The Thirteen Drinks of Halloween 2020 – Five

Now, that looks like a properly spooky drink for this fifth installment of The Thirteen Drinks of Halloween. Brats and ghouls of all kinds would be proud to be seen sipping this monstrosity at any of the more fashionable soirees this holiday season, and they would be right. This trifle of a drink is more fun than I expected. So, won’t you please join me now as we stand and make the Witch’s Brew.

You can probably guess from the unnatural hue of this drink that it features my old adversary, Midori. First of its name, Midori, ruiner of drinks, bringer of hangovers, primus drinkus of the discos and carrier of the Melon Liqueured banner. If you haven’t been reading along, these any months, I hate Midori. I have yet to find anything that I actually enjoy it in, or that I believe it makes better, but I am ever optimistic, and when you need something to be super green, well, it does excel at that. So let’s make this ultra simple excuse to have a melon hangover.

This is an equal parts cocktail so grab your tins and pop in 2 1/2 ounces of Midori melon liqueur and 2 1/2 ounces of fresh squeezed orange juice. You could probably use the carton stuff here, honestly you are mixing it with the worlds’ premier melon liqueur, so yeah, go crazy. Add some ice and shake those two ingredients very well, to the beat of “I Put a Spell on You“. Normally I’d go with the Annie Lennox version, but siri delivered up Nina Simone and well, damn, we are going with that one tonight. But you should check them both out, I mean, what else are you doing? When your tins are good and cold, double strain into a cocktail glass rimmed with black sand sugar. If you want to be extra cool, use a slice of lime to moisten the rim before you roll it in that sugar. It adds a nice sweet and sour thing. Last step is to top the drink with 2 1/2 ounces of lemon-lime soda, I went with Sprite, but I could not care less which lemon-lime soda you prefer. It’s just not something I am into,

Ok, that’s pretty good, for what it is. Sure it’s a sugar bomb, but look at it. It’s gorgeous. Well, it is at least until you take a sip and that black sugar begins to leave weird brownish stains down the glass. I don’t hate the midori in this. It works. Some recipes for this have you add the sprite preshake, but, I don’t like having carbonated things in the shaker and that effervescence is really what makes this one work for me, so do it my way.

Sure, it is a silly Midori drink, hardly any alcohol to speak of, which honestly makes it great for Halloween parties. If you are hosting, maybe the lower alcohol content will help keep anyone from trying to bang any Salvation Army drums. Are those even a thing? I thought they just rang bells. I’ve volunteered for that duty and they never gave me a drum, maybe they didn’t want me banging. I did fine with ringing that bell though. Sorry, wrong season. Anyway, this is a good drink for serving at your halloween party. They also make these cocktail glasses in unbreakable-ish plastic, hot tub or pool friendly versions, which would also be nice for your Halloween extravaganza, if breakage or pools or hot tubs are your thing.

This drink is lovely and striking and yeah, it is a good thing to foist upon unsuspecting guests. This would also work really well as a punch. Mix it up in the bowl, top with sprite and toss a piece of dry ice in there for the spooky fog and it’s chilling effect. You can throw some of that dry ice in the pool or hot tub too, that is always fun. They sell big bags of it at Publix, so go crazy, while following all the warnings and guidelines, cause dry ice doesn’t not care how you feel about it, it’s gonna bring the frostbite with nary a thought for your safety. Your on your own, kid. Stay safe, stay hydrated and stay spooky, my friends.