Bramble cocktail recipe

The bramble cocktail has a lovely sophisticated gin base with a playful, fruity mix of blackcurrant and lemon over the top.

It's an absolute classic for anyone with a taste for fruity cocktails, or anyone who likes a simply mixed gin drink, but with the edge taken off the gin flavour. You only need four ingredients to make this simple cocktail: gin, lemon, sugar syrup and cassis. Traditionally, a bramble is made with creme de mure, a blackberry liqueur, but we've used a British cassis (blackcurrant) instead, which is easier to source. Use creme de mure if you prefer though. The cocktail is best served over crushed ice in a heavy-bottomed, short tumbler glass (also known as a rocks glass or a lowball). You will need a cocktail shaker to make this fabulous drink.

Ingredients

• 50ml Conker gin, or another London Dry gin of your choice
• 25ml Lemon juice
• 15ml Sugar syrup
• 10ml White Heron British Cassis
• Lemon wedges, to garnish

You will need:

• Rocks glass
• Crushed ice
• Cocktail shaker

Method

1. Add the Cassis to a rocks glass and fill with crushed ice.
2. Shake the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup together with ice in a shaker.
3. Pour on top of the crush ice and stir gently. Garnish and serve immediately.

Top tips for making a Bramble cocktail

Blackberries make a great alternative garnish to lemon slices. They are in season from July to mid-September, and you can even forage your own for free in hedgerows.  

A London Dry style gin with citrus notes goes very well in this cocktail and compliments the lemon juice and garnish used in the recipe.

Where does the bramble cocktail come from?

Dick Bradsell created The Bramble in the 1980s while working at the bar Fred’s Club in Soho, London, England. He wanted to create a British drink and used the bramble, the bush in which blackberries grow, as inspiration.

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