“When I think Spring cocktails I always think of bright, fresh fruit flavors and drinks with a few bubbles and effervescence. Being a bourbon fan I love the combination of high-proof bourbon, fresh fruit, and club soda for a simple, crushable cocktail on a warm day. There is no better template for this than the Smash. A Smash is exactly what it sounds like: spirit, smashed fruit, citrus juice, and bubbles. Here at The Hive, we like to layer the fruit flavors into our Smash by not just muddling fresh fruit, but we also like to add what we call a “Quick Preserve” to get as much of that fruit flavor into the drink as possible. The sugar in the Quick Preserve acts as a vehicle to really amplify those fruit flavors that you wouldn’t be able to achieve by just muddling.”
Blackberry Sage Bourbon Smash
1.5 oz Old Grand-Dad Bottled in Bond Bourbon
.5 oz Lemon Juice
1 spoonful of Quick Blackberry Preserve
3 blackberries
2 sage leaves
Club Soda
In a shaker tin lightly muddle together the Quick Blackberry Preserve, 3 blackberries, 2 sage leaves, and .5 oz Lemon juice. Do your best to not tear the sage leaves but just gently press. Next add your bourbon. Add ice and shake the ingredients together. Without straining dump all the ingredients of the shaker tin (ice and all) into a rocks glass. Add a little more ice, and top with a splash of club soda. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
Quick Blackberry Preserve:
This isn’t a preserve necessarily as much as it is just sugar macerated blackberries. This is a delicious and easy way to get some sweetness and fresh fruit flavor into a drink without making it overly viscous and sweet.
In a container mix together:
1 cup sugar
2 cups blackberries
1 tsp lemon zest
Using your muddler smash everything together.
Let this mixture sit at room temperature for a couple of hours. You will start to see the sugar and blackberry juice will start to coalesce into a thick syrup. Do not strain out the syrup, you will want the bits of smashed blackberry for your cocktail.
Cheers!