Cocktail of the Week: Briar Patch

Happy repeal of Prohibition Day! Seventy-five year ago, Congress got smart and let us drink again...so celebrate with this.

This is a simply yummy drink. With sweetness, richness and a slight undercurrent of spiciness, it's the perfect cocktail to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold winter evening.

Briar Patch
From Gourmet.
Makes one cocktail.

1 1/2 oz (3 tbsp) bourbon
1/2 oz (1 tablespoon) chile blackberry syrup (recipe follows)
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
About 1/4 cup chilled club soda or seltzer
Mint sprig for garnish

Combine bourbon and chile blackberry syrup by shaking in a cocktail shaker (without ice) or whisking together in a glass measuring cup.

Fill an 8 ounce glass with ice, then pour bourbon mixture over ice.

Add lemon juice and top off with club soda.

Garnish with mint sprig.

Chile Blackberry Syrup
I love the combination of flavors in this. I am furiously thinking of other uses for the syrup...maybe a Tom Collins. Or as glaze for a pork chop even....

4 dried pasilla chiles (1 oz) wiped clean
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup blackberries (3 1/2 oz)

Discard stems from chiles. Break chiles (with seeds) into a medium saucepan, then boil with sugar, water, and lemon juice, stirring until sugar is dissolved and until mixture is reduced to about 2 cups, 10 to 15 minutes.

Purée blackberries in a blender then force through fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof bowl, discarding seeds (do not clean blender).

Purée chile mixture in blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), then strain through sieve into heatproof bowl, pressing on and discarding solids. Whisk chile purée into puréed berries and cool syrup to room temperature.

Syrup keeps, covered and chilled, one month.