Simple and Refreshing Vodka Bramble Recipe
The perfect cocktail for any occasion.
To say we live in interesting times would be an understatement. Now more than ever we need to find ways to relieve the stresses of modern life to help focus on what’s really meaningful; treating each other with dignity, respect and love. To help bring some much needed relief, we are continuing our cocktail recipe series with a stress relieving and delicious vodka Bramble.
In a previous podcast, we introduced a new drink that we came across at a local restaurant called a Buffalo Bramble. The Bramble was originally created in London during the 1980’s as a British spring cocktail. The traditional Bramble recipe calls for Gin, Creme de Mure (a blackberry liquor), lemon juice, simple syrup and ice. Well, if you’re a fan of our podcast, you know we don’t always like to follow tradition. We like to put our own twist on things. And the vodka Bramble, our own little twist on the Buffalo Bramble, is no exception! Instead of Gin, we’ll obviously be using vodka as our base as well as using Creme de Cassis (made from blackcurrants) instead of Creme de Mure. So let’s get you started on how to make the perfect vodka Bramble.
To start with, we’ll need to add a critical piece of bar tending gear to our collection; the muddler. A drink muddler is an essential bar tenders tool designed to smash and mix ingredients together for cocktails. We’ll use our muddler along with our drink mixer/shaker, jigger, knife and lemon press. To round out the rest of the ingredients, we’ll also be using the following:
- Vodka – a good quality, non-flavored vodka makes the perfect base for our Bramble. We recommend brands like Kettle One, Absolute, Hangar 1, Smirnoff or Stolichnaya
- Creme de Cassis liquor – there are a number of brands out there but our favorites are Giffard, Mathilde, Lejay or Hiram Walker
- Simple syrup – Rose’s brand or equivalent
- Fresh lemon
- Blackberries
- Soda water
- Ice
Now that we have all the ingredients, let’s start mixing! For the perfect coping vodka Bramble, add four (4) blackberries to an old fashion glass. Muddle the blackberries in the old fashion glass with your drink muddler. Next, add ice to your mixing glass. Add a full jigger (2 fl oz) of vodka to the shaker glass of ice. Add about 3/4 of a jigger of Creme de Cassis to the ice and vodka. Slice a medium lemon in half and press the juice of the full lemon (roughly 1 – 1.5 fl oz) into the shaker. Finally add about 1/4 to roughly 1/3 jigger (roughly 0.5 fl oz) of simple syrup to the lemon juice to the shaker (adjust the amount of simple syrup to suite your taste). Put the top of the shaker on and “shake, shake, shake!”
Let’s add some ice to the old fashion glass with the muddled blackberries. Using your strainer, strain the mixture into the old fashion glass. Top the drink with soda water and a little more ice if desired. Finally garnish with a blackberry or two and there you have it – the perfect stress relieving vodka Bramble! Cheers my friends and enjoy our latest and super delicious coping concoction!
