Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: orange juice

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Learn the Trick of Making this Beautiful Hallowtini Cocktail and Win a Treat from Cleo Coyle #Halloween #Giveaway

Behold our Hallowtini cocktail,
orange-and-black "spirits"
for your Halloween!

🎃 My husband and I have always enjoyed Halloween. Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, we took our trick or treating seriously--creating the costume, carving the pumpkin, tallying up the candy haul. One year my "flower child" costume even won a little award at a local parade.

Fast forward a few years. We met in New York City got married, started writing books together, and we still love Halloween. Here in New York, the celebration has become global. The Greenwich Village Halloween Parade is the largest in the world with over 50 bands and hundreds of giant puppets. Attending it is on many lists of “100 things to do before you die," and we have to agree. Everyone is so happy at this event. It’s a big, friendly party in the streets, New York's own orange-and-black Carnival. If you've never attended, we'll take you there right now...

Click the arrow in the window below to
view a fun video from a past parade…

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If you don't see a video above, you can watch it by clicking here.
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A local puppeteer started the parade back in the 1970s, and many of the costumes are still handmade by fine artists. My husband and I love it so much we even wrote the parade into the climax of our 5th Coffeehouse Mystery, Decaffeinated Corpse (our globetrotting coffee hunter Matt Allegro dresses as Zorro, and his eccentric octogenarian mother is The Queen of Hearts).

Cleo Coyle's 5th Coffeehouse Mystery,
Decaffeinated Corpse, features a climax
at the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade!
To learn more or buy, click here.

Now we’d like to help you get into the “spirit” of Halloween by sharing a recipe for a beautiful orange-and-black cocktail we call the Hallowtini...

🎃

Cleo Coyle has a partner in

crime-writing—her husband.

Learn about their books

by clicking here or here.

A Note from Cleo

Layering drinks is a surprisingly easy skill to master. (And it's fun, too.) Read this recipe for great tips on how to layer cocktails. At the end, we'll include links to more layered drink ideas for you to try...just in time for the "spirits" of Halloween and the upcoming holiday season.

And be sure to leave a comment on this post to be entered in our Halloween giveaway (more info below)...

May you drink with joy!
☕ ~ Cleo, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

How to Make
Cleo's Hallowtini

Ingredients:

Vodka*
Black Food Coloring (or Black Rice)
Orange juice

*Black vodka is commercially available if you'd rather not color your clear vodka black with food coloring. Simply click here to see the Blavod brand.

Directions: The fastest and easiest way to color your vodka (or other clear alcohols like gin) is with black food coloring. We recommend McCormick's brand (pictured below), which worked well for us. Only a few drops did the trick...

Or Black Rice or (Black Tea?) Infusion!

(I have to admit, I have not tried this method, but I'm happy to pass on my research if you'd like to experiment...) Another method some have used to make black vodka is to pour a bottle of vodka into a container with black rice (1 to 2 cups per bottle of vodka). Allow it to sit for three days and shake it up every day. After the vodka is infused, strain out the rice and re-bottle the vodka. I did try black tea and ground coffee infusions, but neither produced black vodka--dark brown was the best it got and once layered onto the OJ, it looked even lighter. For black results, food coloring was the best result, or...

Again, if you missed this note above: *Black vodka is commercially available if you'd rather not color your clear vodka black. Simply click here to see the Blavod brand.

Now Layer Your Drink...

Once you color your vodka, you can build your drink. A layered drink like this works because orange juice has a heavier density than vodka. If you pour the right way, the vodka will "float" on top of the OJ. The trick is in the pour, and we'll show you how to do this, step by step...

Step 1: Pour the orange juice into a martini glass or other decorative glass. Create a nice, visible layer.

Step 2: After coloring your vodka (or gin) black, measure out the amount you'd like to use in your drink and place it into a shot glass or other glass that will be easy to pour from...

Step 3: Pick up the martini glass and tip it slightly. Rest the edge of the vodka glass against the rim of the martini glass. Now very slowly pour the vodka down the side of the martini glass.

This is the key to the pour. You are not pouring into the orange juice. Focus on pouring down the side of the glass, very slowly, and you will create a layered drink...

All together now...

And here are more ways to practice your new skill

at layering drinks for the holiday season...

MORE LAYERED DRINKS...

CLICK HERE for these
beautiful dessert drink recipes.

An elegant end to any dinner,
these sweet, dessert digestifs
can be served alone or
with coffee or espresso.