Ok, so I need a good, strong, blue-tinged cocktail.  Two reasons for this – the first is that I’m exploring the possibility of doing a three cocktail offering at a big social event in two weeks and thought going with a red, white, and blue combo might be fun.  Secondly, one of the drinks I had last week in NJ last week–the Gin and Jam–used blueberry preserves, and really opened my eyes to the possibilities of using that most delicious of berries.  I did some crack research by putting “blue” and “cocktails” into google to see what was available and came across the The Blues Cocktail on Imbibe via California restaurant Comme Ca, which is easy as pie:

2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. blueberry syrup

The fun of this drink was making blueberry syrup – sugar, blueberries, and water.  It was actually a bit harder than I thought — usually, when you make simple syrup, its easy to tell when the sugar dissolves.  Not so easy with a cup of blueberries in there.

I also noticed later I actually boiled the syrup which the recipe does not require you to do.  So I thought this might be a loss but when pleasantly surprised when I put it all together.  This was really delicious; it’s such a good base drink, the berries work so well with the lime that it really gets one thinking about a few added ingredients that might take it up a notch.  I have some cranberry bitters I might add, see how that works.

The only downside of this drink was the color — the “blue” in the berry doesn’t quite come out that way, giving the drink a more reddish hue than anything else.  Sadly, that means I won’t be able to include this in my patriotic presentation next month.  On the upside, however, I get to play around with more blue drinks!  #consolationprize

Oh, one last thing — at the suggestion of Crafted Taste’s excellent twitter account, I made yesterday’s forgettable pisco sour with less pisco (apparently that’s called the American version, which is a little insulting) and the key lime juice.  It was definitely an improvement — the smokey impact of the pisco wasn’t as overwhelming, but to be honest I didn’t send much a of a difference from the lime.  Oh well, you’re not going to love every drink you make and I appreciated the tailored advice from Crafted Taste!