth.
Tutorial
Today I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart – Instagram!
Chances are pretty good that if you didn’t end up here via a Google search, you found this site via Instagram. Moody Mixologist began on Instagram, in January of 2018, and turned into this blog a few months later. Prior to becoming a full-time cocktail blogger, photographer, recipe developer, and Instagrammer, I owned a small skin care business, and before that I worked in marketing for about 10 years. When I started this cocktail adventure on a whim, I decided to put everything I knew to the test, and see where it would lead me. Less than 6 months after I posted my first cocktail pic, I had 10k followers, a growing blog, and I was making a decent side income.
Today I want to talk a little about creating cocktail recipes. This is obviously a major passion of mine and something that I love to study both the art and science of. One of the things about creating, making, and drinking cocktails that fascinates me endlessly are all of the different flavors we can experiment with. This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to the elements of crafting your own cocktails.
Chances are, when you think of a Screwdriver, you think of…well, a pretty uninspired cocktail. Perhaps one of the least loved and universally unappealing of the two-ingredient cocktail recipes, the Screwdriver is a simple combination of vodka and orange juice. Sharply acidic while still tasting quite bland, there’s admittedly not much to love. I guess it’s the unlovable nature of the Screwdriver and it’s incredibly simple template that drew me to try to re-imagine it in clarified form. Plus, I really wanted to see if it would turn out completely clear.
I have been wanting to make a milk-clarified cocktail for ages, and I finally sat down and did some research on the subject. If you’re not familiar, milk clarification is a technique used to render cocktails (typically punches) beautifully clear that was super popular back in the 1700s and 1800s. Back in the day, the end goal was less about pretty clear cocktails and more about softening the flavor of the booze and making a batched cocktail that would keep for a long time.
I’ve been wanting to create a savory small bite to pair with classic martinis for a while, and those cute organic, pre-cooked baby beets at the grocery store got me thinking. After a few different attempts that were overly complicated and not particularly delish, I arrived at this simple, elegant, and tasty hors d’oeuvre with baby beets, creme fraiche, fennel, walnuts, and my all time favorite mustard, Maille Old Style.