** This post is sponsored by Babbleboxx on behalf of Sugarlands Distilling Company**
Hello Babes!
I’m back y’all haha! And I’m partnering with Sugarlands Distilling Company for a special collaboration. I am so excited to tell you all about this distillery that produces award winning spirits. They are located just outside the great Smoky Mountains in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It is a full service distillery and entertainment venue. If you ever get to visit there you can sample the cocktails and listen to great local live music. Somebody book my ticket already!
A fun fact I found about this company is that they have teamed up with some Moonshiners Legends that are featured on the Discovery Channel show, Moonshiners. I have to admit I haven’t seen the show yet, but after trying the mixers I sure will!
For this post I created two cocktails to try both the Piña Colada shine (70 proof, yes that’s right 70— no this is not for the faint of heart) and the Blockader’s Blackberry Moonshine (40 proof). So get ready!!
First, the Piña Colada shine combines the taste of fresh pineapple and coconut milk. It smells just like a tropical vacay!
This was the pre-prep set up. I will have the complete recipe down at the end of the post, but I will show you a step by step pic tutorial first. This cocktail is best made with a blender instead of using a cocktail shaker.
Ok here we go! First pour into the blender the Piña Colada mixer.
Then I added pineapple juice and a few chunks of fresh pineapple to thicken the cocktail too. I added fresh coconut cream, like a Coco Lopez made for these types of drinks. And a cupful of chipped ice into the blender. Voilá! Blend away!
I think the most fun is decorating the cocktails, well ok, the most is drinking them lol.
The second cocktail was made with the Blackberry mixer, called Blockader’s Blackberry. This mixer mixes the flavorful berries with lavender and honeysuckle.
Now the grapefruit is pictured here because it was a last second decision to either go with a lemonade base or the grapefruit. I let my friend Karin choose since she was shooting the photos for this post haha. It was the least I could do is pay in her cocktails!!
So I began by cooking down the fresh blackberries and a few strawberries. Here let me show you what I mean.
Now I must apologize for these pictures I look like I’m giggling a lot, but this cocktail was shot AFTER drinking the Piña Colada cocktail haha!
Add one teaspoon of raw granulated sugar and a splash of Grand Marnier or Southern Comfort to boil this down. I also mixed in about 1/4 cup cup of water slowly when needed to create the fruit mixture.
Oh by the way this smelled so good!
Lastly I added a little orange juice to the mixture.
Finally it was time to grab the Blockader’s Blackberry shine and pour it into a cocktail shaker.
Then strain the berry mixture through a hand colander
Squeeze one whole lemon into the cocktail eliminating the seeds of course.
Prepare to shake!! (Now this next photo is a total IG photo, meaning that in true Marisol fashion I screwed up and poured the club soda into the shaker and the top popped off with the pressure and sprayed all over my floor and me!! So moral of the story is NEVER pour a carbonated drink into a cocktail shaker—you wait and pour into the glass directly haha!).
A bit more of fresh lemon to top it off! AND then add the Club Soda. Use a swizzle stick to mix again gently.
Garnish with rosemary and blackberries. I rinsed off the rosemary well and rolled it in damp paper towel to release the oils from the herb.
So if you decide to try these mixers let me know. They are SO good! I’m a new fan and cannot wait to try some of the others. I will have the recipe down below for you to try my little creations for yourself.
But first since this is technically a fashion blog here is the link to my dress, which is now on sale and comes in four colors total:
Dress: HERE (on sale now!)
Lipgloss: No7 ( under $10)
Now for the cocktails, here are my rough recipes, you see when I cook and make cocktails I do so by, well, winging it. Usually, everything turns out pretty good, but like my Mom I never follow a recipe well or ever repeat the same thing twice. So please adjust to your taste. Now this is for 2 cocktails each time. Here we go:
Mixers: Sugarlands Distilling Company
Marisol’s Summer Piña Colada
4 oz of Sugarlands Piña Colada Shine
4 oz of pineapple juice
3/4 cup of fresh pineapple chunks
2 oz of Coco Lopez cream
1 cup of chipped ice
Blend
Garnish with fresh pineapple, orange slice and maraschino cherry
Blackberry Rosemary Lemonade
4 oz of Sugarlands Blockader’s Blackberry Shine
2 whole fresh lemons
1 cup of blackberries and 4 strawberries to cook down (berry mix)
Grand Marnier or Southern Comfort (splash)–into berry mix
Sugar in the Raw (one teaspoon)–into berry mix
Orange Juice (two teaspoons)–into berry mix
Rosemary sprigs
Zest of an orange
Club Soda (as a topper approx 1-2 oz per glass)
I hope that you enjoyed my post. Leave me a comment if you’ve ever tried these mixers or will!
