Made of Thorns & Blackberry Shrub

Made of Thorns

2 oz aged Jamaican rum (Appleton Reserve)

3/4 oz blackberry shrub

1/2 oz ROOT

2 tsp Fernet Branca

blackberries for garnish

Shake all on ice well and double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with blackberries.

Wine-like berry, with mint chocolate and spice sliding into tawny notes of root beer melded to barrel notes and back around to berry again, with a touch of vanilla on the backside. The shrub's vinegar transforms the two herbal liqueurs into something much more savory on first sip.

This may well be an excellent use of Appleton Reserve, that halfway point between gold and seriously aged Jamaican rums. Its minor hogo works well with the other ingredients and that "halfway point" becomes functionality: more golden would be too limpid, more aged would be too soft.


Back in June, with the bounty of summer fruit at hand at the farmers' market, I figured my shrub of the summer would be a blackberry one, a near polar opposite to my apricot-Meyer lemon shrub of last year (a mini-bottle of which I still have - and quite good at that!). (and let's face it, sometimes a girl wants to chug anthocyanins, y'know?) As a matter of course, the shrub would surely wend its way into a cocktail recipe or two, but the first few weeks after the shrub was finished the vinegar still needed to tame itself. I left it in the fridge, forgot about it for awhile and before long the syrup was bursting with fresh-muddled berry flavor. But how to use it?

Meanwhile, sometimes I get recipe ideas while at work, in which case I become very single-minded until I can get home and work on it. ROOT and Fernet and blackberries. But would my homemade blackberry liqueur hold up? Turns out not. Ok, how about blackberry brandy? Ehhh.. blends in too much. (what about the shrub?) (Too tart, too sugary) Maybe a base spirit, dry it out and give it a foundation. Eh, still sweet. Maybe lime? Too sharp.

It took a night or two away before the shrub started making sense: less sweet, less sharp, helps pare down the number of ingredients. Best blackberry flavor of the bunch, and more backbone than muddled blackberries. A slight ratio tweak from the original tester hit upon a true revelation of balance -- while too complex to be a good shrub-demonstrator, there's some kind of kismet happening in Made of Thorns.

I should also note, it bears some resemblance to the Dirt 'n Diesel and the Swagger Rite.


Blackberry shrub
16 oz blackberries (roughly 327g overall)
equal amounts white and demerara sugar
balsamic vinegar
half a bunch of fresh mint (peppermint if possible)
1 tsp crushed allspice berries

1. Measure the weight of your fruit to determine how much sugar and vinegar you'll need; that is, you'll need a weight of sugar equal to the fruit and a weight of vinegar equal to the fruit.
2. Gently muddle the mint in your infuse-bowl with the sugar for 1-2 hours.
3. Add the allspice and berries, muddling all, emphasis on crushing the berries. Cover and let rest at room temperature for about 24 hours, stirring or shaking occasionally to help everything combine.
4. Remove the mint, wringing out the syrup.

5. Measure your vinegar by weight into a pot on the stove. Bring the vinegar to a quick near-boil on the stove and pour over your blackberry mixture, stirring to dissolve and meld.
6. Cover, let cool at room temp, then store the covered bowl in the fridge for 2 weeks. You'll get the best flavor from the blackberries this way.
7. Strain the final shrub syrup, pressing/wringing through cheesecloth to get all the liquid.
8. Bottle and store in the fridge. Let rest at least 2 weeks before using. Shake well before pouring.
9. Makes about 3 cups.

Shrubs are simply equal parts by weight of fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Here I used fresh mint and crushed allspice to enhance the blackberry notes. I divided the sugar into 2 types: white for brightness and demerara for earthiness and a touch of smoke. After finding something like champagne vinegar rather sharp in my apricot-Meyer lemon shrub, I opted for smooth and mellow balsamic, the better to sink into the background and bring the fruit to the fore.

Intensely drinkable mixed with seltzer.

Old City, New Game in Town

 

Shot glass inspiration by moi, aussi.

A study in mixed-ingredient layers in pousse-cafés and an origin story about how I got Serious with mixology.

I've gotten to be known as the go-to mixologist around my office. Some of my colleagues homebrew for company happy hours, some are wine aficionados. Me? My motto is "never have the same drink twice!" Still, it was somewhat of a surprise to be asked to concoct a cocktail or two (or three) for my company's 10th anniversary party last summer. (in addition to a special batch from our homebrewers and then a wine-tasting with dinner. Yeeahh..) (anyone want to come work for us?)

The 10th anniversary topic itself isn't that strong a muse: tin and daffodils, mainly. So going beyond that, one of the things I wanted to do with one of these drinks was hearken back to our earlier days when we were a scrappy little office in Old City Philly. As a specialized vendor in the pharmaceutical sector, one of our passions has been to utilize the latest technology in order to bring efficiency and quality to an industry that typically plods. This programmer will always carry a torch for controlling all aspects of a study with the press of a button controlled by my MIND! NyeeHAhahaHAhahaha! this.

As you may have deduced, this is how I came to the Old City, New Game in Town theme. Translated to flavors: coffee and blackberries.

Old City Coffee is a well-loved Philadelphia institution, located a stone's throw from historic Christ Church (and we were particularly fond of the beans while established just a couple blocks away). Blackberry? Well, if you're reading this blog post in 2016 or later, you might be scratching your head to the big deal, but back in 2004 Blackberry phones were still the height of tech.

The two flavors together? If blueberries and coffee are beautiful, these two should be mind-blowing. Bringing these two specific flavors together in a shot? Conundrum.

Shots, particularly of the layered variety, tend only to use liquors and liqueurs. Managing the specific gravities of individual ingredients is hard enough without introducing the inexact uncertainties of mixed-ingredient layers - all the more so with homemade ingredients and regional milkfat variations in dairy products. But how else to bring in Old City Coffee? Using Tia Maria, Kahlua, et al, just doesn't get at the meaning that can be conveyed by the coffee-itself. Not to mention, blackberry brandy and blackberry schnapps aren't the best well-rounded blackberry flavors either.

So how to marry thin, non-alcoholic coffee to a robust blackberry flavor (with alcohol in the mix)? It took some experimentation, but there was success. As it's somewhat rare to do mixed-ingredient layers for shots, here's my ingredient list and notes on each. Hopefully the notes may be of some use to any mixologists reading.

Coffee layer:

Old City Coffee, Old City Blend (a slightly dark mild roast - classic coffee ice cream flavor with the addition of cream) - brewed double strength: flavor potency, 'nuff said.

E&J Cask and Cream liqueur: to balance the shot, the coffee layer needs alcohol and body. Coffee liqueurs would only detract from the OCC flavor. A Cream liqueur easily provides both. Choosing between brandy-based Cask and Cream and rum-based Tres Leches, C&C's brandy pairs well with coffee and matches with blackberry. In practice, the rich flavor of C&C yields to the coffee, the milkfat and sugar makes the coffee flavor more accessible and the alcohol helps the layer hold its own, all preventing it from becoming lost in the burst of blackberry.

Blackberry layer:

Black Haus blackberry schnapps: the schnapps is needed to give the layer some alcohol and further enhances the blackberry flavor. Thanks to its high proof not much is needed and an overbearing alcohol flavor may be avoided.

Blackberry Sauce: you can't get a better flavor than making this quick sauce/syrup yourself with fresh blackberries. In a pinch, Monin Blackberry Syrup may work, though (haven't tried this, not sure where to find it locally [EDIT: (04-03-2012) I saw some in a trek to HomeGoods tonight. It looks like it has potent flavor, but much too thin for the purposes here. It would completely throw off the ratio.]). Don't be afraid about reducing this: a dense syrup will better enable layering.

Half-and-half: something creamy is needed to moderate the sharp blackberry flavors, mediate with the coffee layer, and to act as a base for the blackberry layer. The syrup provides enough density to ensure this will be the bottom layer, and without the base the blackberry flavor may well stick to the glass instead of flowing to an eagerly-waiting mouth. Using Cask and Cream again sounds like a good idea, but the result curdles (not to mention, using the same ingredient in multiple layers can lead to layer-blurring). As for other options, I tried heavy cream at first, but the cream coated the tongue, kept the layers from mixing well in the mouth and diminished an otherwise intense flavor. Second choice? Half-and-half. Call it the Gelato Principle.


When preparing this recipe, well, we're doing shots here. Presumably you're serving many or yourself many times. A rough estimate of how much of each layer needed will probably serve you better, and you can then extrapolate individual ingredient amounts by the ratios provided.

For the coffee layer mix together 1 part double-brewed coffee, 1 part Cask and Cream.

For the blackberry layer, mix together 2 parts Black Haus, 3 parts blackberry sauce, and 4 parts half-and-half.

Into a shot glass, first dispense 1/2 oz blackberry then 1/2 oz coffee.

Serve chilled.

Taste result? A liquid truffle.



Notes:

With creamy layers, does this drink
become a Mousse-Café?

• When making layered shots, particularly when said layers involve mixtures of ingredients, it's helpful to get some clear plastic condiment bottles for easy mixing and dispensing (Bed, Bath and Beyond: $2 each; dollar store: probably much less). These bottles are also space-saving when prepping/chilling ahead of time. With their pour spouts, you shouldn't even need a spoon to make your layers, provided the layers' specific gravities vary well enough. Excellent tools for mass production.
• Suggestion for future experiments along these lines? Mixed ingredient layers seem to function best when utilizing ingredients that are suspensions (dairy, juices, etc..), the thinking being suspensions have a material construction which allows for the absorption of extra unrelated particles in the same way they already house free-floating unrelated particles - the Chocolate Milk principle.

[I'm really setting a pattern here, aren't I? Roses, cream, roses, cream. Completely unintentional play-by-ear. Next week, a proper light something for spring. And then? We take a trip downwards with the White Rabbit, just in time for Easter.]