It’s the time of the year that you either love or hate. There’s really no in between. And it’s not even split into just two sides. There’s love. You are blissfully in love and can’t wait to celebrate it and your significant other. Flowers, chocolates, stuffed animals, indulgent meals (stay tuned!) and going all out. The cuter, the better. It’s an excuse to spend a whole day sharing your love. And that’s about it for the love part. For hate: we have a few sides. First there is the obvious reason: you are single. Valentine’s Day serves as a reminder that you are unfortunately for the time being, alone. It’s annoying and everywhere. And there’s one last category, and you can be involved or alone for it. “It’s a Hallmark Holiday designed to make money!” Bit of a polarizing Holiday huh? That’s ok, because this recipe is designed to accommodate everyone in any Valentine’s Day Category: An Adult Beverage.
Listen, I’ve been in each category at one point. Obviously, I am happily in the Love category now. Granted, we don’t need a specific holiday to celebrate each other. But it’s a great excuse to indulge in a great meal. But I’ve also been single and not exactly a fan of the love heavy day. So I kept it as a celebration with my other single girlfriends. In fact, one of my favorite Valentine’s Days of all time was one that my best friend, Samantha and I went to a chinese buffet, went out for some drinks and then went to see Brokeback Mountain. In that way, we spent the day to enjoy doing something together. Sometimes I do think Valentine’s Day is a bit over marketed. But let’s be real, we need something. It’s the dead of winter. Our next big celebration, depending on how you look at it, is either Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day. Both big parties but we have a ways to go.
A cocktail was a given for this Holiday. When Randy and I would go out to restaurants back in the day. we also enjoyed trying different cocktails or enjoying a beverage. We both have our favorites but were always interested to see what specialties the restaurant featured. And we’ve had some really good ones over the years. One was a whiskey sour featured at a somewhat local restaurant. We’ve been there a few times and have taken several friends there. I’ve mentioned on here before that I am a whiskey loving girl, and Randy loves him some whiskey. So a whiskey sour seemed like a great fit!
A traditional Whiskey Sour will sometimes have an egg while in there to give it that classy foam topping. My better half isn’t a huge fan of eggs so I didn’t want to risk it and obviously makes it a bit safer across the board. A traditional whiskey sour also features lemon juice, a simple syrup made of sugar and water, whiskey, ice and some cherries in there for good measure. As I like to do, I turned this a bit on it’s head. Instead of cherries, we went for blackberries. Personally, I’m not crazy about eating blackberries on their own, but I love their flavor and color. Instead of lemon juice, I did lime. I LOVE me some lime. Whether it be traditional lime and lime flavored things, to my real favorite, key lime, I’m down. And to celebrate the colors of the season and of love and passion, let’s throw some pomegranate seeds in there for good measure.
This recipe is super simple to make. And it accommodates every one of our categories! First things first, let’s make that simple syrup. 1 cup granulated sugar to 1 cup of water. Instead here though, you are going to a few whole blackberries (you can use fresh or frozen) to infuse into the syrup. Give them a gentle squeeze before adding them in to open up the juices and let them steep into the liquid. Heat this over low heat until the sugar granules are all gone. You can stop this here, but if you want to infuse a little bit more blackberry to it, you can let it cook a little longer.
Allow it to cool down a bit before using it. Then, let’s make that cocktail! Grab your cocktail shaker or even a quart container, add some ice and pour in that whiskey. I recommend an Irish Whiskey for this. Generally my go to Irish Whiskey is Jameson, but for this recipe, we went with Teelings, another favorite of ours.
Then add in a few fresh/frozen blackberries, your pomegranate seeds, lime juice and infused simple syrup. Shake it up a whole lot and it’s ready to go.
Grab your rocks glasses or whatever fun glass you want to use and throw a couple cubes in there. Pour your whiskey sour over the ice. At this point you can throw in some extra blackberries and pomegranate seeds. Or you can fish the ones out of the shaker if you’d like.
That’s it! This drink is perfect for those who want a fun drink to share on Valentine’s night together, those who are single and want to treat themselves, or those who hate the holiday and just like whiskey. It covers everyone and really warms up this cold, love based Holiday!
Cupid’s Cocktail – Blackberry Infused Whiskey Sour
Serves 2
Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup Fresh or Frozen Blackberries, plus extra for garnish
- 4 ounces Irish Whiskey
- 1.5 ounces fresh lime juice
- 1.5 ounces simple syrup
- 1/8 cup pomegranate seeds, plus extra for garnish
- Ice
In a small saucepan, add sugar, water and 1/8 cup of the Blackberries. Give the blackberries a gentle squeeze so they can release some of their juices. Cook over low heat until sugar granules dissolve. Continue cooking a bit longer if you’d like to infuse more blackberry flavor.
Set aside and cool.
In a cocktail shaker or quart container, add ice, whiskey, lime juice, the rest of the blackberries, pomegranate seeds and simple syrup.
Give some really good shakes and allow to chill.
Pour over ice in rocks glasses, garnish with more blackberries and pomegranate seeds and serve!