A Better Way to Build Cocktails

MUDDLING BOTANICALS for an upscale cocktail can be complicated, but Blossom & Barrel’s premium alcohol infusion bottles offer a gourmet shortcut—with a little patience required at the beginning. Simply add your spirit of choice to bottles prefilled with ingredients—dried fruits, flowers, chiles, simple syrup, edible glitter, and cacao nibs, for example—and wait a few weeks for your cherry citrus persimmon whiskey, lavender hibiscus gin, or another of the line’s 22 flavors, plus seasonal specials. “You really can’t do this wrong,” says Heather Perales, who started the Albuquerque-based company with her daughter, Brooke Perales, in 2024. “You can drink it straight, make a highball, add it to a cocktail. It’s about playful exploration.” The duo now sells at farmers’ and makers’ markets throughout New Mexico and ships nationwide, sourcing as many organic dehydrated and freeze-dried ingredients locally as possible. The longer the infusion rests, the better, making it ideal for occasional sippers and entertaining. “It’s great for parties when you don’t want to be mixing drinks the whole time,” Heather says. The aesthetically pleasing infusions are shelf-stable when made with alcohol and can also be made as mocktails with fruit juice or green tea, infused and stored in the refrigerator.