The 10 Best Cocktail Rimming Salts, According to Bartenders
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Our list includes everything from spicy, chile-infused margarita salts to smoky, bacon-flavored picks.
When a cocktail calls for a salty rim, there’s simply no other way to serve or enjoy it. Any home bartender worth their salt likely has a wide variety of delicious options on hand, since not all rimming salts serve the same purpose. Whether you're shaking up a refreshing cucumber margarita or garnishing a spicy Bloody Mary, this roundup of the best cocktail rimming salts offers more interesting alternatives than your average table salt.
From sweet to savory to spicy, these rimming salts run the gamut in flavor. To get you started, go for a classic and grab your favorite margarita glass, peruse some of our favorite marg recipes, and get ready for a cocktail experience that will leave you feeling like you’re sipping beachside.
J.Q. Dickinson Craft Cocktail Salt
Best Overall
Pros: The J.Q. Dickinson Craft Cocktail Salt is made by seventh-generation salt makers and is conveniently packaged in a wide-mouth tin for easy application.
Cons: While there is a hint of bourbon and oak flavors, this sea salt is pure and simple in its flavor profile — there is no acid or sugar here.
J.Q. Dickinson makes a mean Bloody Mary salt (also featured on this list), but their Craft Cocktail Salt earns our best overall pick for its simplicity and purity in flavor. It’s versatile for any cocktail for which you would throw salt on the rim, plus the wide-mouth tin packaging makes application quick and easy.
The salt is finely ground and offers just a hint of bourbon and oak flavors; this gives the salt an added layer of flavor depth without taking away from its purity and versatility. Coming from seventh-generation salt makers, this artisan Craft Cocktail Salt from J.Q. Dickinson should be a staple ingredient for every home bartender.
Price at time of publish: $11
Size: 4 ounces
Packaging: Tin
Ingredients: Sea salt, bourbon, and oak flavors
Red Clay Spicy Margarita Salt Gift Box
Best Versatile
Pros: This is a very balanced rimming salt with sweet, salt, and acidic ingredients.
Cons: The small, spice-jar style packaging means you’ll have to pour the salt out to rim the glass.
When it comes to an all-purpose rimming salt that can magically pair itself with a wide variety of cocktails, you have to look for balance in the ingredients. And the Red Clay Spicy Margarita Salt has just that, with a combination of salt, sugar, lime peel, chili pepper, and orange peels. The salt coupled with the sugar and the chili coupled with the citrus peels brings a very balanced flavor profile.
This set comes in a two-pack and each jar contains four ounces, so this will serve a good many cocktails. Because of its balance, it can even serve as seasoning salt on grilled meats to be chopped up and thrown into tacos — taking Taco Tuesday up a notch with restaurant-quality fixings.
Price at time of publish: $16
Size: 4 ounces
Packaging: Glass spice jar
Ingredients: Salt, sugar, lime peel, chili pepper, and orange peel
Jacobsen Salt Co White Truffle Sea Salt
Best Splurge
Pros: This White Truffle Sea Salt is made with real Italian truffles — no synthetic flavors or aromas here.
Cons: This is very coarse, flake sea salt and will need to be ground down with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder for use on cocktail glass rims.
Pacific North Westerners all know and love Oregon’s town of Tillamook for their delicious cheese, which is why we gravitated toward this artisan White Truffle Sea Salt from producer Jacobsen Salt Co., crafted in this storied foodie town. The company hand-harvests salt directly from Netarts Bay off the coast of Oregon. It’s infused with real Italian truffles, so tread lightly, because it doesn’t take much truffle to infuse a lot of aroma and flavor.
We recommend finding a good cocktail salt recipe and slowly adding this pure truffle salt to your liking. While this method is a bit more time-consuming than a ready-to-go cocktail salt, it’s worth the umami-rich payoff.
Price at time of publish: $48
Size: 2.46 ounces
Packaging: Glass jar
Ingredients: Sea salt, white truffle
Desert Provisions Hatch Green Chile Salt
Best Chile Salt
Pros: This salt comes in a two-pack for just $28 — a great deal for an artisan-made rimming salt.
Cons: Because this salt comes in a small glass jar, you will need to pour it onto a flat surface or plate to rim the glass.
Who doesn’t love a customizable product? While there’s a beautiful simplicity of ingredients in the Hatch Green Chile Salt from Desert Provisions — just sea salt and green chiles from New Mexico — the company offers a customizable spice level to suit your preference. Choose from mild or hot, or select both, to add to your growing collection of spicy cocktail-rimming salts.
This is a great option if you’re planning to make margaritas for a big gathering and you know your guests have different spice tolerances. For those who enjoy fiery cocktails, we recommend opting for a chile-infused salt like this one and pairing it with pepper-infused cocktails like a jalapeño margarita.
Price at time of publish: $28
Size: 3.4 ounces
Packaging: Glass jar
Ingredients: Sea salt, New Mexico green chiles
Sea Salt Superstore Bacon Sea Salt
Best Bacon Salt
Pros: Salt infused with bacon flavor make this a pure expression of its style — there are no additives, preservatives, or anti-caking agents like many other bacon salts on the market.
Cons: Because this salt comes in a resealable bag, you will need to pour it onto a flat surface or plate to rim the glass.
Another delicious option for a Bloody Mary is this Bacon Sea Salt from Sea Salt Superstore. Because bacon has become a must-have Bloody Mary garnish, a bacon-salted rim is a natural pairing. This sea salt is combined with natural bacon flavor smoked over alder wood, giving it a distinct smoky flavor that couples very well with a plethora of Bloody Mary garnishes.
Because it’s fine-grained, it will easily hold onto the edge of your highball glass. This is another salt that doubles as yummy seasoning salt for grilled meats, egg-based breakfast dishes, and even desserts.
Price at time of publish: $10
Size: 5 ounces
Packaging: Resealable bag
Ingredients: Sea salt and natural bacon flavor smoked over real alder wood
Lava Craft Cocktail Co. Chile Lime Classico
Best Margarita Salt
Pros: This tasty margarita salt from Lava Craft Cocktail Co. is equipped with easy, wide-mouth packaging for a quickly salted rim.
Cons: This salt is savory and tangy, so those who prefer a touch of sweetness will not find that in this offering.
The Chile Lime Classico from Lava Craft Cocktail Co. is a truly balanced cocktail salt. There are not just one but three kinds of peppers infused into this salt, accompanied by real lime and lemon juice crystals, making for a savory and tangy flavor profile with a touch of heat. The flavor profile and balance make this a great option for a range of margaritas — everything from a classic to a Cadillac to those mixed with other fruit juices (one of our personal favorites is a watermelon margarita).
Because this salt offers the duo of citrus and is subtle when it comes to pepper spice, it also doubles as a great salt for beers or Micheladas.
Price at time of publish: $11
Size: 5 ounces
Packaging: Plastic container
Ingredients: Blend of three peppers, sea salt, real lime, and lemon juice crystals
J.Q. Dickinson Bloody Mary Salt
Best Bloody Mary Salt
Pros: This Bloody Mary salt comes from seventh-generation salt makers and includes a unique combination of flavors.
Cons: This salt is savory, so those who prefer a more sweet and salty combo should look elsewhere.
When it comes to garnishing a Bloody Mary, we think the more the merrier. Given the incredible range of toppings, it makes sense that Bloody Mary salted rims should offer a bounty of flavors. We can’t get enough of the J.Q. Dickinson Bloody Mary Salt, which is packed with savory ingredients like dried chile peppers, roasted garlic, celery seed, and a unique applewood smoked salt as the base. It’s the perfect complement to a top-heavy garnished Bloody Mary and promises easy application with its wide-mouth tin packaging.
Price at time of publish: $16
Size: 4 ounces
Packaging: Tin
Ingredients: Applewood smoked salt, local dried chili peppers, roasted garlic, and celery seed
Tajín Clásico Chile Lime Seasoning Rimmer
Best Tajin Salt
Pros: The packaging is ideal, offering a lime juicer, a dish to dampen the glass rim, and a large container for dipping the glass directly into the Tajin.
Cons: This classic product is spicy with no sweetness; for those who prefer a sweet and savory combination, this is not going to be the right fit.
Yes, there are other Tajin salts out there, but sometimes it just makes the most sense to stick with the original. The authentic Tajín Clásico Chile Lime Seasoning Rimmer is tried and true and gives Tajin lovers exactly what they want: a zesty, spice-filled rim. Chili peppers, lime, and sea salt are the only ingredients used, offering simplicity and quality.
We like the efficient packaging, which offers a lime juicer to conveniently drain your lime into a dish that’s suitable for dampening your glass rim properly; simply place the glass rim over the lime juicer to come into contact with the lime juice, then dip into the Tajin container.
Price at time of publish: $7
Size: 4.23 ounces
Packaging: Plastic container
Ingredients: Chili peppers, lime, and sea salt
Saltverk Black Lava Salt
Best Black Salt
Pros: The Black Lava Salt from Saltverk comes from Iceland and is sustainably hand-harvested, leaving no carbon footprint from its production.
Cons: Because this flaky sea salt is infused with activated charcoal, you may notice some ashy transfer onto your clothing or hands.
There’s something exotic about a black-salt rim on a cocktail glass. Black salt is often sourced from very exotic places. The Saltberk Black Lava Salt is sustainably hand-harvested from black lava fields in Iceland and done so with an ancient, 17th-century method in which geothermal energy is the sole energy source used for extraction. This means zero carbon footprint on the environment from its production — an incredible feat in sustainability that’s worth supporting.
The salt is infused with activated charcoal, which enhances the dark color and helps to naturally smooth the bitterness of salt, giving it a softer and more delicious flavor profile.
Price at time of publish: $12
Size: 3.17 ounces
Packaging: Glass jar
Ingredients: Sea salt, activated charcoal from volcanic lava stones
Rokz Citrus & Petals Cocktail Sugar
Best Sugar Rim
Pros: The wide-mouth packaging makes this an easy-to-use rimmer.
Cons: This sugar-based cocktail rimmer could potentially overpower an already-sweet cocktail.
Rokz has a line of cocktail sugar rimmers for a variety of cocktails, featuring everything from citrus to chocolate to florals in the ingredients. We like the Citrus & Petals Cocktail Sugar not only because it tastes delicious and the floral components nicely balance the sweetness, but because it’s also an aesthetically beautiful cocktail sugar. Small flecks of edible hibiscus, rose, and mint makes for a lovely presentation and add complexity to this sugar-based rimmer. There is also a natural lemon flavor that brings balancing acidity to the sweet and floral components.
Price at time of publish: $12
Size: 4 ounces
Packaging: Tin
Ingredients: Pure cane sugars with natural lemon flavor and accents of hibiscus, rose, and mint
Factors to Consider
Ingredients & Versatility
Scott Taylor, Beverage Director at Harris’ Restaurant in San Francisco, says, “I like to balance my salts with a little sugar and generally some citrus, herbs or spice to give it either aromatics, flavor or both. If you go heavier on the spice, it will need to be leveled out with sugar and acid.”
This combination of ingredients offers balance in rimming salts and is important to look for when selecting a premade salt for at-home cocktails. If you’re looking for something sweeter, make sure sugar is a key ingredient or opt for a sugar rimmer instead. For those who like spice, many cocktail salts also include a pepper component that brings a bit of heat. An all-purpose rimming salt that has all the elements of salt, sugar, acid, and spice will be your most versatile option for a broad range of cocktails.
Texture
Taylor says, “You don’t want too large of granules because they won’t stick to the glass and you don’t want them to be too small either because then they dissolve, it will make a sticky mess.” The rimming salts on this list range from fine to coarse grain, so pay attention when making your selection, as some will require extra grinding down for the right consistency to adhere to the rim of your cocktail glass.
Spice Level
For spicy cocktail rimming salts, looking at the way peppers or chiles are infused into the salt can be an indicator of the spice level. Generally, mild to hot labels will accompany the packaging so you know what you’re getting into. Keep in mind that if you are opting for a spicier rimming salt, you may want to look for sugar and acid (typically citrus) as ingredients in the salt as well, as this will offer the right counterbalance for the heavier spice level and make for a more enjoyable salty rim.
Q&A
What cocktails have salt on the rim?
According to Taylor: “You can salt the rim of anything if you want to, but generally you see it with margaritas, Bloody Marys, lemon drops, micheladas, and salty dogs. It’s also a good way to ‘spice up’ a simple shot of alcohol.”
What is the best cocktail rimming sugar?
Taylor prefers to use turbinado or demerara sugar as the base for his handcrafted cocktail rimming sugars. “I sometimes add a little powdered citric acid or micro-planed orange, lemon, or lime zest to compliment the flavors in the cocktail,” he says.
What kind of salt do you use for margarita rims?
Many bartenders and beverage directors incorporate a spicy pepper element into their handcrafted margarita salts, and many of the margarita salts on the market offer this very same flavor profile. Taylor dehydrates habaneros, grinds them into a powder, and mixes it with salt and a little sugar for his margarita salt.
Can I make my own cocktail rimming salt mix?
“Absolutely!” says Taylor. “I would suggest making them at home to best fit the cocktail of choice. One key thing to remember is that you need to consider two separate components: not just the salt/sugar rim, but the agent you use to adhere it to the glass. I prefer to use citrus to rim the glass first, but it can also be done with many other things such as honey, agave, or smoked maple syrup. This will give the rim an additional layer of flavor and complexity beyond just salt.”
Our Expertise
Years of tasting and writing about food, wine, and spirits guide Melissa Vogt's research. As a tourist, Vogt seeks out the very best in local food and drink, and she's well acquainted with where to find good libations and eats in her hometown of Santa Rosa, Calif. Read more of her writing on her website and in Napa Valley Life, Wine Country This Month, and Medium. As part of her research, Melissa connected with drinks experts around the nation.
The expertise of Scott Taylor, Beverage Director at Harris’ Restaurant in San Francisco, helped inform Melissa’s research and list curation. Taylor has been everything from a bartender to a chef and has managed a variety of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs through the years. He has a deep love for the creative canvas that food, wine, and spirits offer.
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