It’s not that we’re totally opposed to cocktail glasses with salted or flavored rims (our Chili-Pineapple Margarita features a chili salt-rimmed glass worth, ahem, its salt). And in Kampot, Cambodia, Milk Street Editorial Director J.M. Hirsch found numerous bars that used a black pepper-sugar rim on drinks.

Read more about the trip and find recipes from Cambodia here.

But too often, the rim of the glass can overwhelm the flavors inside.

So for better cocktails at home, try adding a pinch of salt to the drink itself.

We salt our food to bring out flavor, so why not our beverages? Try adding half a teaspoon of a salt water solution (4 grams —a generous ½ tablespoon—Diamond Crystal kosher salt and 96 grams—6 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon—water) in this French 75. You’ll wonder why you haven’t been asking this same question all along.

For more quick but mighty tips like this, check out our latest cookbook, Milk Street: The New Rules. You’ll not only find this cocktail recipe, but also so many more upgrades to dishes you might have thought needed no improvement, until now.