There’s been an amazing number of happy cocktail blog coincidences in my life lately. I will have just picked up an ingredient and, lo and behold, the next day I’ll find someone has posted a recipe that uses that very ingredient! First it was the Nacional, concocted by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, then I ran across the Tropical Fix over at Jimmy’s Cocktail Hour. Now, barely twenty-four hours after I picked up a bottle of Sazerac rye, Jamie Boudreau dropped the Black & Tan, one of the drinks in his continuing Tales of the Cocktail gloating recapping. (If you haven’t, please read Jamie’s excellent TotC posts—don’t you like a good story to go with your cocktail?)

Between the blackberries in the fridge, the unopened bottle of Sazerac and the four pristine ginger beers patiently lurking about, it might as well have been a message delivered from on high: make a Black & Tan, already!

2 oz Sazerac rye whiskey
¼ oz simple syrup
¼ oz fresh lime juice
5 blackberries
8 mint leaves
ginger beer

Muddle blackberries with simple syrup, lime and mint in a mixing glass. Add rye and shake over ice; strain into a Collins glass filled with ice and top with ginger beer. Garnish with fresh berries.

There’s little that I can say about this drink that can’t be summed up in one word: whoa. A little spicy, a little savory, a little sweet, a little tart—this has it all. The color is a gorgeous deep purple, though the berries don’t overwhelm the subtlties of the rye, and the mint imparts just a little aromatic oomph. I’m sure I’ll be sipping these all of this long, hot weekend.