Sips & Synopsis

• This Weeks Makings

• Trivia Question

• Drink of the Week - he Blackberry Sage Cooler

• Behind the Bar - The Case for Sage

• Bonus Cocktails

• Mocktail or Zero Proof Option

This Weeks Makings.

A handful of blackberries at their peak. A few sage leaves from the plant most people bought for one recipe and forgot about. Vodka, lemon, honey, soda. Done in under a minute, and it looks like something you paid twelve dollars for.

The Blackberry Sage Cooler is proof that a great house cocktail does not need a shopping list or a bottle you only own for one drink.

Five ingredients. Peak summer produce. The kind of drink you pour when a friend shows up at 5pm and stays for dinner.

In this week's newsletter:

• A Drink of the Week you have never had (because I invented it)

• The case for sage, the herb everyone grows and only few shake

• Two bonus cocktails with a different spirit each

• A trivia question about a spirit named after water

• A zero-proof cooler that mirrors the star drink

Trivia Question❓

Which spirit's name literally means “little water” in its native language?

A) Aquavit
B) Vodka
C) Sake
D) Gin

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter

The Blackberry Sage Cooler

Peak summer produce, vodka, and a herb the pros ignore. Five ingredients, one minute, one shaker.

Ingredients

• 2 oz vodka

• 4 fresh blackberries

• 3 fresh sage leaves

• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.5 oz honey syrup

• Soda water to top

• Extra blackberry and sage sprig to garnish

Directions

1. Slap the sage leaves once between your palms and drop into a shaker

2. Add the blackberries and press gently with a muddler (2 or 3 presses, do not shred)

3. Add vodka, lemon juice, honey syrup, and ice

4. Shake hard for 10 seconds

5. Double strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice

6. Top with soda water

7. Garnish with a blackberry and a sage sprig you have slapped between your palms

Honey syrup: stir 2 parts honey with 1 part warm water until dissolved. Refrigerated, it keeps 2 weeks.

Why It Works
Blackberries and sage taste like they belong together and no one really knows why. Sage brings a savory, slightly menthol edge that keeps the berries from getting jammy. Honey rounds. Lemon lifts. Vodka gets out of the way and lets the ingredients speak. Soda water stretches it into something you can drink in the sun.

Behind the Bar - The Case for Sage

Almost every kitchen has a sage plant that gets used once at Thanksgiving and then forgotten.

The bartenders who know, know.

Sage is one of the most underused herbs behind the bar, and one of the most rewarding. It carries a savory, slightly resiny, almost menthol quality that mint and basil do not. That is why it plays so well with darker fruits and warm sweeteners.

What sage loves:

• Dark berries: blackberries, blueberries, mulberries

• Stone fruit: plums, apricots, peaches

• Warm sweeteners: honey, maple, brown sugar

• Apples and pears in the fall

• Bourbon, aged rum, and vodka (which lets it shine)

How to handle it:

• Slap, do not shred. One clap between your palms wakes up the oils without releasing chlorophyll

• Muddle gently. A press or two, not a grind. Overworked sage turns bitter fast

• Fresh only. Dried sage is for stuffing, not cocktails

• Store like mint. Stems in water, loose bag over the top, in the fridge. Lasts a week

Buy the sage plant. Water it once a week. Take home cocktails to a new place.

Bonus Cocktails

Two more for the crowd, each with a different spirit doing the heavy lifting, and each just as easy as the Cooler.

The Tom Collins

The definitive summer classic. Four ingredients. If you can make lemonade, you can make this.

Ingredients

• 2 oz gin

• 1 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.5 oz simple syrup

• 3 oz soda water to top

• Lemon wheel and a cherry to garnish

Directions

Add gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup to a tall glass with ice. Stir to combine. Top with soda water and stir once more. Garnish with a lemon wheel and a cherry.

Why it works
The Tom Collins is the drink John Collins would have made if he stopped fussing. It is basically a spiked, sparkling lemonade with the botanical lift of gin, and it has been the answer to hot afternoons since the 1870s.

The Kentucky Buck

Bourbon's answer to the Moscow Mule, dressed up with strawberries.

Ingredients

• 2 oz bourbon

• 2 fresh strawberries

• 0.5 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.5 oz simple syrup

• 3 oz ginger beer to top

• Strawberry and lemon wheel to garnish

Directions

Muddle the strawberries gently in a shaker. Add bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and ice. Shake hard and strain into a tall glass over fresh ice. Top with ginger beer.

Why it works
Bourbon and strawberry are a criminally underused pairing. The ginger beer adds heat and fizz, the lemon keeps the whole thing lifted, and it looks like a sunset in a glass.

Mocktail or Zero Proof Option

Sparkling Elderflower Lemonade

All the summer, none of the proof.

Ingredients

• 1 oz elderflower syrup (or elderflower cordial)

• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice

• 3 oz sparkling water

• Lemon twist and a sage leaf to garnish

Directions

Add elderflower syrup and lemon juice to a rocks glass with ice. Stir gently. Top with sparkling water. Garnish with a lemon twist and a fresh sage leaf.