The Witching Hour
I love Halloween because, more than any other holiday, it gives us an excuse to be unapologetically imaginative through costumes, décor, food and drinks. I’ve particularly enjoyed parties with some sort of theme and cannot wait to see what my friends do for this year’s suggestion: 90s and early 2000s musicians. Can you guess who I’ll be dressing as?
One of my big goals with holiday drinks is to capture the mood without relying on gimmicks. I wanted this year’s Halloween cocktail to be mysterious and enchanting, perhaps even eerie. Everything clicked when I fortuitously stumbled upon this cloche at Target.
A few years ago, I got my hands on a smoking gun, but I struggled with devising an elegant process for smoking my cocktails. My typical solution was to cover a mixing glass with plastic wrap and squeeze in the smoking gun nozzle. That worked fine for flavor but didn’t quite do the aesthetic of the smoke justice. If you’re going to use a smoking gun, it’s fun to get as extra as possible. This cloche was the perfect find because it has a caned bottom which can allow the smoke in when the cloche is slid slightly off the side of a surface. Once the desired amount of smoke fills the cloche, it can be moved back entirely onto the surface to trap the smoke for as long as you wish. When you’re not using it for cocktails you could use it to trap in humidity for a picky plant or, as a friend suggested, protect your plants from your cat!
Having found this fun new toy, I decided to play with witchcraft imagery and channel my inner sorceress. I thought it would be fitting to create a deep red cocktail with hints of exotic spice and so The Witching Hour was born. Pomegranate juice served as the perfect base ingredient to give me both the color and depth of flavor I was looking for. When looking for pomegranate juice at the store, try to get one that doesn’t have any additives and is not from concentrate – the flavor will be much more potent, and the natural tartness of the juice will save you from having to add citrus for balance. I typically use this one, which you should be able to find in the unrefrigerated juice aisle or natural foods section.
I chose cardamom as my exotic spice because I adore that it’s both warming and fresh at the same time. It’s easy to incorporate as a simple syrup, and the syrup works for multiple uses (seriously, try it in your latte). To build more of a spice profile, I added some orange bitters and used rye whiskey as the spirit. Heaven’s Door shared some of their Straight Rye Whiskey with me recently, and I’ve really enjoyed mixing with it. Somehow it manages to be simultaneously smooth and spicy which worked very nicely in this cocktail.
The resulting drink is tart, full-bodied and intriguingly spiced with the intoxicating aroma of sweet applewood smoke. It’s fairly straight-forward to make (other than the smoke) but so interesting in flavor profile and friendly for batching. If you don’t have a smoking gun, consider presenting it with dry ice (you should be able to find some at a local grocery store). Just be sure to allow the dry ice to entirely dissolve before consuming the drink.
The Witching Hour
1.5 oz rye whiskey
1.5 oz pomegranate juice
0.75 oz cardamom syrup*
10 drops orange bitters
To make cocktail, shake all ingredients vigorously with ice until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. If smoking, cover the cocktail and fill the enclosure with applewood smoke. Wait for 2-3 minutes, then remove the enclosure and serve immediately, cackling over your impressive show of sorcery.
*To make syrup, bring 1 cup of water to a simmer, then add 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp cardamom seeds. Allow to steep for 10 minutes, then strain and allow to cool. Store excess in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography.