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Celebrated on the last day of October, Halloween is a fun carnival designed to imitate visits to our world by the spirits of the dead and various other evil spirits. Ever since the time of the ancient Celts who lived in the British Isles, this holiday, which marked the end of the agricultural year, was accompanied by the drinking of specially prepared ritual drinks.
Today’s lovers of Halloween fun, often forgetting the traditional Celtic recipes, invent more and more new drinks that allow you to relax at a friendly party and at the same time correspond to the spirit of this unusual holiday.
Thus, when preparing for Halloween, it is important to know not only what people drank on this day hundreds and even thousands of years ago, but also how to create something new.
The essence of the holiday and its traditions
Once the celebration of Halloween, among other things, was associated with the end of the harvest of apples. Therefore, it is not surprising that the only traditional Halloween drink known to us – lembswool – is prepared on the basis of baked apples and apple cider. Whole or crushed baked apples, placed in a punch bowl, are poured with warmed cider (in a non-alcoholic version – ginger ale), flavored with sugar and various spices, and in this form are served at the festive table.
Since, with the light hand of Americans, a pumpkin has become an invariable attribute and symbol of Halloween, from which frightening Jack-o’-lanterns are carved everywhere, pumpkin juice (for children) and Pumpkin Martini (for adults) were among the popular drinks for this holiday.
By the way, before Halloween traditions, along with Scottish and Irish settlers, migrated across the ocean, turnips were a traditional material for making frightening-looking lanterns, designed to drive away evil spirits and show the souls of the dead the way to purgatory. According to an Irish legend, it was from her that the cunning and drunkard, the blacksmith Jack, who managed to circle the master of the underworld himself around his finger, cut out a lamp in which he hid a particle of hellish flame, in the vain hope of finding by its light the path leading from hell to paradise.
But back to drinks made from pumpkin, which once and for all replaced the less spectacular and more expensive turnip. Tasty and healthy pumpkin juice can be served both in pure form and mixed with carrot or apple juice. As for the Halloween martini, this drink is based on pumpkin and cream liqueurs, as well as vanilla vodka, although some lovers of this drink replace vodka with spiced rum, and pumpkin liqueur with raw pumpkin puree.
What cocktails to make on Halloween
Given the creepy-mystical surroundings of Halloween, the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks offered to guests should generate a cheerful fright. This result can be easily achieved by using various kinds of visual effects: giving drinks an ominous color, equipping them with various gothic decorations, or creating other impressive visual images.
So, during the celebration of Halloween, blood-red mixes and cocktails are especially popular. To do this, you should stock up on the appropriate ingredients. The first place among them is occupied by red juices: cranberry, raspberry, strawberry, tomato, etc. They are perfect for creating both “adult” and “children’s” drinks. It all depends on the presence or absence of alcohol in them. Also, in order to achieve a “bloody” effect, you can use rich varieties of red wine or liqueurs of the appropriate shade.
In addition, it is worth using drinks of other colors that help create a slightly frightening or simply mysterious atmosphere. First of all, we are talking about a special English black vodka. The unusual color of the drink is achieved by adding catechu acacia extract, which grows in India and Burma. The use of this dark, greenish-bluish infernal drink in layered cocktails will no doubt impress your guests. Yes, and the use of this vodka in the preparation of “Bloody Mary” or “Screwdriver” will have an equally stunning effect.
Other dark brown and black drinks also contribute to the Halloween color scheme: a range of brandies, whiskeys, rums, balms and tinctures. Of particular note is absinthe, which not only has a sinister reputation on its own, but when mixed with water takes on a mysterious misty greenish hue.
How to Serve Halloween Cocktails
Speaking about the serving of drinks, first of all, it is worth dwelling on various jelly dirty tricks produced specifically on the eve of the holiday. Jelly spiders, worms, slugs, cockroaches will look funny on the rim of drinks glasses or even in cocktails themselves. Especially effective in this case will be strung on cocktail skewers or jelly eyes placed on the bottom of the glass.
Some folk craftsmen go even further and create a frightening jelly frozen hand on their own. The boiled mixture of gelatin and some sweet or sour-sweet juice (or juices) is poured into a glove thoroughly washed and turned inside out, which is tied and placed in the freezer. Further, the festive accessory is removed from the freezer immediately before use and, after cutting off the glove, is dipped into the punch bowl. Moreover, this is done in such a way that the fingers and part of the brush are above the level of the drink.
In addition, Halloween drink glasses can be equipped with impressive blood streaks. To do this, their edges need to be dipped in a jelly mass of red juice that is starting to solidify, and then pulled out, quickly turned over and put in the refrigerator, where they will wait for the party to start.
Also, especially risky hosts of the Halloween feast throw plastic skeletons, bones and skulls into glasses with opaque drinks. At the same time, the “surprise” should not be too small so that it is not accidentally swallowed.
With a little imagination with the laws of physics, you can use other fun visual effects. For example, using a cocktail tube, inject a little Baileys or other cream liqueur into a container with a strong, clear alcoholic drink; as a result, the liquor curdled into balls will look like brains in alcohol. Or, before pouring vodka or gin into a glass or shot, drop a few drops of grenadine syrup to the bottom, thereby giving the drink unambiguous vampire associations.
Witch Potion
Well, it can be considered aerobatics to make your alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink look like a witch’s potion.
To do this, it is advisable to first smoke a capacious vessel intended for mixing a cocktail for the whole company, giving it the appearance of a canonical witch’s cauldron, and then, before pouring the necessary ingredients into it (pineapple or citrus juice, rum, vodka, or both, and third), several pieces of dry ice should be placed on the bottom.
As a result, the broth you served will bubble up like a real sinister witchcraft brew. For greater caution, you can theatrically interfere with the potion with a stick from a fake broom or throw a handful of jelly evil spirits there. The main thing is not to touch dry ice in any case, otherwise you risk earning not fake, but the most real burn.
Halloween is a great occasion to show imagination and ingenuity. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the most unexpected ingredients. And finally, don’t forget to come up with some suitable, creepy names for your infernal creations.
Relevance: 30.10.2015
Tags: Tips and life hacks