Recipe Testing: Blackberry French 75s

I signed up to test this dish for Food52 -  Blackberry French 75s by Stephanie who blogs at the Verdigris - because I'm always game for a cocktail that tastes like the season...in this case sun-kissed blackberries. We had just been plucking wild blackberries at our last campsite on our 10-day summer camping trip. Too bad we ate all of those; thankfully I found some succulent ones at the farmers' market!

I was completely unfamiliar with this cocktail. Named for a piece of French artillery, it's traditionally made with just four ingredients — gin, lemon, simple syrup, and champagne. Stephanie's version adds in blackberries and swaps the champagne for prosecco.

Here's the headnote I'm submitting...

This cocktail - Blackberry French 75 - is a flute full of contradictions. Sunkissed blackberries taste like summer while the juniper-laced gin adds a bitter hint of winter. But instead of opposites that compete, the ingredients mesh to create a sweetly potent bubbling libation.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle prosecco
• 1/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 C organic raw turbinado sugar
• 1C blackberries
• gin*

*Stephanie's recipe just calls for gin. I opted to infuse my gin with fresh blackberries overnight before I mixed my cocktail. I personally like Hendrick's gin. Lightly muddle 1/4 C fresh blackberries in a jar. Add in another 1/4 C blackberries. Fill the jar with gin. Cover and put in the freezer overnight to infuse.

Procedure

Mix lemon juice, 1/4 C water and sugar over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Place the blackberries in the simple syrup and simmer for 2 minutes. Set aside to cool. Strain through a mesh strainer to remove seeds.

In champagne flutes or coupé glasses pour one shot of gin, one shot of lemon-blackberry syrup and fill up the rest of the glass with prosecco.

Cheers!