Pushing the frontiers of the bar experience over the edge, edible cocktails are drinks you can sink your teeth into. Stephanie Zubiri takes a shot at concocting these new gastronomic delights

From Paris to New York, fearless mixologists and mad scientist-gastronomes are experimenting inside their laboratories to come up with new sensory experiences that will blow a foodie’s palate.

One of their more successful brews are called edible cocktails. Think jellied cubes of gin and tonic that explode like pop rocks in your mouth, mojito spheres with frozen mint chips, and transparent martini-infused cucumber bites. Created through the fusion of creative vision and advanced molecular cuisine technology, these cocktails are sprucing up the definition of “happy hour.”

Chef Dave Arnold of the French Culinary Institute in New York uses a vacuum machine to strip a cucumber of all its air, then reverses the process so that all the air pockets are filled with gin and vermouth. The result is a translucent cube of cucumber that is both crunchy and juicily alcoholic.

Many—like Adrien Vazquez from Providence, Hollywood and creator of the mojito spheres—use spherification techniques first developed and used for culinary purposes by Ferran Adria, chef of the famous molecular gastronomy restaurant El Bulli, to achieve that caviar, Dippin’ Dots-like effect.

You may not have all the materials to make Bloody Mary caviar or alcoholic salads, but you can still attempt your own degustation platter of edible cocktails at home. With the judicious use of gelatin sheets and edible props, you can make stunning cocktail bites that will leave your guests asking for more.

How about a layered Sex on the Beach inspired by the sunset? Or Cosmopolitan Cubes with suspended candied lemon peels? The possibilities are endless if you let your imagination fly. 

The trick is to play with flavor, color, and texture. How about a layered Sex on the Beach inspired by the sunset? Or Cosmopolitan Cubes with suspended candied lemon peels? Or perhaps a transparent classic martini encasing a whole olive? The possibilities are really endless if you let your imagination fly.

Still too complicated? Even easier to make are alcoholic popsicles such as the Mango Daquiri-flavored one. If Le Bar at Plaza Athénée in Paris can serve alco-popsicles, so can you! Here are two recipes and some pointers to get you started:

Vanilla Chocotini Cubes
For the liquid base, use equal parts water and vanilla vodka.
Add half of that amount of Irish Cream if you want a creamy effect.
Once you’ve decided how much liquid you’ll have, dilute the gelatin in the water first and then add the liquor while stirring slowly but thoroughly.
For each jigger of liquid, you’ll need about half to ¾ of a sheet of gelatin. You can also mix all liquid ingredients together and heat the concoction very slowly in order to bloom the gelatin directly into the alcohol.
Be careful not to evaporate the alcohol or curdle the Irish Cream.
Pour into a shallow pan and let it set overnight in the refrigerator.
When it sets, cut into cubes and grate dark chocolate on top before serving.
You may even dust on some cocoa powder for a different texture.

Mango Daiquiri Popsicles
Use a jigger of mango rum, half jigger of rum, fresh sweet mangoes, and a squirt of lime juice.
In terms of proportion, for each whole mango, use about 1 to 1 ½ jiggers of rum.
You can dilute it with water or mango juice, or add sugar to your liking.
Add a few leaves of fresh basil and place all the ingredients in a blender to make a smoothie.
Pour the mixture into popsicle molds, then freeze.
It can be served with grated lime zest as garnish.

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