Blueberries are the taste of summer, intensely tangy and sweet. The epitome of this fleeting season, they make a wonderful drink to sip with friends as the sun sinks behind an indigo horizon.
Picking blueberries is lodged in our collective summer memories that are pure as the season itself. One of the few fruits indigenous to North America, several varieties have been hybridized for commercial production; others are found in the wild. Those big, juicy berries sold in markets are the highbush variety, plump and loaded with juice. The tiny lowbush blueberries grow wild and are hidden along the sandy shores of cold lakes; their flavors snap and pop with a bright tang.
These blue fruits are loaded with vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants and are considered a low-calorie superfood. Native Americans dubbed blueberries star fruits for the five-pointed star shape at the berries’ end. Aromatic and distinctive, they star in my summer drinks.
Blueberry cocktails became more popular with the rise in the craft of mixology and you’ll find them in cosmos, mojitos, margaritas, daiquiris, martinis, lemonades and more. The best way to prepare them is by muddling to release their juices directly into the glass. Delicate and refreshing, the blueberries are best paired with lighter spirits — vodka, gin, tequila, white rum — to allow their essence to shine through without being overpowered.
