Blackberry Cocktails Perfect For Summer

Put blackberries in your boozy drink

Blackberries might be the most underappreciated fruit to grace a cocktail glass.

After citrus, these dimpled berries are more simpatico with alcohol than any other fruit. But it's taken ages for them to get their due.

Consider the Bramble. This classic cocktail might have been the first to pivot on the blackberry's flavor, though only with the proxy addition of blackberry-flavored crème de mure rather than fresh fruit.

Luckily, bartenders have altered history lately. Spots like Little Branch in New York, Abattoir in Atlanta, and Sadie in Los Angeles have resurrected the Bramble, but swap muddled blackberries for overly sweet liqueur.

Other liquors also play well with this summer jewel. Just ask Dave Kwiatkowski, owner of Sugar House in Detroit. He uses blackberries alongside gin, tequila and even bourbon, but his favorite pairing is blackberries with Fernet. See a recipe for such a cocktail from his summer menu, in which the bittersweet digestif brings out the berries' earthiness.

His theory is supported by other cocktails like the Zarzamora at The Violet Hour in Chicago (blackberries, Fernet, bourbon and cola), or the McCoy at Ward III in New York (Jameson, Aperol, Fernet, blackberries and egg white).

Berry good, we say.