I love my summer drinks. While I adore a wintry evening of s’mores and bourbon neat, there’s nothing quite like experimenting with fizzy, fruit-muddled summer treats to cool you off.

Over the next few Fridays of summer, I decided to try a couple that I had never had before (in between my gin rickeys, of course)

The first is a blackberry gin fizz, courtesy smitten kitchen:

This is the only photo I got of it because I drank it extremely fast. If you want to see some breathtaking photos, check out the link.

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Here’s the recipe, via Smitten Kitchen:

1/4 cup fresh blackberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (4 liquid ounces or just shy of 3 shots) gin
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from two juicy limes)
Club soda
2 sprigs sweet basil or 2 thin lime wedges (for garnish)

Purée blackberries and sugar in a blender until as liquefied as possible. Strain purée through a fine-mesh sieve or tea strainer into two tall or collins-style glasses; discard seeds in sieve. Divide gin and lime juice between glasses and stir to combine. Add ice to glasses then top each with soda and a sprig of basil or wedge of lime. (Might need another quick stir to combine.) Share with someone you like.

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A couple notes about this drink: I am not big on fruity cocktails because they have so much sugar in them. This one you can control the amount of sugar (which isn’t too much to start with), and add a little more blackberries, knowing that will make it a little more tasty and fruity.

How do you cool off with drinks in the summer? Coldest water you can stand? Melted popsicles?