Advent Calendar Day 2

 Happy Friday! 

Seeing that it's the first official weekend of the holiday season, maybe you'd like to try a new cocktail tonight? 

The Office Elf and I created this one for Thanksgiving. (No job is ever going to compare to this one for her, I suspect :-D)  Now, the list of ingredients will probably require a trip to your nearest Bev Mo, and the instructions might seem a little complicated, but don't be intimidated. It's actually pretty simple once you get it down. That said, unless you enjoy spending the evening behind the bar, I wouldn't recommend doing what I did and try to serve it on the fly to twelve thirsty guests. This is more a leisurely evening before the fireplace while working on a jigsaw puzzle sort of beverage. 

It's lovely though. Lots of delicate flavors to lace the bourbon.

 Ramble Through the Bramble

Ingredients

1 oz. blackberry liqueur

2 oz. Lori's Lavender Lemonade* 

1 oz. bourbon

1/2 oz. orange curacao

a couple of dashes orange bitters

3-5 frozen blackberries

4 fresh basil leaves

a squirt of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 - 2 oz. freshly squeezed orange juice

Instructions

OPTIONAL: sugar rim rocks glass

**Muddle the blackberries, basil leaves, bitters and lemon juice in the bottom of the shaker.

Add in the orange juice, lemonade, blackberry liqueur, bourbon, and orange curacao. Fill the shaker with ice.

Shake it baby, shake it all you can tonight. Strain it over the ice of your rocks glass.

Garnish with basil leaf. (er, non-muddled)

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*You can sub any lemonade (or fresh lemon juice and simple syrup) but I love this lemonade, and the hint of lavender is especially pleasing in this particular cocktail.

**"Muddle" sounds more alarming than it is. Basically, mash up the berries, basil, bitters and lemonade in the bottom of your shaker.