Edgar’s Bar Book Edgars

Sour · 1984

Bramble

A gin sour over crushed ice with blackberry liqueur bled through it.

Batch it

Specification

London dry gin50 ml
Fresh lemon juice25 ml
Sugar syrup 1:112.5 ml
Crème de mûre15 ml, drizzled
Crushed iceto fill
Batch it for a party

Method

  1. 01Shake gin, lemon and syrup briefly with ice.
  2. 02Strain into a rocks glass packed with crushed ice.
  3. 03Drizzle the crème de mûre slowly over the top so it bleeds down.
  4. 04Garnish with a lemon slice and a blackberry.
Walk through it step by step

Where it comes from

Dick Bradsell built it at Fred's Club in Soho in 1984, aiming for something that tasted of English blackberry picking. It is the other drink he is remembered for, alongside the Espresso Martini.

If you change one thing: Do not stir after the drizzle. The whole visual idea is the liqueur bleeding down through white ice, and one stir turns it a muddy uniform purple.

More like this

PenicillinA honey-ginger whisky sour with a float of smoke on top. DaiquiriRum, lime, sugar. The cleanest test of whether a bar can measure. Whiskey SourThe sour template in its plainest form: 2 spirit, 1 citrus, ¾ sugar.