Beach Plum Gin Liqueur

Long Island's violet blue beach plums are an unyielding bunch—they remain bitter even after they're simmered in boiling sugar for jam, which is how they're usually eaten. But local distiller Greenhook Ginsmiths has found a way to tame the wild fruit. This cousin of sloe gin—England's time-honored buckthorn berry liqueur—is made by steeping beach plums in a bath of gin and cane sugar. The result is a balanced sweet-tart infusion that I mix with grapefruit juice, Angostura bitters, and soda for a newfangled fizz.