Imagine a walk through the woods (or nature reserve, if you happen to be in Singapore). It’s early evening, and the air is pleasurably cool on your bare skin after a gentle shower.
You let your senses take over your conscious mind.
Surrounding you are trees, so tall you have to crane your neck to spy the topmost boughs. Their leaves are a glimmering green on the branches, and a ruddy brown on the forest floor. Your eyes find their humble cousins- the shrubs and bushes-sitting on the brown earth. They are sparse with foliage, but their enormous, juicy, black berries seem to leap off the stems, begging to be devoured.
You close your eyes, now, and let your nose wander. As your consciousness expands, you catch the scent of rain and wet grass, and also the deep earthiness of the soil. You smell herbs, fruit, and even- maybe – the sweetness of summer flowers.
You enjoy solitude, but not loneliness. Nature and you are one, for just a moment.
Now imagine there’s a drink that captures that scene.
The Bramble
Created by the legendary Dick “Cocktail King” Bradsell in the mid-1980s while he was working in Fred’s Bar in London, the Bramble remains a modern classic- though unfortunately, at the same time, somewhat unknown in Singapore.
We’re hoping to correct that.
The drink itself takes its name from the thorny bush from whence blackberries grow. (In this case, we refer to the juicy black fruit, not the infernal mobile device.) Foraging for wild berries is a summertime conceit for British, who, as we understand, enjoy months of blackberry jams, blackberry pies and blackberry tarts. Sadly, while Britain had many virtues in both the manufacture of fine spirits and blackberry comestibles, combining both skills to make a good blackberry liqueur was not among them.
Bradsell finally found inspiration in a French liqueur company, Cave de Bissey, who introduced him to their Crème de Mure. On tasting the liqueur, vivid childhood memories of rummaging through the brush for berries were conjured, and he decided to create a truly British drink. In that endeavour, however, he was only partially successful; he did create a great drink, but the neither Crème de Mure nor lemons are native to the UK.
Spreading roots
The Bramble is essentially a gin sour (gin with lemon juice and sugar), with the blackberry modifying the taste. However, two things set it apart from the typical sour.
First, blackberry is a complex ingredient- it imparts a fruity tartness, but also possesses a light earthiness and a hint of herb bitterness that give it multilayered dimensions. Combined with the lemon and a good gin, the drink has sour, sweet, herbal and earthy components, melding into a liquid manifestation of the forest. You simply have to close your eyes and you will find yourself whisked away to a wooded retreat.
Second, the cocktail has a unique visual appeal; the Crème de Mure is drizzled over the top right before the drink is served. The crimson tendrils of the liqueur create a vine pattern (poetically, brambles) as it courses through the ice to the bottom. It is a beautiful drink and a visual spectacle to behold.
- 2 oz. London Dry Gin
- 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz. Simple syrup
- 1/2 oz. Crème de Mure
- Shake the lemon juice, gin, and syrup till ice cold
- Fill an old-fashioned glass with crushed ice
- Strain the mixture into the old-fashioned glass
- Top up the glass with more crushed ice until it reaches the brim of the glass.
- Drizzle the Crème de Mure over the ice
- Garnish the drink with blackberries
- We recommend using a Plymouth or Tanqueray gin, but feel free to experiment
- It is very important to use crushed ice for this cocktail to ensure proper dilution and visual effect. To crush ice, simply bundle ice cubes in a piece of clean cloth, then pound it with a rolling pin or similar heavy object.
Crème of the crop
Crème de Mure is not the most common of ingredients in Singapore, which perhaps accounts for the shameful rarity of the Bramble. The Crème is made by extracting berry flavours into alcohol, then sweetening it with sugar- no dairy is involved. In this, it is similar to Crème de Cassis (blackcurrent liqueur), Crème de Framboise (raspberry liqueur) and Crème de Menthe (mint).
Getting the commercial, pre-made versions of the liqueur is somewhat challenging in Singapore, but you can try Asher. Alternatively, you can use Chambord, which is actually a black raspberry liqueur, for a slightly sweeter, fruitier drink. In a last-ditch attempt, you can also use Ribena as the substitute- but it cuts out a lot of the drink’s complexity.
If none of the options above satisfy, however, you can make your own, like I did.
- 600g Blackberries
- 700ml Vodka
- 500ml Simple Syrup (equal parts white sugar, dissolved into water)
- Lightly bruise the berries, but be careful not to mash it into pulp
- Add all the ingredients into a large mason jar
- Allow the flavours to macerate by storing it in a cold, dry place.Shake the mixture occasionally
- After four weeks, strain the solids away, and bottle
- Store the Crème de Mure in the fridge.It should keep for at least 6 months
Enjoying it
Whichever way you choose to make your Bramble, it retains a certain sophistication and- most importantly- is just plain tasty. If you’re looking for something easy to make, but poetic and evocative at the same time, this is the cocktail for you.
