Talk of Tomatoes | it's that BOOtiful time of year again.

it's that BOOtiful time of year again.

1644852098 5051f35b531 it's that BOOtiful time of year again. It is that time of year again, and I don’t mean the time for Christmas songs or raking leaves, not the time that the mittens come out or the hot chocolate is stocked. For me, this time of year has quite another flirtatiously nostalgic meaning: Halloween Cocktails.

It is this enchanting time of year when I don the imaginary witches’ hat (okay, maybe not so imaginary, since I do own a few…) and begin brewing and stirring and cackling while I drop a bit of this and a splash of that into libations and concoctions of a mysterious kind.

Last year was all about the Purple People Eater—a cocktail that was as sweet as a jolly rancher and went down like kids’ koolaid. Lots of jolliness accompanied that one. Oh and I made a special point to stir a ghost into oblivion; I called this misshapen white cocktail the Liquefied Ghost. Half the fun is naming them, after all. What’s the other half? Brewing them and handing them to suspicious onlookers.

This year I have been working on a special concoction, something spooky and sour, sassy and smart. I imagine a spider hissing and flailing until it wilts into the bottom of my glass. Sunken Spider. Drunken Spider. Smashed Spider. Black Widow. Wilted Widow. What to call this spooky Halloween drink? The jury is out: did the spider sink because it is past its prime or because it primed the pump? Is this scary spider dead or drunk? Either way, with legs dangling over the sides, it leaves much to be desired. And so it goes with haunting libations.

I need your help: what would you call this drink? One of the names listed above or another? Black Widow is a placeholder, a temporary name for this laughably leggy drink:

Black Widow
Cream de Cassis
Vodka
triple sec
fresh lemon juice
Pomegranate juice
licorice strings

For two cocktails (or one cocktail shaker): 2 parts cassis, 3 parts vodka, 1 part triple sec, 1 part lemon juice, 1 part pomegranate. Sorry, even though I bought a little measuring glass for shots, I never seem to use it. I make cocktails with ratios. If I were over my skillet, each ‘part’ would translate to a ‘glugg’ of olive oil. Just think in fractions: for the Black Widow, your shaker is 8 parts. Go from there. Too much of this, too little of that: trust me, the spider really won’t care one way or another.

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Savvy Housekeeping » Halloween Cocktails said (16 October 2008 at 11:07 am):

[...] Talk of Tomatoes: “For two cocktails (or one cocktail shaker): 2 parts cassis, 3 parts vodka, 1 part triple [...]

janelle said (21 October 2008 at 9:37 am):

Karen: it is evil:)))

Aria: it is creepy! I love that!

Savvy: thanks for the pingback; how fun!

Beck: nice, I like it… now what to put in it:))). Something spicy, with an unexpected kick.

El Invernadero Radio: love being included, thanks!

Blogging Halloween Part I | allJnD said (28 October 2008 at 11:56 pm):

[...] Halloween dish. (via Shopping Blog) Gizmodo has a post about how to build a 3D Lego Pumpkin. The Black Widow looks like a delicious, creepy cocktail. A longer list of Halloween drinks is available here at [...]

Un festin de ghoules! said (30 October 2008 at 5:06 am):

[...] je vous conseil ces deux articles sur le site du magazine Real Simple. On devait aussi faire cette superbe veuve noire… mais on n’a pas trouvé de [...]

Bayudworx Bloginhouse » Bayudworx Bloginhouse said (2 November 2008 at 12:09 am):

[...] Black Widow looks like a delicious, creepy cocktail. A longer list of Halloween drinks is available here at [...]

Cat said (21 August 2011 at 12:17 am):

Black widow – definetely! Everyone will know that this black somethin is not dead, evil and by the way as huge as it seems to be! I think about givin it a try on a bachelorette’s next month…

janelle (author) said (12 October 2011 at 2:37 pm):

Halloweenie: wow cannot believe I didn’t mention that!? black licorice! Just out of the bulk section at my grocery store! They were the black licorice ‘spirals’ they are circles of licorice that you unravel. So the spider is just 6 sections of the licorice unwound a bit and hanging over the edge. I may have dropped the center/inner circle into the bottom of the glass for the spider body;). You would be surprised at the ideas you can come up with just by checking out the bulk candy bins;).

Halloween Party Ideas & GIVEAWAY | Talk of Tomatoes said (19 October 2011 at 4:59 pm):

[...] Black Widow (this drink looks the part, with hairy legs—aka black unfurled licorice strings—dangling over the sides) [...]

Talk of Tomatoes | blackberry lemon drops said (4 December 2011 at 5:01 pm):

[...] I made these recently. They might be bursting with summer flavors, but the deep reddish hue screams of fall/winter. Besides, you can make it with frozen blackberries and perhaps with a sprig of rosemary—or floating cranberries—it will look just like Christmas. For Halloween I made these in a large batch, put 1-2 drops of black food coloring to darken it—added licorice legs that hung over the martini’s edge—and it became the signature ‘Drunken Spider.’ [...]