Fine, I'll take the loss on the 19th instead of doing revisionist history. I'll write an extra post on September 1st to make up.

I'm currently in a real conundrum with all those berries I bought at the beginning of the week. Early on in the week, I ran out of mojito ingredients (namely, mint and lime) and then I was alone with the wee baby for a couple days (post on that soon), so haven't really had an opportunity to enjoy those. In an effort to use those berries up before the go bad, I'm currently running a small experiment: which clear alcohol with soda and a mash of black-, blue-, and raspberries? Let's find out.

This is one of the drinks. But also all of them.

The Process

The recipe for this drink is pretty simple:

1. Grab a fistful of farmers marketplace blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries and shove them in a tall glass.

2. Add 1oz of clear alcohol. For this test, I'm testing vodka, gin, and white rum.

3. Muddle the berries into the alcohol.

4. Fill the glass with ice and top with club soda.

The Results

Overall, this is a pretty light and refreshing drink, but each alcohol is bringing it's own thing to the table.

Vodka (Tito's) - I'm not a huge fan of Tito's, but I had some leftover from friends visiting in April so figured this would be a good application to blow it on. Honestly, there was no real alcohol taste, which I suppose is what you'd expect from a good vodka. It was like drunky chunky berry LaCroix with a tiny bit of buzz. Not bad.

Gin (Kirkland Signature London Dry) - I picked up this cheap bottle of gin from Costco during that same friend visit situation and... I actively don't like it. Same situation as above, figured I'd blow it on a dumb experiment. On first taste, you can definitely pick out the juniper and it's not playing with the berries super well. By the bottom of the glass, it was fine.

Rum (Bacardi White Rum) - Rounding out the lower tier alcohols is Bacardi, another alcohol I've soured on since having something much better (I'm sorry I betrayed you, Koloa). There's definitely an extra taste here that wasn't present in the vodka version, but I can't put my finger on it. It's fine.

Conclusion

None of these are stellar drinks, but if I had to pick one as a winner, it'd be the Tito's vodka. I'd like to try this setup using alcohols that are actually good, as I'm sure these lesser versions are dragging down the scores, but I don't feel like being six shots of booze buzzed right now. Also, as somebody who's not partial to soda water in general, there may not be any saving these cocktails.

Now, add a bunch of sugar and we'll talk.