For the Gilman family, the Fourth of July isn’t just Independence Day — it’s Black Raspberry Day.
It’s the day Tattersalls Distillery Manager Bentley Gilman heads out with his family in search of ripe blackcap raspberries, at the peak of the season.
“Kids obviously love raspberries, and I feel like they’re really tapping into that innate understanding of ripe fruit, fruit in season,” Gilman says, “because when they see a wild raspberry, their whole body and mind goes, ‘Okay, that’s a raspberry.'”
At Tattersall’s, a distillery and cocktail room with locations in northeast Minneapolis and River Falls, Wisconsin, foraged ingredients form the basis of many of the spirits. In “Cocktails in Bloom,” a recipe book sold at both Tattersall’s locations, Gilman takes foraging a step further, incorporating seasonal herbs, berries and flowers into his cocktail ingredients. Gilman mashes blackcap raspberries for a simple shaken whiskey cocktail (or mixes with soda for a spirit-free drink that’s suitable for all ages), and it’s a taste of midsummer.
“There’s so much going on at that time of year,” Gilman said. “Berry season is in full swing.”
“Cocktails in Bloom” is one of two new books that explore Minnesota’s connection to cocktails in different ways.
In “Twin Cities Cocktails,” Meal magazine editors Peter Sieve, Molly Each and Mecca Voss present cocktail recipes and stories from more than 100 local bars and bartenders, each with a distinctive, local flavor.
Seeb said he’s noticed that many bartenders are “interested in what ‘Minnesota terroir’ is and how that translates not only to the food but also to the cocktails.”
The idea that the places we live in have a unique atmosphere “is something that’s been happening behind the scenes for a while, but is starting to come more to the forefront, and it’s a really interesting movement,” Seeb said.
One example is the recipe for Manoomin, a non-alcoholic cocktail from Owamuni, a groundbreaking Native American restaurant in Minneapolis, which draws flavors from ingredients that are culturally significant to the Ojibwe people, including sarsaparilla, spice berries and hand-picked wild rice.
Other recipes in the book use flavors from fresh vegetables from the garden, such as carrots, tomatillos, and ginger.
But there’s one summer cocktail ingredient that can’t be harvested: location. In Minnesota’s fleeting warm weather, or “patio” season as we like to call it, summer drinking is all about enjoying it outdoors.
“The first priority is the patio,” Seeb said, adding that as long as they can provide outdoor tables and chairs, “we’ll be fine no matter what.”
Hai Hai’s tropical patio in Northeast Minneapolis is the perfect place for a summer drink, with a host of mind-blowing drinks on offer, including a rum cocktail made with freshly pressed sugarcane juice, ginger syrup, and lime. Centro’s mass-produced margaritas are another popular summer tipple.
Seeb also loves sipping his refreshing horseradish-flavored Referent Vodka in the charming backyard of St. Paul’s Moscow on the Hill, where the icy cold taste of the vodka pairs perfectly with the sinuses-clearing heat of the root.
Other selections in the book pay tribute to Minnesota products with longer shelf lives, such as Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Honey, featured in the sidebar, a mix of Surdyk’s Hot Honey, bourbon and Meyer lemon juice.
Fresh, local ingredients mixed into syrups can help you enjoy those fleeting days of summer for a little longer, and in Cocktails in Bloom, Gilman shares many ways to use some of the foraged ingredients he highlights, like the invasive garlic mustard root, which can be made into a sauce or infused with vodka for a Bloody Mary.
“Our idea was, how do we make these recipes easy, and how do we make the plants accessible, because I think there’s a big mystique about it. Like a lot of subjects, there’s a barrier to entry when it comes to exploring the endless possibilities of drinks with Minnesota-grown ingredients,” Gilman said. “In fact, nature is our birthright as humans.”
black cap whiskey smash
Makes one cup.
From “Cocktails in Bloom” by Bentley Gilman.
• 3-5 blackcap raspberries
• 1½ ounces (3 tablespoons) Tattersalls Rye Whiskey
• 3/4 ounce (1 ½ tablespoons) lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce (1 ½ tablespoons) honey
• Mint sprigs and lemon slices for garnish
direction
Add ice to a shaker tin and stir in the raspberries and whiskey. Add the lemon juice and honey. Shake vigorously until chilled and strain into an ice-filled glass or fill a new glass with flavored ice. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig and lemon wedge.
Black Cap Press
Makes one cup.
A spirit-free drink featured in Cocktails in Bloom by Bentley Gilman.
• 3-5 blackcap raspberries
• 3/4 ounce (1 ½ tablespoons) lemon juice
• Soda water
• Lemon-lime soda
direction
Place raspberries in a glass, add some soda water and stir. Add ice and lemon juice, stir, then pour over the soda water and lemon-lime soda mix. Add more lemon-lime if you like it sweeter, or more soda water if you like it drier. You could also try ginger beer or sparkling lemonade instead of lemon-lime soda.
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Makes one cup.
Note: Cocktail from Hai Hai, Minneapolis, featured in “Twin Cities Cocktails” by Peter Sieve, Molly Each, and Mecca Bos. Freshly squeezed sugar cane juice is preferred, but you can also buy it canned at the grocery store.
• 2½ ounces (5 tablespoons) sugar cane juice (see notes)
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) rum
• 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) ginger syrup (see recipe)
• 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) fresh lime juice
• Thai basil (for garnishing)
direction
Combine sugar cane juice, rum, ginger syrup, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain the cocktail into a Collins glass filled with ice. Garnish with a bouquet of Thai basil and dried ginger.
To make the ginger syrup: Peel the ginger and roughly chop it to make 1 cup of juice. Run the ginger through a juicer. Remove the pulp from the juicer, wrap it in cheesecloth, and squeeze through a basket strainer. This will make 1 cup of ginger juice, which you can then mix with 1 cup of syrup and a pinch of salt.
Quincy Margarita
Makes one cup.
Cocktails from Centro in Minneapolis and St. Paul featured in “Twin Cities Cocktails” by Peter Sieve, Molly Each and Mecca Bos.
• Salt (for rubbing on the edges)
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) tequila
• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) lime juice
• 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) simple syrup
• 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) Tattersalls Orange Crema
• Lime slice (for garnish)
direction
Sprinkle salt on the rim of a rocks glass. Shake the tequila, lime juice, syrup and orange crema in a cocktail shaker. Strain the cocktail into the salted glass and garnish with a lime slice.