Bramble

The Bramble is a contemporary classic cocktail combining gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, and crème de mûre, a blackberry liqueur made in France. The drink is served over crushed ice with a fresh lemon slice and blackberry garnish. 

The drink was created by the late, highly influential bartender Dick Bradsell, responsible for another modern classic, the Espresso Martini. Created in the 1980s while working as bar manager at Fred’s Club in the fashionable Soho neighborhood in the West End of London, Bradsell “wanted to invent a truly British drink.”

Named for the bush that blackberries grow on, the Bramble was inspired by Bradsell’s Isle of Wight childhood picking blackberries and getting “pricked by the brambles.”

Bradsell credited the success of the Bramble to its simplicity and its employment of freshly squeezed lemon juice at a time when prepared sour mix was regularly in use.

What makes the Bramble work

The Bramble is essentially a gin sour, and follows the classic template with gin and tart citrus serving as a balance between the sweet elements — simple syrup and crème de mûre, a rich, jam-like liqueur made from blackberries.

This recipe is a close adaptation of Bradsell’s original version, calling for a touch more gin. The result is a slightly stronger drink with even more aromatic botanics. 

The key to a properly made Bramble is in the delicate balance and tension of sweet and sour. While the crème de mûre is important to providing the color and signature berry flavor of the drink, only a half ounce, at most, should be used so as not to overpower the other ingredients. Crème de mûre can easily provide too much sweetness if overused, especially since simple syrup is also present here. A full ounce of lemon juice serves to balance the sugar while amping up the brightness and acidity in the drink. 

Using crushed ice is a “key component,” according to Bradsell, with the slight dilution adding “length to a cocktail that might otherwise veer towards cloying or sickly.”