Cocktails with Fresh blackberries
Blackberries are dark, juicy berries, muddled or pressed into drinks for color, tartness and body.
How it's used
Press them gently and strain: the drupelets give up their juice at once, while grinding brings the woody core and seeds into the glass. They bring sweetness, acidity and a dark color that holds up in a drink with citrus. Buy them ripe: a blackberry picked early stays sour, because it does not sweeten off the plant.
Substitutes for Fresh blackberries
Frozen blackberries
Thawed, they swap straight in and muddle even more easily.
Raspberries
Work at the same count. They are about as sweet, but the drink turns red rather than purple.
Mulberries
Black mulberries are a little sweeter than blackberries, so trim the syrup. White ones are much sweeter still.
Twice as sweet and milder. Muddle them well, and use a little less syrup.
Blackberry jam
Add a barspoon at a time, tasting as you go. Each spoon has as much sugar as three-quarters of a barspoon of syrup, so you will need that much less syrup. Double-strain the drink.
