Gather together and toast the good things in life with this Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler!
This post was created in collaboration with our friends at Driscoll’s and The Feed Feed.
Cheers to you, friend!
Well, another year is almost in the books which means the holidays are upon us and it’s time again to start looking back and reflecting on all the good things this year brought.
This year we partnered with our friends at Driscoll’s, growers of the finest berries, and The Feed Feed, curator of the most delicious content on the planet to bring you four different recipes focused on bringing people together.
In case you missed those, here they are:
- Blackberry Sage Breakfast Sausage
- Berry Protein Salad Bowl with Strawberry Champagne Vinaigrette
- Instant Pot Raspberry French Toast Casserole
In coming together over a meal, we add richness and depth to our lives. We believe that connecting at the table is more than sharing a meal, it’s sharing an experience. In this sense, food is love. And the world can use a little more love right now, so that’s why we’ve made our final #BerryTogether -inspired recipe a cocktail. We can’t think of a better way to offer up a toast to you, friend, for all you do to bring others to your table to share the love.
This Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler is the cocktail we’d make for you if you were to come to our tables. It’s light and refreshing, refined sugar-free and elegantly simple – and there’s no need for fancy bartending tools. Less fuss means more time to celebrate and focus on what really matters, like creating and deepening the relationships that matter most.
Gather together and toast the good things in life with a refreshing Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler. @driscollsberry @thefeedfeed Click To Tweet
Quality matters
Creating a simple cocktail that shines means you have to start with quality ingredients like big, juicy blackberries, tart lemon, floral honey, and herbaceous fresh thyme. Naturally, we opted for Driscoll’s organic blackberries for this Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler because when determining where to grow, Driscoll’s follows the sun in order to provide great tasting blackberries year round.
Each Driscoll’s blackberry begins with natural breeding through cross-pollination, a technique that has been used for thousands of years by breeders worldwide. Driscoll’s Research and Development teams pick out the elite parent plants and match the best berries to create even better offspring.
Make it simple so you make it happen.
Confession: I have a Pinterest board FULL of fancy cocktails that I’ve pinned over the years. Do you know how many I’ve made? None. Zero. Absolutely not a one. Why is that? It’s because I’m a lazy bartender and I lean toward minimalism whenever possible. I don’t have a cocktail shaker but I do have many mason jars with lids. I don’t have a muddler either but I do have a wooden spoon and this peculiar little wooden gadget that works for pressing pie crust into mini muffin pans to make little tarts which I don’t make but the tool works swell for muddling fruits/herbs, etc. when making cocktails so I keep it around.
I also have a really lean liquor cabinet. Just the basics: vodka, tequila, gin, and whiskey. If a cocktail recipe calls for something other than that, I’m probably not going to make it. All this to say that I put my lazy, minimalist bartending ways to work to create this Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler because I’m guessing you like to keep it simple too.
In fact, the fussiest thing you have to do is make the thyme-infused honey syrup which requires all of 120 seconds of your time to make and you can make it up to a week in advance if you’d like. And leftover syrup is really lovely when added to a cup of chamomile tea, in case you’re wondering what to do with any extras you might have on hand after the party.
But enough talk, let’s raise a glass.
Blackberry Lemon Thyme Sparkler
Ingredients
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup water
- 16 sprigs fresh thyme, lightly bruised between your fingers
- 16 Driscoll’s Organic Blackberries
- Juice of 2 lemons (about 8 tsp.)
- 4 thin lemon slices
- 6 ounces gluten-free vodka
- Ice
- Sparkling water or club soda
Instructions
- To make the thyme-infused honey syrup, place honey and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring just to a boil then remove from heat. Add 8 sprigs of fresh thyme to pan, stir and allow to cool to room temperature.
- To make the cocktails: Place 4 blackberries in the bottom of 4 old-fashioned glasses (or small mason jars or other glasses of choice).
- Add 2 tsp. lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. honey syrup to each glass and use the end of a wooden spoon or a muddler to gently smash the berries. Don’t pulverize them, just smash them enough to release their juices while keeping them relatively intact.
- Add 1½ ounces vodka to each glass and fill with ice.
- Pour sparkling water into each glass, stir once and garnish with 2 fresh thyme sprigs and a thin slice of lemon.
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Notes
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Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1 cocktail
- Calories: 178
- Sodium: 4mg
- Carbohydrate: 24g
- (Fiber: 3g
- Sugar: 14g)
- Protein: 0g
Dietary
What’s your favorite simple cocktail? Share in the comments below!
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This post was made possible by our friends at Driscoll’s and The FeedFeed. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always -100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating great recipes and content for you.
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