Blackberry Sage
ALC 7.0% VOLA mid-summer bounty of sweet, jammy blackberries, earthy sage, and bright tart lemons... this Liquid Art lab Elixir is the perfect porch pounder.
Art by the talented Andrew McGranahan
Ingredients & Nutrition
Raw kombucha, Blackberries, Apples, Lemons, Sage, Yeast
The inspiration for this release came from the iconic wild summer berry, the blackberry. We took in some incredible blackberries from JR organics and Kyle immediately got to work creating a recipe to highlight these flavors.
One of the fun parts of eating blackberries for Kyle is that each can be incredibly different from the same package (or wild bush, for that matter); some berries are incredibly sweet, then the next one is beautifully sour and then each typically has a bit of underlying earthiness. So Kyle went about adding different ingredients that enhanced different aspects of these flavors.
First, when anyone hears berry their immediate thought is sweetness. With that in mind, Kyle knew the release had to have some sweetness behind it and to incorporate some additional sugar to bring out the sweetness and vibrancy of blackberry. Fresh-pressed apple juice was the choice because not only does it enhance sweetness but it also blends well with the blackberry flavor (think blackberry and apple pie).
Then, the tart aspect of a blackberry is another incredible feature of the berry. To celebrate this uniquely tart flavor profile, Kyle landed on a classic pairing: lemon. Blackberry and lemon go incredibly well together (want to try it? next time you make a lemon bar swirl in some blackberry jam for an incredible twist on a classic that is an amazing treat). So Kyle figured for the first blackberry release we should play up the classic pairing.
The final ingredient was used to enhance the earthiness of blackberries, sage. This ingredient actually came about because there was some leftover sage from another infusion and Kyle tried it in the benchtop blend and it helped everything meld together beautifully while imparting layered texture, or complexity. Upcycling, am I right?
One of the fun parts of eating blackberries for Kyle is that each can be incredibly different from the same package (or wild bush, for that matter); some berries are incredibly sweet, then the next one is beautifully sour and then each typically has a bit of underlying earthiness. So Kyle went about adding different ingredients that enhanced different aspects of these flavors.
First, when anyone hears berry their immediate thought is sweetness. With that in mind, Kyle knew the release had to have some sweetness behind it and to incorporate some additional sugar to bring out the sweetness and vibrancy of blackberry. Fresh-pressed apple juice was the choice because not only does it enhance sweetness but it also blends well with the blackberry flavor (think blackberry and apple pie).
Then, the tart aspect of a blackberry is another incredible feature of the berry. To celebrate this uniquely tart flavor profile, Kyle landed on a classic pairing: lemon. Blackberry and lemon go incredibly well together (want to try it? next time you make a lemon bar swirl in some blackberry jam for an incredible twist on a classic that is an amazing treat). So Kyle figured for the first blackberry release we should play up the classic pairing.
The final ingredient was used to enhance the earthiness of blackberries, sage. This ingredient actually came about because there was some leftover sage from another infusion and Kyle tried it in the benchtop blend and it helped everything meld together beautifully while imparting layered texture, or complexity. Upcycling, am I right?
