The Blueberry Pieball – our new favorite highball

May 10, 2012 by Alicia 24 Comments

When I was envisioning the cocktail for our little Portland blogger get-together, I asked Evelyn from Momsicle (the instigator) what she was looking for in a signature cocktail. She threw out a bunch of ideas, one of which was something that would be easy for readers to make for groups, especially summer parties. So that was the focus of our featured cocktail.

Enter the Highball… Highballs are really a whole family of drinks, which includes booze and a non-boozy mixer. I won’t go into much detail here because I’m not an expert.

Some years ago, we had just moved to High Street and were throwing a housewarming party. The theme was Highballs on High Street, and the drinks were so easy to make for the masses (not that the party was that big). The highball of choice for the night: Bermuda Highball, which includes gin, brandy, vermouth and ginger ale or club soda.

Our Boozed + Infused variation… the Blueberry ~~Highball~~ Pieball, made with our Blueberry Gin infused with pie spices.

Blueberry Pieball

1.5 oz Blueberry Gin

0.5 oz Dry Vermouth

0.5 oz Brandy

3 oz club soda

2 oz ginger ale

lemon twist

Blueberry Ice Cubes (made from blueberry juice) and frozen blueberries to keep the drink cold

Pour each of the ingredients into a tall glass, add a few blueberry ice cubes, frozen blueberries, and one regular ice cube, then garnish with a lemon twist.

For a party, we recommend making a lot of this in advance. The blueberry ice cubes and frozen blueberries will help keep the drink cold without watering it down. Make the ice cubes and freeze your berries the night before your party.

blueberry ice cubes and frozen berries to keep your drink cold

Either the night before, or the morning of the party, mix up the booze so that you aren’t measuring out the various ingredients for each drink. If you have 3 cups of Blueberry Gin, get a large jar, bottle, or pitcher and add the 3 cups or infused gin, 1 cup of vermouth and 1 cup of brandy. Stir, and keep in the freezer or refrigerator so that it won’t melt your ice and frozen berries too quickly.

For the party, you can use a large jigger, and just add equal parts of the Blueberry Pieball Booze Mix, Ginger Ale, and Club Soda. This makes it very simple to make a tray of them.

So… get those blueberries out of your freezer (or go pick up a bag from your local grocer) and start infusing some blueberry gin! This was really easy, refreshing, and tasty. And will make for some great fun at your summer gatherings.

For our get-together, each guest left with their own mini bottle of the Blueberry Pieball Booze Mix. Fun for later…