Port Authority (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

This cocktail needed to be made. The name, the ingredients, even the look all should have happened a hundred years ago. Luckily Death & Co. made this amazingly rich blackberry and port cocktail come true. I love it. I love the chocolatey port accentuated by chocolate bitters. I love how creme de cassis reinforces blackberry and cognac with a Dijon black currant spirit. And of course the fresh ingredients--these are all hallmarks of cocktail revival that Death & Co. ushered in.

Presentation is everything, and the beautiful chocolate grape color and blackberry garnish only add to the experience. Not one ingredient distracts from this purpose. I have to say that even though this is still essentially a Sour or Daisy variation, you wouldn't know it because you can't remove any ingredient and have it be as good. 

• 4 blackberries
• 2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 3/4 oz. tawny port (Porto Morgado ruby used)
• 1/2 creme de cassis (G.E. Massenez used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon bitters
• 2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters
• 1 blackberry garnish

Muddle blackberries in a shaker. Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with the remaining blackberry. 

Prohibition Bramble

We all know what to do when you have lemons, right? Well, when you have blackberries and lemons and gin, you make Brambles.

It's been a while since I've used my muddler.  But blackberries alone don't make the flavor of this cocktail. It is the combination of the berry and lemon juice, sugar and herbaceous gin that do the trick. I used my Prohibition-style bathtub gin, that simulates how people would flavor raw spirit back when buying gin was illegal. Despite the steeped, less refined gin, the Bramble is more interesting for it. 

You have to start with muddled berries for this drink. Fresh lemon juice and simple syrup are the ingredients that help you taste the berry juice. Have a fine mesh strainer in addition to the strainer you use for your shaker when you make this. You don't want the mess of all those seeds showing up in the drink.

• 2 oz. gin (homemade steeped gin used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 5 blackberries

Muddle four blackberries in a shaker with lemon juice and simple syrup. Add the gin and cracked ice and shake. Double strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh crushed ice and garnish with the remaining berry.

 

 

Bristow Brandy Bramble (Original Recipe for MurLarkey Distillery)

The Bramble has been a reliable summer sour drink for decades. Blackberry liqueur floated on gin and lemon juice in crushed ice is a refreshing combination. But it was rare that bars had blackberries back in the 80s when the Bramble was invented. Creme de Mure was the blackberry ingredient until the cocktail revolution occurred.

This a small break from tradition by using muddled blackberries and sugar for the natural blackberry flavor. The sherry is best when floated on top of the ice to add richness and oak.

• 2 oz. MurLarkey ImaGination gin
• 1 oz. E&J VSOP
• 1 oz. cream sherry
• 7 blackberries
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• mint sprig

Combine 5 blackberries, sugar and lemon juice in a shaker and muddle to break up the berries. Add brandy, gin and ice and shake. Double strain into an Old Fashioned glass full of crushed ice. Float cream sherry on top and garnish with mint sprig and three blackberries.

Kamehameaha Punch (Non-Alcoholic)

This is probably the most work I've put into a non-alcoholic drink. Between all the juicing--and I actually juiced a pineapple--and making the blackberry syrup, I probably put an hour of work prepping for this one drink. No one said that making tiki cocktails was easy.

The blackberry syrup is a non-alcoholic substitute for the blackberry brandy in the Kamehameaha Rum Punch, an alcoholic tiki cocktail that I might want to do again now that I have tiki mugs.

Make it by boiling a cup of blackberries in a cup of water. Use a potato ricer to crush the berries into pulp and strain them out with a fine mesh. Return the remaining juice to the heat and dissolve 1/2 cup of sugar by stirring continuously until the solution reduces to a thick syrup.

Then you have the cocktail: here's the recipe.

• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orgeat syrup
• 2 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. blackberry syrup
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except pineapple spear in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a grim-faced tiki mug. Garnish with pineapple and fruit. 

Polish Sidecar

So I assume that the word Polish in the title is an adjective not a verb, since all drink titles are capitalized. The inclusion of blackberries somehow makes anything Polish, as does plum brandy and sausage. But this drink uses blackberry brandy and lots of gin, which I'm sure some Polish people will enjoy. If nothing else, you can polish the glass before you make it.

I also recommend a tsp. of sugar to sweeten the drink. Unless you use a really cheap and sweet blackberry brandy, this will be way too sour.

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. blackberry brandy
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• fresh blackberries

Combine all ingredients except berries in a shaker or blender with ice. Shake or blend and pour into a sour glass or wine goblet. Garnish with blackberries.