The Bramble

the modern British classic mixed by Dick Bradsell in 1980s London: gin, lemon, and sugar shaken over crushed ice, laced with a bleeding drizzle of blackberry liqueur

Origin: England

From the journey of Blackberry.

The Bramble is one of the very few modern cocktails to have entered the permanent international repertoire, and it is thoroughly British. It was created in the middle of the nineteen-eighties by Dick Bradsell, the London bartender who did more than anyone to revive British cocktail culture, at Fred's Club in Soho. Bradsell wanted a drink that tasted of his own childhood on the Isle of Wight, of blackberrying in the hedgerows, and he built it on gin, the British spirit, sharpened with fresh lemon and softened with sugar, then poured a drizzle of crème de mûre, the deep-purple blackberry liqueur, down through a heap of crushed ice so that it bled and marbled its way to the bottom of the glass. The result looks like a September hedge and drinks like a grown-up fruit sherbet: bracing and dry at the first sip from the gin and lemon at the top, sweet and dark with blackberry as the liqueur is reached at the bottom. Garnished with a couple of fresh blackberries and a lemon slice, it is the rare cocktail that genuinely tastes of a specific fruit and a specific place.

Ingredients

Cocktail

50 ml gin
25 ml fresh lemon juice
12.5 ml sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water, dissolved)
15 ml crème de mûre (blackberry liqueur)

Garnish

2 whole blackberries, to garnish
1 slice lemon, to garnish

Method

Fill a short rocks glass with crushed ice, heaping it up above the rim. Set aside.
Put the gin, lemon juice, and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice cubes and shake hard for about 10 seconds, until cold.
Strain the shaken mixture over the crushed ice in the glass. Slowly drizzle the crème de mûre over the top so that it bleeds down through the ice in dark purple streaks.
Garnish with two fresh blackberries and a slice or half-wheel of lemon, add a short straw, and serve at once.

Notes

Crème de mûre is the proper blackberry liqueur for a Bramble; crème de cassis (blackcurrant) is a common and acceptable substitute, and a home-made blackberry liqueur, made by steeping the fruit in gin or vodka with sugar, works beautifully. The classic proportions are gin, lemon, and sugar in a 4:2:1 ratio; adjust the sugar to the sharpness of your lemons. For a batch, multiply the shaken base and drizzle the liqueur over each glass individually.

The Gastrographer

Name: The Bramble
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: England
Ingredients: 50 ml gin; 25 ml fresh lemon juice; 12.5 ml sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water, dissolved); 15 ml crème de mûre (blackberry liqueur); 2 whole blackberries, to garnish; 1 slice lemon, to garnish

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control