Early last month, I had the opportunity to test out some prototypes of beautiful, handmade wooden muddlers created by the Los Angeles-based wood-working husband and wife dream team behind The Wooden Palate, Ryan Silverman and Eileen O’Dea. After some slight adjustments, these stunning muddlers are up on their site and ready to muddle all of your cocktails in the most gorgeous way possible. These pieces really are usable art. I recently got my hands on the final product when I visited Ryan and Eileen at their massive wood shop in the Gardena neighborhood of LA.

During my visit, I was able to see their craft first hand, peek into future projects, and witness firsthand Ryan’s love for Clase Azul Tequila! So much so, that they’ve amassed quite the collection of the beautiful reposado bottles over the years. Clase Azul, a gold medal winning tequila, is made in Jalisco, Mexico with 100% organic blue agave, harvested after at least nine years to achieve optimal flavor, aged for a minimum of eight months in oak barrels and distilled in copper pot stills. It is then filtered three times to smooth everything out. The resulting product is complex yet extremely smooth and approachable – worthy of the kind of cult-like following they’ve gained through the years. The Clase Azul ceramic decanters are hand-crafted and hand-painted in Mexico by local artisans. Like The Wooden Palate’s products, each one of these bottles is useful AND a piece of art! Who could toss these beauties away after they’ve been cleaned out?

This wall of bottles made for gorgeous backdrop (and inspiration!) for our cocktail of the day: The Blackberry Basil Tequila Cobbler.

Blackberry Basil Tequila Cobbler

2 oz Tequila

1/2 oz Amontillado Sherry

7 fresh basil leaves + more for garnish

3/4 fresh lime juice

6 ripe blackberries (1/2 for garnish)

1/2 ounce agave syrup
soda water

Directions:
Muddle blackberries, basil, lime juice and agave in a mixing glass. Add tequila and sherry, gently stir. Add ice and stir again. Fill rocks glass with crushed ice and strain cocktail into glass. Top with a splash of soda water and stir. Add more crushed ice, basil and blackberries for garnish.

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