Why Clarifying Drinks
Clarification as a Technical Method, Not a Visual Style
Clarified cocktails have become so widespread that many drinks in modern bars now look almost identical: crystal-clear, colourless, and increasingly reminiscent of a glass of water. The technique behind this aesthetic has sound technical roots, but its recent popularity sometimes seems disconnected from the reasons clarification exists in the first place.
Clarification is a straightforward process: remove suspended solids from a liquid to create a clearer, more stable drink. This can be done through fining agents such as gelatine or agar, through filtration, or through centrifugation. The same logic applies in winemaking, brewing and juice production, where clarification improves stability, reduces haze and refines texture. These effects are well documented and form the actual scientific basis of the technique.
What clarification does not do is allow flavour molecules to “shine through” by removing colour pigments. The commonly repeated explanation that pigments mask flavour is not supported by evidence. Clarification can change flavour only because solids themselves carry taste or aroma. Removing them alters the balance, mouthfeel or bitterness, not because colour interferes with flavour perception.
Colour, indeed, plays a real and well-established perceptual role, and it is an indicator of flavour. Visual cues shape expectation: certain colours imply acidity, sweetness, ripeness or intensity. When a drink becomes completely transparent, that information disappears. Therefore, by clarifying a drink, you might be actually ‘removing’ flavour.
When I worked behind the bar, clarification was used for practical reasons: if a drink had an unappealing or muddy natural colou (perharps due to oxidation during processing), clarification was used to removed the unpleasant haze. After that, we often reintroduced a deliberate, appropriate colour (using food colouring) so that the appearance matched the flavour profile. Clarification solved the technical issue; controlled recolouring restored the visual cue. The aim was coherence, not chasing trends.
The current trend of clarifying every possible drink has shifted the focus toward transparency as an aesthetic in itself. This sometimes results in cocktails that are technically clean but visually indistinguishable, even when the drink would benefit from retaining its natural colour. A vividly coloured drink can communicate flavour and intent more effectively than a transparent one. The decision to clarify should therefore be a response to a specific need, not a stylistic reflex.
Clarification remains a useful method when applied deliberately. It improves stability, refines texture and removes solids that distract from the intended structure of a drink. When applied without purpose, it offers no clear benefit and may remove desirable components (and, flavour). Transparency on its own is not a marker of refinement or quality; it is simply the visual outcome of removing suspended material.
In short, clarification is a technical tool. It can be valuable when a drink requires it, but it is not a universal solution.