Drink of the Week: Briar Patch

This drink is from the September 2007 issue of Gourmet. It's an example of a style of drink I (and others) would call a "cooler": it's a tall drink topped off with seltzer, so it's refreshing and a little fizzy.

First, you make a chile-blackberry syrup (drop those raised eyebrows; it tastes very nice, really). The syrup is sweet and berry-ish, and has a smoky, spicy note, but it's not hot at all.

I think the chile-blackberry syrup recipe will be up shortly on epicurious.com so I'm not going to post it now (I will post it if they don't get it up there).

The recipe called for bourbon or rye. In the spirit of doing complete investigatons for our readers (ah, is there anything we won't do for you?), we made both versions and preferred the one with rye.

Briar Patch
Mix together in a shaker or glass:

• 3 parts bourbon or rye
• 1 part chile-blackberry syrup
• squeeze lemon juice

Pour over ice in a highball or iced tea glass. Add club soda or seltzer to taste (The recipe tells you to use an 8 oz. glass and fill with club soda - I thought that was a little too fizzy.).