Kevin Eats Food: Kevin Drinks Beverages

From time to time there is occasion to imbibe, and while those occasions have become less frequent over the years, they also have called for somewhat more creativity. So for Bernie's birthday, I decided to make a cocktail that celebrated the waning weeks of summer (why is it still so hot outside???).

Bernie's Birthday Cocktail

So, some people like to follow recipes, and if I had Googled blackberry ginger gin cocktail I'm sure I would have found lots of recipes. For me, that's no fun. So I set to work trying to figure out how to put those things together in a cocktail, because they sounded delicious together.

Blackberry Syrup

This required several attempts and at the end of it, I'm convinced that I didn't do this the right way. More to come later.

I bought some fresh blackberries from Costco, mixed them with the juice of one lemon, a cup of water, and a cup of sugar. I then boiled it too long, and strained it through a fine mesh strainer. After it had cooled slightly, I had some blackberry jelly. It would have been quite delicious on a scone, but not quite the consistency I was looking for.

On the second attempt, I bought some cheaper frozen blackberries and attempted to juice them in a juicer. This did not produce anywhere near as much juice as I was hoping.

Luckily, I had bought a second bag of frozen blackberries, and I went back to the first method, except I didn't boil it too long, and I mashed the blackberries up with a potato masher. This worked reasonably well, and I had a syrup of the right consistency.

Ginger Juice

As it turns out, ginger juice is really potent. I juiced some fresh ginger juice. Like way too much of it. At first I was mixing about 1 teaspoon of ginger juice with 2 tablespoons of blackberry syrup, and it was just crazy gingery. I ended up mixing about 2 tablespoons of ginger juice with the entire batch of blackberry syrup (all three attempts mixed together).

That amount of ginger = too much ginger

Further Research Needed

The above two sections turned out okay for a first attempt, but I think for future attempts there is no need to separate the two. I think I can put a couple pints of blackberries and a few slices of ginger into a food processor, then mix them with the water and sugar to make a blackberry ginger syrup with no juicing required. Feel free to contact me if you would like to be a taster for the next batch.

Mixing

This turned out to be rather important. Don't stir. Shake. Listen to 007. Mix the blackberry ginger syrup in equal parts with gin (Costco had 1.5 L of Seagram's for $18 - why are you trying to turn us into alcoholics Costco?). Add ice to a shaker and shake vigorously. Pour into a glass and add 2 parts cold soda water. Top with a slice of lemon.