There was a mistake and Chef had a bunch of blackberries…And when I mean a bunch, it was a fuck ton…Some sort of alteration concerning the beets and berries dish, a switch, and a misorder. At any rate, piles of blackberries. We had to do something with them so they didn’t go to waste. I’ve said in the past that many spontaneous cocktails happen because of this. Not my favorite thing to work with flavor wise. But color wise? Oh yes.

Berries differ. The strawberry (my favorite, also my spirit fruit. I wrote about why here) is the most versatile whereas the bramble family can be a little tricky and sometimes inconsistent. Blackberries, to me, don’t really taste like much. The seeds add a bit of a woody character to things, especially in infusions. Like I said, they’re the bodybuilders of the fruit world, all show and no go.

This one follows the same formula as Nobody’s Fool. Yeah, ever since the Punch article, we’ve had a bunch of people coming in and requesting that one even though organic strawberries are a bit so-so at the moment and really peak in April and early May. I really wanted to try and think of some new sort of way to secondary ferment a different type of aperitif but there are few out there with the same ABV level as Aperol and I’m avoiding anything wine based because it will oxidize if left out but now that I think about it, maybe it will taste like some weird sherry alternative if I do so which would be the whole point. Rambling a bit. Wondering if there’s an ABV limitation on secondary fermentations and who or what I would talk to about all of that. It’s all new and I have little time to ruminate or research much of it.

Anybody’s Game

1.5 oz. Living the Dream Blend

1 oz. Blackberry Punch

.5 oz. Almond Amazake Orgeat

.5 oz. Montenegro

.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

.25 oz. Blackberry Syrup

1 Dash Shio Koji

Shake, strain onto BFR, garnish with a mint sprig.

Now that I’m thinking of all this, maybe raspberries would work so much better. They’re the best. Readily available, sweet, acidic, delicious, colorful…Great with manzanilla sherry…gin…mezcal…tequila…