Blueberry Cocktails

[cdh]

With the much greater variety of fruit juices available for mixological exploitation today, I was wondering if anybody had given much thought to building drinks for them.

This summer my Trader Joes has been stocking a fine blueberry juice, which I've been playing with in drinks. Was wondering if others have been doing the same.

My most pleasing creation so far has been the following, which I'm tempted to call the Pie Juice

1.5 oz Gin (Gordons or something with similar christmas tree flavor profile)

2 dashes Fee's Aromatic bitters

5 oz blueberry juice

Top with seltzer

The bitters give it a real spicy pie character that is very very nice. The gin and the blueberry juice really seem to play well together. Presents a very wine-like appearance.

Come on and tell us about your experimentation with blueberry juice... or start threads on other newly available juices and their mixological applications you've discovered.

Edited September 2, 2005 by cdh (log)

[Quinapalus]

When the Pom Wonderful variations came out (pomegranate-tangerine, -blueberry, -mango, -cherry) I fooled around with them a bit. I don't like the mango one much at all, and I didn't really think of anything for the tangerine (possibly because it's so good it's hard to resist long enough to mix). But the cherry one makes a pretty good cosmo and the blueberry one (which tastes a lot more like blueberry than pom) makes a *superb* margarita.

--

Ben

[KatieLoeb]

Good one Chris! Are there other interesting juices in the same line at Trader Joe's? I'd be curious to play around with some of them myself.

At the recent NJ Tomato Festival, the Casettas, Mr. & Mrsbigjas and myself all tasted some very delicious NJ Blueberry wine. We were thinking it might make for a very tasty dessert mixed 1:1 with sparkling wine and with a vanilla gelato float on it!

[cdh]

There are some other interesting juice options at TJs that make fine drinks.

I find that their apricot-peach blend mixes very well with bourbon and a shake of Fee's Peach Bitters.

The cherry cider strikes me as a prime candidate for a drink of some sort, but I've not figured out what it is yet.

The mango-passionfruit blend goes fine with rum, but seems like it might play well with whisky as well.

All of them have a good sweet to tart balance, so they mix very well on their own...

[BTR]

The cherry cider strikes me as a prime candidate for a drink of some sort, but I've not figured out what it is yet.

←

Cherry cider! That sounds like it has a lot of potential.

I recently had for the very first time a starfruit, which, though it was underripe and kind of bland, seemed like it could be a pretty useful ingredient for cocktails--citrusy and a little bitter without being very sour. Probably a pain to get juice out of, though.

[KatieLoeb]

The cherry cider strikes me as a prime candidate for a drink of some sort, but I've not figured out what it is yet.

←

Cherry cider! That sounds like it has a lot of potential.

I recently had for the very first time a starfruit, which, though it was underripe and kind of bland, seemed like it could be a pretty useful ingredient for cocktails--citrusy and a little bitter without being very sour. Probably a pain to get juice out of, though.

←

I like starfruit as a drink garnish. A slice looks so pretty perched on the rim of a cocktail glass. I doubt one could juice them though.

[Alchemist]

The cherry cider strikes me as a prime candidate for a drink of some sort, but I've not figured out what it is yet.

←

Cherry cider! That sounds like it has a lot of potential.

I recently had for the very first time a starfruit, which, though it was underripe and kind of bland, seemed like it could be a pretty useful ingredient for cocktails--citrusy and a little bitter without being very sour. Probably a pain to get juice out of, though.

←

I like starfruit as a drink garnish. A slice looks so pretty perched on the rim of a cocktail glass. I doubt one could juice them though.

←

Even if you could juice the flavor is too sublte for cocktails. Even a whisper of lemon or lime obliterates the starfruit. But they remain one of the most exotic garnish ever.

[cdh]

Indeed. Starfruit is all but tasteless as far as mixology goes... I can't think of a spirit that wouldn't wipe out its flavor. It's visually striking, and watery and refreshing... but not flavorful in any way.

Come to think of it, running starfruit through a veg juicer might add an interesting twist to the new cocktail a friend and I have been playing with. The Tastes Like Salad v.2* (up to this point) is gin, cucumber juice, tomato water, diced serrano chile, salt and pepper. I think a bit of starfruit juice might work in there... a vegetal, slightly sweet thing. hmmmm... and it would keep the pretty emerald green color.

Not enough savory cocktails out there. One can consume only so many Bullshots.

* v.1 was based on Dr. Brown's CelRay soda... but was too sweet...

Edited September 9, 2005 by cdh (log)

[raxelita]

My Blueberry Capirina adds muddled blueberries to the usual mixture of Cachaca, lime and sugar. The blueberries soften the drink a little, and allow you to use slightly less sugar, it also makes it a pretty pink.

Blueberry juice would probably work as well, although missing the floating berry garnish.

How bout a blueberry fizz?

[mbanu]

Here's one I came up with.

2 ounces rum

1/2 ounce blueberry juice

1/2 ounce orgeat syrup

A few dashes of bitters

Shake and strain, garnish with mint.

[bacchant036]

been using blueberry over this side for a while,

theres a fairly common puree - think funkin do it,

which is good for tall drinks, it adds a wonderful richness for berry based drinks and when shaken gives the froth on top of the drink a beautiful 'ash-rose' color.

find blueberry mixes well with vanilla as well (surprise surprise), gives it that whole bluberry pie taste.

fav drink for you....

black n blue

3-4 blackberries

10-12 blueberries

1/2 lime

teaspoon castor sugar

muddle ingredients

2 ounces of a berry vodka, or a nice rich golden rum

top w crushed ice and stir well

[Chris Hennes]

I've been playing around with blueberries recently: today I made a syrup/puree in the style of Katie Loeb's grenadine: Half reduced blueberry syrup and half fresh blueberries, blended and strained. My most sucessful cocktail so far with this concoction has been:

2 oz gin (I used Beefeater)

~1 oz Blueberry Stuff (adjusted to taste for the tartness of the berries and the amount of sugar in the "Stuff")

1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake and strain into a cocktail glass: the color is striking. The lemon juice is there basically to accentuate the natural tartness of the berries, and the gin plays exceptionally well with the blueberry flavor. I've mixed up a few variations with different spirits, but the gin is the clear winner as far as I am concerned.

Edited to clarify blueberry stuff.

Edited July 11, 2009 by Chris Hennes (log)

[Kent Wang]

Can you just puree blueberries and strain to get something similar to the Trader Joe's blueberry juice?

[Mattmvb]

I find that blueberry works very well with elderflower, especially in a Margarita