Sherry Cobbler
Crushed ice, sherry and fruit - the drink that made the straw.
Photo: Sherry cobbler by BanjoZebra · CC BY 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Amontillado sherry - Fino makes a lighter, drier version; a cream sherry makes a sweeter one
- 5 ml Spoons A teaspoon. Sugar - Or 10 ml of simple syrup
- 1 slice Orange
- 1 slice Lemon
- 2 berries Blackberry (optional)
- 1 sprig Mint sprig (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Fill a glass with crushed ice, add the sherry and sugar, and stir in the fruit.
Method
- Put the sugar in the bottom of a large glass with a splash of water and stir until it dissolves.
- Fill the glass to the brim with crushed ice.
- Pour over the sherry and stir for 20 seconds, until the outside of the glass frosts.
- Add the orange, lemon, berries and mint, and serve it with a straw and no apology.
Serve it
Sherry Cobbler
This was the most popular drink in America for most of the nineteenth century, and it is the reason cocktail bars started keeping straws: before the cobbler, there was no need for one. It survived the invention of the cocktail, the arrival of prohibition and the collapse of American sherry drinking, and it is now almost unknown, which makes it the best-value order in any bar that will make you one.
Getting it right
Crushed ice is the whole drink - it melts slowly, it holds the fruit up, and it is what turns a sweet wine into something bracing. Build it in a big glass, give it a proper stir rather than a cursory one, and use fruit that is actually ripe; the garnish is edible and meant to be eaten. Vary the sherry to taste: fino makes something delicate, amontillado something nuttier, and a cream sherry a full-blown pudding.
Tasting notes
Gentle, fruity and cold, somewhere between a sangria and a glass of iced tea, with the sherry's nutty flavour running underneath. It is the drink to make for a garden in July.