New Cocktail Book by Local Author Paul Clarke

If you don’t know, Paul Clarke is one of the finest cocktail and spirit writers in the world. He’s been an observer and participant of the cocktail happenings throughout the last 10 or 15 years, starting with his legendary blog The Cocktail Chronicles, and then going on into his freelance career writing for spots like Serious Eats, and being executive editor for Imbibe magazine. And now, his first book, The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail Renaissance with Jigger, Shaker, and Glass, has been released by Spring House Press.

It’s a fantastic book, too: informative, witty, amiable, artfully designed, historic, helpful for bartenders of all kinds, and overflowing with more than 200 well-tested and tasty recipes. There’s a nice first chapter that sets you into the cocktail resurgence and also helps you set up your own bar, and then a host of other chapters that not only provide drinks for all occasions, but also weave the history of cocktails and the modern renaissance – and do it all in a lively, funny, helpful way.

It’s like having the perfect drinking companion at your side as you make everything from classics to modern marvels. Below, we’re featuring an excerpt from his book. It’s a recipe for the Bramble, a perfect August drink. Check it out, then pick up the book and start your own cocktail renaissance.

BRAMBLE
London’s lasting mark on the cocktail’s latest round.

By the middle of August, summer seems like it’ll last forever. Though the days have been gradually shortening since late June, August bursts into each day with a brightness and a sear of sun so intense that the cold and damp of winter seem like science-fiction fantasies about a gloomy far-off planet.

August’s intensity brings some of the favorite flavors of summer, chief among them the dark mystery of the blackberry. An invasive species in parts of the U.S., and with varieties first introduced by horticulturalist Luther Burbank, the blackberry has a rugged richness and a tart bite perfectly in keeping with the plant’s thorny character.

Blackberries make few appearances in the cocktail kingdom, but such spots can be legendary. London bartender Dick Bradsell developed the Bramble in the late 20th century formative years of the cocktail resurgence, and it’s become a standard-bearing contemporary classic in the U.K. and much of Europe. Encountered more infrequently in the U.S. — a circumstance related to the scarcity of decent crème de mure, or blackberry liqueur, I’d surmise — the Bramble nevertheless inspires a degree of enthusiasm among bartenders and cocktail fiends with few parallels.

Simply a Gin Fix topped with a generous dollop of blackberry liqueur, the Bramble has such an evocative taste of summer — blackberries and boozy lemonade, served in a frosty package — that I’d nominate it as the signature drink of August (though I welcome it most any other time of year, as well).

BRAMBLE

11/2 oz. gin (Plymouth preferred)

3/4 oz. lemon juice

1/2 oz. simple syrup

3/4 oz. crème de mure (blackberry liqueur)

Glass: rocks

Garnish: lemon wheel, blackberries

Method: Build gin, lemon, and simple syrup in a rocks glass and fill with crushed ice, stirring to combine. Add more crushed ice if needed, and carefully drizzle crème de mure atop ice. Garnish.

Dick Bradsell, London