When it comes to kitchen gear, I subscribe to the Alton Brown philosophy of eschewing “unitaskers” — that is, gadgets that only serve one purpose. He claims that his fire extinguisher is the only unitasker in his kitchen, and he’s still searching for another use for that too.
While I haven’t completely decluttered my gadget drawer (I really like my garlic press and oyster knife!), I’m pretty close. And I share a similar idea when it comes to spirits: I like the liquors that fill my shelves to serve more than one purpose.
Unless it’s a really expensive bottle of whiskey or an especially old Scotch, I want my spirits to stand alone as a sipper or act as an ingredient in more than one cocktail that I like to make. (Yet somehow, I have ended up with two bottles of Galliano. Anybody got a hankering for a bunch of Harvey Wallbangers?)
So when I recently saw that Jack Daniel’s was releasing a new product, I was intrigued to see that it was called Tennessee Blackberry. Importantly, it doesn’t say “Tennessee Blackberry Whiskey” on the label. Rather, the label describes it as “blackberry liqueur blended with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey,” so basically this is almost like a cocktail in a bottle. But at 70 proof, that’s a pretty boozy cocktail.
I received a bottle as a sample and started out my exploration by pouring a snifter of it. That was a little bit of a mistake on my part. The aroma of blackberry was definitely dominant, with just a hint of sweet banana Jack Black essence. It didn’t smell especially artificial, fortunately, but neither did it remind me of picking blackberries off a prickly vine in July.
Again, the mistake was mine, because it says right there on the label, “Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Blackberry is best served with lemonade, soda, or mixed in a cocktail.” Indeed, on the Jack Daniel’s website, they offer a trio of recipes that couldn’t be simpler: "Blackberry and Lemonade," a "Blackberry Smash" with lemon and simple syrup (so basically lemonade), and a "Blackberry and Lemon-Lime Soda." I’ll just go ahead and say “Sprite.”
So I tried all three recipes, and I am disappointed to say that I waited until mid-August to discover my drink of the summer! I toyed around with the recipes a bit and came up with a hybrid concoction of 2 ounces of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Blackberry plus sweet lemonade muddled with a handful of huge basil leaves from the bush that is threatening to take over my raised beds during these ideal Tuscan summer growing conditions we’re experiencing lately.
You can build this in a tall ice tea glass with ice or shake it in a cocktail tin and pour it into a chilled coupe glass if you want to get all fancy about it. Considering this new product falls under the same brand family as Tennessee Honey, Tennessee Apple and Tennessee Fire, I wouldn’t bother getting chichi with it. If you have access to pebble ice from a high-tech fridge or buy some Sonic ice on the way home from the liquor store, I think that would make it even better. At an MSRP of $21.99 a bottle, this is going to become a summer staple!
