Well, it’s nearly Halloween, and that means it’s time for one of the traditions here at Spiked Punch, the one where I drink a Warlock cocktail and turn into a zombie magician of sorts. Oh, the Warlock is a good drink, too, well worthy of your spooky celebrations, with brandy, Strega, limoncello, orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters. I can’t wait to drink it, consequences be darned. You should take the same stance this October.
This is the day before Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, everybody make a Warlock, drink it down till the neighbors gonna die of delight; it’s your drink, everybody scream, on the day before Halloween.
Okay, as you know, every year near Halloween I do three things – sing the above song, have a Warlock (made with brandy, Strega, limoncello, orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters), and turn into a zombie magician. This year is no different.
There are nights when inspiration hits like lightening, or like a very fast snake on the prowl, or like bowling ball dropped off a tall, tall building. On nights like that, you, if you’re like me, realize that if you subbed Ancho Reyes (the ancho chile liqueur, which I go much deeper into in the recipe for the Summer Near Puebla, if you missed it) for sweet vermouth in a Bobby Burns, you’d have a drink of genius. Of genius! Especially if you perhaps twisted the proportions just a little, and then added a dash of Peychaud’s bitters, and served it over a giant piece of ice. Double genius! Don’t believe me? Try the below recipe, as you watch for lightening, snakes, and falling bowling balls. After one sip, you’ll realize how lucky you are and forget all the rest of that stuff.
Oh, one thing. I used Speyburn 10 year old Scotch here. Its slight fruitiness and balance and friendliness make it a good match. It’s also not super expensive, so you won’t feel bad mixing it up with other powerful personalities.
The Bowling Roberto
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces Speyburn 10 Year Scotch
1/2 ounce Ancho Reyes ancho chile liqueur
1/2 ounce Bénédictine
1 dash Peychaud’s bitters
Big ice cubes (or a couple sorta big ice cubes)
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full of cracked ice. Add everything but the second piece of ice. Stir well.
2. Add a big piece of ice to an Old Fashioned or such glass. Strain the mix over the ice.
A classic cure for gastronomical distress, I’ve featured this favorite on the Spiked Punch blog before. But as it’s such a fine remedy for curing your post-holiday internal ills, and as one or two of you may have missed the earlier post, here it is again, starting your new year off in a fine, tasty, gut-happy way.
It’s Halloween, dontcha know. Which means it is time for the Warlock, and the Warlock video. The spookiest Halloween cocktail video ever. The scariest cocktail video period. Ever! Bwahahahahah.
Oh, also, it contains brandy, Strega, limoncello, orange juice, and Peychaud’s bitters. And will turn you into a zombie magician. So, there’s that, too.
Welcome back Brancamenta lovers! Wait, you say you don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, then go read my first post about the Brancamenta Mint Challenge (#brancamenta) and The Better Days cocktail. Neat, right? Remember in that post I said I made a second drink? Well, the Mint Meridian is that very drink.
But first, I realized I didn’t say much about Brancamenta in that earlier post, and maybe some folks still don’t know about it – which is a crying shame. It’s made from the same herb-and-spice set up as its older sibling, Fernet Branca, with the addition of Piedmontese peppermint oil. It’s super minty, a bit less of a digestif than Fernet Branca, and fantastic (I think) with soda over ice and in drinks. And it was inspired by opera singer Maria Callas. Neat, again, right? For my second ‘menta (I sometimes shorten it suchly) drink I wanted to hit the refreshing route more heavily, to help y’all out with summer. But I still wanted to get creative with it – hence building on another summer favorite, rum. Really!
The Mint Meridian
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
3/4 ounces Brancamenta
1/4 freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Chilled club soda
Mint sprig, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway up with ice cubes. Add the rum, Brancamenta, lemon juice, and bitters. Shake well.
2. Fill a highball or closely comparable glass up with ice cubes. Strain the mix from Step 1 into the glass.
3. Top with 3 ounces club soda. Stir. Garnish with the mint spring. Enjoy your afternoon.
I recently brought this back into the rotation – and couldn’t be smile-ier about it. I like it so much, I’m gonna quote myself:
I choose to believe there’s a hidden mystery by Dame Agatha (Christie, that is) called The Crimson Slippers, where mercurial and Belgian (not French) detective Hercule Poirot must solve the multiple murders (seems there’s almost always more than one) circling around two single clues: a pair of comfy slippers with a tiny bloodstain on the toe, and a cocktail glass containing the remains of a bitter-ish combination aglow with a deep red hue. Naturally, if there isn’t a yet-to-be-discovered Agatha manuscript with this title out there—perhaps in a trunk in the back corner of the attic in an English country house—then I guess you’re going to have to write that mystery. Once it’s an international publishing phenom, though, I’ll expect you to buy the next round.
So, you ever have those days when you lose a bunch of information about this or that (nothing that serious, but right annoying) and need a perfect drink to remind yourself that all is well in the dreamy and bright world. Turn to this lesser-known classic originally from a hotel of the same name in Louisville, KY. It won’t let you down, friends, in the least.
The Seelbach
1 ounce bourbon
1/2 ounce Cointreau
7 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
7 dashes Angostura bitters
Chilled brut Champagne or sparkling wine
Orange twist, for garnish
1. Pour the bourbon, Cointreau, and the two bitters into a flute glass. Stir briefly.
2. Fill the flute almost to the top with the chilled Champagne or sparkling wine. Stir again, but don’t get nutty about it. Garnish with the orange twist.
