Black & Blue Gin Fizz

When Crop Share hands you blackberries...you add gin.  Okay, well at least I do.  You know, after I also add butter.  I'm a big fan of gin and I'm also a sucker for cool packaging.  So when hunting in the ABC Store for a reasonably priced gin to go into these blackberry gin fizzes, I was completely transfixed by the Bombay Sapphire East.  Notes of Vietnamese black peppercorn and Thai lemongrass?  Yes please!  So what started out as just a blackberry gin fizz, quickly became...the Black & Blue Gin Fizz.  Think of these as juice for adults.  If you put yours in a sippy cup, I won't judge.

Black & Blue Gin Fizz

Ingredients:
1/4 cup blackberries, heaping
2 Tbsp sugar
3 shots Bombay Sapphire Gin, plus a splash for good measure (use East or regular label)
2 limes, juiced
6 ice cubes, divided
20 oz club soda, divided
2 sprigs basil, sweet or Thai, for garnish
2 blackberries, for garnish

In a cocktail shaker, add blackberries, sugar and gin.  Muddle blackberries until they are well mashed (alternatively you can blend them up with the sugar and then strain to remove the seeds, but I like bits of blackberry floating in my cocktail).  Stir in lime juice and blend well.  Add strainer cap to the shaker and strain equal amounts of liquid into two tall glasses filled with 3 ice cubes each.  If like me you want more blackberry yumminess, spoon some of the muddled blackberries (discarding pits) into each glass.  Top both with equal amounts of club soda until glasses are nearly full (won't use all 20 oz, maybe about 15-16 oz).  Slice into two blackberries, taking care not to cut all the way through.  Garnish each glass with 1 sprig of basil and 1 blackberry.

Makes 2 tall glasses.

Sip away!


Adapted from Smitten Kitchen: (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/07/blackberry-gin-fizz/)