A dreamy, whimsical and magical purple Halloween cocktail made with blackberry shimmery liqueur! Are you brave enough to drink The Witch's Heart?EASY - This recipe is very easy to make. But plan ahead to make the blackberry liqueur 1 week ahead of time. However, if you have a sous vide, this can be done in 2 hours.NOTE - The blackberry liqueur requires 1 week to infuse at room temperature. Or 2 hours with a sous vide.This recipe will make enough blackberry liqueur for 4 drinks. The cocktail recipe is for 2 drinks.
1.5fl ozapple juice44 mL, chilled (or you can use apple liqueur too)
1fl ozlemon juice30 mL
¾fl ozsimple syrupadjust to your taste (add more for a sweeter drink and less for a drink that isn't very sweet)
2tspgrenadine10 mL, 5 mL / 1 tsp per cocktail
Ice to chill the drink (make sure you have quite a bit of ice to quickly chill the drink).
Dry icefinely crushed (optional)
2Martini glasses to serve
Instructions
Blackberry shimmery liqueur
Place the vodka in a glass jar (with a tight fitting lid).
1 cup vodka
INFUSE IN THE FRIDGE - Add the blackberries to the vodka. Close the lid and let it infuse for up to 1 week in the fridge for best results (at minimum 3 days).
6 blackberries
INFUSE WITH SOUS VIDE - Set up your sous vide to 130°F / 54°C. Place the vodka and blackberries in a freezer / ziploc bag that has a tight seal. Close the bag using the water displacement technique. Submerge the bag in the sous vide and let it infuse for about 2 hours. Remove from the sous vide and allow to cool down before using / storage.
Strain the infused vodka into a different jar through a cheesecloth-lined sieve and discard the blackberries. DO NOT push the blackberries through the sieve. The vodka should be purple with good clarity (no cloudiness).
Add enough simple syrup to make it sweet to your liking. I prefer to add between ¼ - ⅓ cup per 1 cup of vodka.
¼ cup simple syrup
Add about ⅛ tsp (or even less) of the purple luster dust or pearl luster dust, and mix to combine. The liqueur should have a shimmer when stirred. Add another pinch (up to a total of ¼ tsp) if needed, but you shouldn't need to.
¼ tsp food grade purple luster dust
If you use purple luster dust, the liqueur should be purple in color. If you use pearl luster dust, the color might be a pinkish purple color. You can leave it as is, or add a couple of drops of purple food coloring to get a more deep purple color if desired (optional).
2 drops purple food color
Witch's heart cocktail
Add about ½ - 1 tsp of powdered dry ice to the bottom of the serving glass (optional). This is only needed if you want to create the smoky effect while pouring the drink.
Dry ice
Place the apple juice, lemon juice, purple shimmery liqueur, and simple syrup in a shaker. Add a generous amount of ice and shake for a few seconds to chill the drink. (Adding more ice will prevent the ice from melting and diluting the drink.) Add more simple syrup only if you prefer.
3 fl oz Homemade Blackberry Shimmery Liqueur, 1.5 fl oz apple juice, 1 fl oz lemon juice, ¾ fl oz simple syrup, Ice
Strain the drink into a martini glass.
2 Martini glasses to serve
Pour 1 tsp of grenadine syrup per drink, about an inch from the surface of the drink. The grenadine should sink to the bottom, creating a "bleeding" effect.
2 tsp grenadine
Add about ½ tsp of powdered dry ice on top and serve with a stirrer, so that your guests can stir the "potion" to create that shimmery, smoky effect.
Simple syrup is made by heating a 1:1 ratio (by weight) of water and sugar. 200 g water + 200 g sugar, heated gently until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool, and then you can use it in drinks.
NOTE ABOUT DRY ICE
ONLY ADD COMPLETELY CRUSHED DRY ICE. Dry ice is simply solid CO2 gas and it goes straight from solid to gas without a liquid phase in the middle (this is called sublimation). So the smoke effect you see here is the solid dry ice evaporating.Wait until the smoke effect stops, because then you know the dry ice has completely evaporated, and the drink is now completely safe to drink. Just crush the dry ice (to a powder). I buy pellets OR add the dry ice into an ice bag and crush it using an ice crushing mallet or similar tool. You can add a little to the bottom of your cocktail glass to give it that spooky, smoky effect when you pour the drink, and maybe add another touch of powdered dry ice after that for a smoky effect that lasts a bit longer.But you should NOT swallow or ingest bits of dry ice. Wait until the dry ice has completely evaporated. This happens fast, and it leaves no residue behind as it evaporates. The powdered dry ice evaporates even faster.And ALWAYS use gloves when handling dry ice. Never touch it with bare hands. Make sure dry ice is used in a ventilated space. Make sure the cocktails are used in an open setting to avoid CO2 build up.
Note about other shimmery liqueur options
If you do not have enough time to make blackberry shimmery liqueur (at least 3-4 days for the infusion step) but still want to make some magical cocktails for Halloween, scroll down to the bottom of this post to see a list of magical cocktails made with COLOR CHANGING spirits (which only need an overnight infusion).