Red, White, and Blueberries

Drink it up with 4th of July-appropriate updates on classic cocktails.

By Chelsea Biondolillo
Published: June 29th, 2010 | 11:05am

Bloody Mary with Dill

The Gallo Blanco Cafe inside the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix, AZ has one of the best bloody marys in town. They make their own mix, the details of which are guarded pretty closely, but the secret ingredient, says bar manager Susan Burgos, is dill. It adds a fresh, bright flavor, plus that familiar pickled taste. For a shortcut, you can add dill and horseradish to a store-bought bloody mary mix.

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1½ ounces (1 shot) vodka
½ cup tomato juice
2 tsp fresh lime juice

Pinch of each of the following:
Dried dill
Celery Salt

A dab of each of the following:
Worcestershire sauce
Horseradish sauce
Habenero sauce (or your fave hot sauce)

Shake everything together with ice.

Garnish with any or all of the following:
Celery stalk
Radish with leaves and stem (Gallo Blanco gets them from a local farmer)
Pickled okra
Green olives
Lemon and/or lime wedges

Spiced Horchata

Bars from Southern California to Texas offer their own version of this “spiked agua fresca.” Horchata is a cinnamon-flavored rice milk beverage that can be found as a powdered mix or in shelf-stable boxes (like soy or rice milk) at many Latin markets and some natural food stores. They make their own at Gallo Blanco, and if you can't find it in your neighborhood, so can you.

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½ cup of Horchata (fresh or mixed according to package instructions)
1 ½ ounces of spiced or coconut flavored rum
cinnamon sugar

Rim a glass with cinnamon sugar, add ice, horchata, and rum. Stir. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Blueberry Mojito

Give a little patriotic zing to a classic summer drink by topping off mojitos with fresh blueberries. They're in season, have a complementary sweet/tart flavor, and add a burst of color.

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 1 ½ ounces light rum 
4 tbsp fresh lime juice 
8 mint leaves
 8 fresh blueberries (plus a couple extra for garnish) 
1 tsp sugar 
club soda
 lime slice and mint sprig

Muddle (or smash) berries, mint leaves, and sugar in a mixing glass. Add light rum and lime juice and shake with ice. Pour into a tall glass. Drop in blueberries and club soda. Garnish with lime and mint sprig.  

Special thanks to Susan Burgos and bartender, Steve Schweiger, at Gallo Blanco Cafe.