Looking for a festive yet delicious cocktail this Halloween? We’ve got your covered — right down to the floating eyeball.
Pisco: A Bewitching Beverage
If you haven’t ever tried pisco, consider this your sign to start perusing your local liquor stores! It shouldn’t be too hard to find this bewitching beverage… it’s been around since the 16th century. (Which happens to line up with the beginnings of witch hysteria. Spooky coincidence? We think not!)
So, what makes pisco such a hauntingly fabulous beverage? Although it’s technically a brandy because it’s distilled from fermented grape juice, that’s where most of the similarities end. It’s a slightly sweet, smooth liquor that has earned the top distinction as the national drink of Peru — and a favorite of bartenders because of its unique versatility. Some people even liken the flavor to tequila because of the earthy, herbal notes.
Dressing Up the Classic Pisco Sour
The most common way to drink this liquor is in a variation of the ubiquitous whiskey sour called — you guessed it — a pisco sour. The original Peruvian pisco sour is served up with egg whites, simple syrup, bitters, and fresh lime juice, but you’ll occasionally see it mixed up with lemons or key limes as well.
For our Halloween version, we deviated from the original pisco cocktail by swapping the limes and simple syrup for lemon and lavender — these two flavors play nicely together, and the final drink has a beautiful purple hue, which makes a spectacular potion… ahem, cocktail.
How to Make Saltsy’s Halloween Lavender Pisco Sour
Ingredients
- 2 ounces pisco liquor
- 1 egg white
- 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
- 1 ounce lavender syrup
- ice
- For garnish: Halloween sprinkles or colored sugar; one lychee berry; one blueberry
Steps
- Combine pisco, egg white, lemon juice, and lavender syrup in a cocktail shaker.
- “Dry shake” these ingredients — this will froth your egg and help you achieve a foamy texture.
- Once you’ve aggressively shaken the dry concoction, pause and add ice to the shaker.
- Resume shaking.
- Strain and serve into a chilled (optional) coupe glass.
- The last step is a floating eyeball garnish!
The Secret Behind the Spooky Garnish
We rimmed our glass in Halloween sprinkles to make it a little more eye-catching (pun very-much intended). For the floating eye garnish, we popped a blueberry into a lychee berry and used a cocktail pick to hold them together. (You can read more about lychees and where to get them on our blog here.)
We wanted our floating eye to have a slightly less-creepy-vibe, but if you want to add a touch of gore to your garnish, place a little strawberry or raspberry jam inside the lychee before you insert the blueberry. The red will seep into and through the crevices of the lychee and up the spooky-factor of your eyeball!
Are you making any ghoulish beverages or bites this Halloween? Tag us in your spooky creations — we love seeing your Halloween holiday celebrations!