The Bramble, as a drink, can be fairly easily explained by the word itself:

bram·ble – (brām’bəl) – n.

1. A prickly shrub of the genus Rubus, including the blackberry and the raspberry.
2. A prickly shrub or bush.

[Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel.]

So we know we’re dealing with blackberries—fresh fruit, perhaps, or créme de mûre. My first encounter with anything resembling the Bramble was a rum-based variation called the Rumble on the cocktail menu at Comme Ça. It was delightful, so naturally I couldn’t leave a good thing well enough alone and had to play with it at home.

A descendent of the Gin Fix, a drink composed by Jerry Thomas and made up of sugar, raspberry syrup, lemon juice and gin served over crushed ice, the Bramble was, to the best of my limited sleuthing abilities, created by Dick Bradsell in Soho, London. It’s a slightly more complex variation on the Fix, which recipe I found by way of George Sinclair, also known as the Thinking Bartender, who has kindly posted all manner of interesting cocktail-related documents online.

Interestingly (to me, anyway), though the Bramble was originally concocted using gin, there are a large variety of alternate versions using all manner of liquors. I tried the recipe with both gin and blanco tequila because, well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

Sadly, in spite of my research, I didn’t have any blackberries at home—but I did have a pint of fresh mulberries. Mulberries, being of the genus Morus, do not share the same botanical or etymological roots as their Rubus cousins, but they do have a blackberry-like appearance and have a mildly sweet berry flavor. Though créme de mûre or cassis are most commonly found in recipes for the Bramble, I felt that raspberries were the closest in flavor to the milder mulberries and, since they share the same genus as blackberries, using framboise wasn’t a case of the berry falling too far from the bush.

1½ oz gin
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
¾ oz créme de framboise
4 mulberries

Muddle the four mulberries and créme de framboise well in a mixing glass and set aside.

Build the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup in an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Pour the muddled berries and liqueur over the ice and serve.

Well, my tequila idea didn’t pan out perfectly. Not that it was bad—it wasn’t—but the proportions need tweaking if that combination is going to work out. The gin-based Bramble, however, was delightful. Like blackberries, mulberries aren’t exceptionally sweet so they bear up well when combined with sugar. The sweetness of the liqueur and simple syrup helped to boost their naturally mild flavor, while the tried-and-true combination of gin and lemon juice made a lovely, herbaceous and tart canvas for the flavors to work upon. Definitely a keeper, though I think I may try a rum variation next…