Sage Cocktail

To help celebrate Jul 4, we made the best cocktail. I couldn't help but duplicate decorating the glass with the suggested garnish just like the recipe. The whole blackberry was good to eat after the drink went down. This would be a great drink to serve at Christmas not only for the colors, but for the warm and earthly flavor that would surely take the chill out of the bones on a cold night.

What caught my eye about this cocktail recipe was the simple syrup made from fresh sage, sugar, and water (and you probably know, we have a TON of fresh sage). And of course fresh blackberries as an ingredient reeled me in.

The recipe made a lot more syrup than we needed for two drinks. I put the rest of it in the fridge and now am trying to find other recipes where it can be used. No doubt that cocktail will be made a couple more times :).  The syrup keeps in the fridge for up to 30 days.

Today I added it to iced tea - surprisingly, it was so rich, earthy and good!! I wasn't sure if sage tea would be my "cup of tea", but it was spot on. It had a subtle sage flavor, and was really different.

I'd love to add it to a baked good of some kind if I had the time to figure out how to substitute it for other ingredients. The syrup would need to replace some liquid in the recipe, as well as any sweetener.

So I'm hooked on simple syrups because it's another way I can use my herbs. I'll make a few different syrups with some of our abundant mint or lemon verbena (or maybe basil?), which I think will be terrific in either cold or hot tea.