Tea Time (Original Recipe for MurLarkey Distillery)

This drink takes its inspiration from the Ice Pick, a cocktail with the dubious intent of hiding alcohol in an innocent looking glass of iced tea. Using flavored spirits and sparkling water enhances that basic recipe: I wondered what would happen if the liquor tasted like tea?

MurLarkey makes Three Tea Whiskey that is infused with Earl Gray, Darjeeling and English breakfast teas. I like a raspberry iced tea, so Chambord black raspberry liqueur suggested itself. My thinking was that a really enjoyable summer cocktail shouldn't feel like a basic iced tea. It should be a treat for a special occasion, or at least turn a typical summer afternoon into a special occasion. This was a very special recipe.

• 2 oz. MurLarkey Three Tea whiskey
• 1 oz. Chambord
• 1 tsp. sugar
• sparkling water
• blackberry, lemon slices, and mint sprig garnishes

Combine whiskey, Chambord and sugar in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Place a lemon slice in the glass and top with sparkling water. Stir gently and garnish with mint sprig, blackberry and lemon slice.

Exit 13-E (Non-Alcoholic)

A little research shows that just about every major U.S. highway has an Exit 13-E. The most notable might be New York's I-95 exit, for some reason. Everything is more important if it is in New York, if you haven't noticed. A little more research reveals that loganberry juice is almost never used in cocktails, this being the one exception! How rare that it is a mocktail as well.

So loganberries are a wild breed that is crossed between blackberries and raspberries. They are much more like blackberries in taste, but they have a red color. Good luck finding them, they aren't really harvested like other berries of this kind. So I had to get creative.

I juiced a pint of blackberries and added a previously-made blackberry syrup. This used all the juice from the blackberries just to make this one drink (something like $5 dollars worth of berries). I used the juice with no added sugar, which was a great move. Had this deep black color, but when mixed with pineapple juice it got this luster that I could barely capture with my camera. It was really beautiful and drinking it was the experience of drinking a quart of blackberries.

• 4 oz. loganberry juice (blackberry and raspberry juice substituted)
• 4 pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice

Combine all juices in a Collins glass full of ice and stir.