Black food colouring, part II (Bullseye and The Punisher, revisited)

With Domino and Wolverine (Logan) I used black colouring for the first time, today we”ll reach for that small bottle once again, but for totally different drinks… bitter/grim: that taste goes well with black colour. Let’s get started…

 

BULLSEYE

1 part tequila blanco

1 part Jägermeister

1 part energy drink (with taurine)

black food colouring

Stir with ice and strain into a shot glass.

Bullseye is a killer without a conscience, so his namesake drink should be pretty “dark-hearted”, too… energy drink’s taurine, with its bitter taste, works just fine with tequila and Jägermeister…

Oh, so many times I’ve bashed Jägermeister (eg. with Black Mamba), always whining how Cynar does everything better than Jäger (well, it simply does). Well, this time I started designing the drink with Jäger: if you like, you can test substituting 1 part Jägermeister with 0,5 part Cynar.

And of course the drink is a shot: Bullseye’s attacks are fierce and fast.

 

PUNISHER (FRANK CASTLE)

1 to 1,5 part cheap brandy

2 parts sweet red vermouth

4 parts energy drink (with taurine)

(dash of Fernet Branca)

black food colouring

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with some ice in it.

Another stone cold killer… but at least he has some of his soul left, buried in the deepest corners of his heart, hidden somewhere behind the kevlar vest…

I personally like my first version of The Punisher; some of my Test Subjects don’t agree with me, they argue that my theory of Amaretto-bitterness doesn’t work so well in that particular highball… if they think so, there must be more like-minded people out there.

So: here’s another version of The Punisher. Energy drink’s taurine, once again: giving bitterness, but also thematically reminding us that Castle never sleeps (at least it looks like it.)

Combining taurine with sweet red vermouth gives us a weird combination (for similar sensation please check out Cloak and Dagger ), which would be pretty bland… but brandy really turns it into something more fitting for the namesake character.  Please use cheap brandy with “stinging” taste, smoother brandy/cognac just gets lost into the taurine-vermouth-mixture.

Taurine’s bitterness should be given more “edge” with a dash of Fernet Branca: if the brandy you’re using has a very sharp taste (meaning: it’s really cheap) you might not need any Fernet… test it with/without to find your personal favourite.

(Finnish readers: try substituting “cheap brandy” with Good Ol’ Jaloviina 😀 )

 

So there it is, two more-or-less bitter cocktails for two more-or-less sane characters. Two posts before the end of month coming up, both of them giving you superhero cocktails suitable for New Year celebration 😀