I need a drink.
And it’s comforting to know that upon reading those four words, what I estimate to be the majority of you thought some version of: Girl, I feel you.
This year has dealt us all more than our fair share of tricks. Now it’s October, and unless you use the Apple TV app, visit tv.apple.com or spend $92 on a used DVD (yes, really — I just checked), you can’t watch the G.D. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” I say keep the Twix bars and pass the bourbon.
Better yet, have both, because I’m putting my Frankenstein boot down.
2020 is not stealing our Halloween!
So, queue up Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” (available for free to Disney Plus subscribers or on Amazon Prime for a $2.99 rental or $9.99 purchase), slip on your custom fangs and bust out the bottles. Let’s put some spirits into this already spirited holiday, shall we?
Corpse Reviver No. 2
If the No. 2 thing is throwing you, it threw me, too. Turns out the Corpse Revivers are a family of cocktails, No. 2 being the most widely made/consumed and so named for its hair-of-the-dog properties, strong enough, supposedly, to wake the dead.
“It also works in reverse,” says Lisa Wilk, content creator behind TasteCookSip.com, a food-centric blog with a lot of Orlando-local love. Wilk mixed up a few batches last Halloween for a driveway soiree as the trick-or-treaters made their rounds. “It’s strong,” she says, with a laugh, “but it’s also really refreshing and so a great Halloween cocktail in places like Orlando, where it’s warm.”
The funky rambutan, which serves as the monstrously lashed eyeball garnish thanks to its bright husk, is easier to find than you might imagine, Wilk says.
“I got mine at Freshfields Farm in Orlando,” she says. “I’ve seen it at least twice this month, but you can also usually find them in the produce section of well-stocked Asian markets.”
Rambutan, a fruit native to Southeast Asia, is related to lychee and similar in both flavor and interior appearance, which makes it a great option for the eyeball.
“Use a knife to cut halfway, then pull the husk to reveal the white orb,” she instructs. “It’s similar to a peeled grape in texture. Scoop out divot on either end to place your blueberry pupil.” Note: there is a large, flat seed in the center of the fruit.
No rambutan? A small, cookie dough-scooped orb of dragon fruit can substitute. “Scoop out a small divot with a melon baller to make space for the blueberry.”
Ingredients
1 ounce gin (Empress 1908 recommended)
3/4 ounce Cocchi Americano or Lillet Blanc
3/4 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1 scant bar spoon of absinthe or pastis to rinse glass
Garnish: Rambutan and blueberry eyeball or classic lemon twist
Directions
Rinse coupe or martini glass with absinthe or pastis; set aside.
Combine remaining ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
Strain into prepared glass.
Garnish with eyeball or lemon twist.
Drink can also be poured as a sipper over ice in a tall glass with equal parts Pellegrino sparkling water. Add gin float if desired.
Smoked Old Fashioned with Apple and Cinnamon
If you’re checking out the pic and thinking, “Why don’t I have a smoking gun?” — I like the way you think.
Wilk uses one with cherrywood chips to add smoke to this sipper, “but there are other ways,” she notes.
Some local restaurants use a food-grade wood plank as a base, fire up a small pile of chips just adjacent and cover both with a glass dome.
“There are smoked bitters and smoked simple syrups available online,” she adds. “Or you could choose to make your own with Lapsang Souchong tea — Chinese black tea that is smoke-dried over a pinewood fire to attain that smoky flavor. All are delicious in their own way.”
Apple cider syrup
This recipe will yield more than you need. Save to add a little fall flavor to your favorite cocktails, iced or hot tea, cold brew coffee or ice cream (add diced apple).
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup water
3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean
Syrup directions
Bring water, cider and sugar to boil.
Add other ingredients.
Lower heat and simmer on low five minutes.
Cool and store in airtight mason jar.
Smoked Old Fashioned ingredients and supplies
2 ounces bourbon (Christner’s Maker’s Mark Private Select recommended)
1 ounce apple cider syrup (see recipe above)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1-2 slices Honeycrisp or other red apple
1 cinnamon stick
1 large ice cube
Smoking gun
Cherrywood chips
Ice for shaking/stirring
Smoked Old Fashioned directions
Cut one to two apple slices. Fill old fashioned glass with smoke, top with apple slice and cinnamon stick to seal in smoke and allow apple to absorb. Alternative: Turn old fashioned glass upside down and fill with smoke.
Add bourbon, syrup and bitters to cocktail shaker. Fill shaker with smoke. Add ice and close. Shake, then set aside, lid on.
Add ice cube to smoked cocktail glass, pour contents of shaker over ice. Taste. (If you prefer additional smokiness, refill glass with smoke and again, top with apple slice and cinnamon stick. Or cover entire drink with smoke-filled glass dome.
Add apple slice to finished cocktail and serve.
– Original Credit: Christina Thomas/GoEpcurista.com
– Original Source: Christina Thomas/GoEpcurista.com
Spooky Voodoo Rum Punch
“Pirate costumes are always my easy go-to for Halloween,” says Christina Thomas, founder of GoEpicurista.com and Orlando Magazine readers’ pick for Favorite Social Media Influencer and Local Blogger for four years running.
So is this Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired fruity rum punch.
“The blend of passion fruit and orange juices gives it a refreshing, sweet-tart flavor that’s dangerously easy to enjoy, especially in our Florida weather,” she says. “The black-sugar rim and dash of blood-red bitters give it the spooky look that’s so fun for Halloween.”
Thomas guarantees no one will walk the plank at your holiday gathering if this punch is the drink of choice.
Whether they can walk a straight line after a couple is another story entirely.
Ingredients
1.5 ounces light rum (Bacardi Superior recommended)
4 ounces passion fruit juice
1 ounce orange juice
Splash lemon-lime soda
1/2 ounce spiced rum floater (Bacardi Spiced recommended)
Dash Angostura bitters
Black sugar for rim (“You also can make it using white sugar and black food coloring,” says Thomas.)
Crushed ice
Directions
Add black sugar to shallow plate (or make it by combining 1/4-teaspoon black food coloring to 1 cup sugar. Use fork to mix until fully incorporated). Set aside.
Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add rum and juices. Shake until chilled.
Lightly wet glass rim by dipping in water or juice or rubbing circumference with citrus wedge. Dip in black sugar.
Carefully fill glass with crushed ice. Strain cocktail mix over ice to about 3/4 full.
Top with soda. Add spiced rum floater, if using.
Add bitters to look like blood droplets.
Serve and enjoy responsibly.
Note: “As a party time-saver, you can mix all ingredients, except the soda, in a carafe or punch bowl ahead of time,” says Thomas. “Then top with soda and a dash of bitters when serving in the sugar-rimmed glass.”
Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s new Facebook Forum, Let’s Eat, Orlando.
