Agave Negro - Fun with Blackberries Part Two

While both Connie and I are pretty adventurous eaters, in drinks we were pretty staid. He was mostly a beer drinker when we met and I (love my scotch) am mostly a wine drinker. In cooking however, I have found myself building up an inventory of liquors, brandy for this, bourbon for that. I’ve always had some specialty liqueurs in the house, but never really did much with them except for cook. Connie and I decided some time ago to have a cocktail night. Usually it’s Sunday around five o’clock. Before we dig into preparing dinner, and oftentimes preparing meals for the week, we sit down pick out a cocktail and relax.

It was only then that our tastes revealed themselves. We like mixing with fruits and herbs and some of the tastier, but less potent liqueurs. For example, take Chambord. What a lovely taste. It is sweet, but not sickeningly so. Just a great mixer. In today’s post it takes tequila, (which I like, but you’re not going to catch me doing shots with salt and lime) and takes the bite out. It is similar to the previous post about the Blackbird, yet the herb flavor isn’t there. Just fruit, with a substitute of the slightly more sugary taste of tequila in place of the gin. And then, of course, there is the Chambord.  It was actually our least favorite of the three blackberry cocktails.  Please don't let that deter you from trying it, it's still a very enjoyable drink. 

Agave Negro

6 Blackberries
2 lime wedges
Ice
3 ounces of Reposado tequila (we cheated here and used Jose Cuervo Especial)
1 ½ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ½ ounce Simple Syrup (2:1, as usual)
1 ounce Chambord
Club Soda to fill

Directions:
Our limes generally yield around an ounce and a half of juice. So we carved around a quarter of the lime for the two wedges. This is, after all, more of an art than a science. If you don’t get it exactly perfect, I’ll never tell.

Carve your lime wedges. (2)
Skewer the lime wedges with one blackberry each.
Muddle the remaining blackberries in a cocktail shaker.

I have no idea what happens when you muddle inside a cocktail shaker. However Connie says he can feel a certain “pop” occasionally. He tells me that more is better than less (the principle law of economics). The blackberries seem to have a viscosity that is best broken by more muddling rather than less. I will leave this to him and the more scientific of our brethren than me. Until the scientific evidence is presented and peer evaluated I will stand by my husband's claim. CRUSH THE BERRIES!

Proceeding more calmly,

Add the ice, the tequila, lime juice, simple syrup, and the Chambord.
Shake well and pour into a rocks glass
Stir in the club soda

Have you gotten with the program yet?  Kiss the one you love and enjoy!

adapted from Food and Wine and Franklin Ferguson


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This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.