Friday the 13th (Anton Arcane, Black Manta)

No, this post is not about certain masked killer in certain movie franchise; instead of that we’ll check out couple of fellas who truly bring bad luck upon others.

ARCANE

1 part coffee (let it cool down)

1 part orange juice

1 (or more) part red wine

Simple syrup, to taste

(vanilla extract, see below)

Build into a suitable glass. No ice, this is meant to be room temperature.

I decided to create red wine-based punch for this year’s Halloween party: I’ve had this red wine obsession for over a month now, unfortunately very few of those experiments are worth exploring further 😐

Anyway, this turned out to be okay Halloween punch: easy to make, no worrying about ice, and it looks yucky but it’s still pretty interesting. No, I didn’t say “delicious”, I said “interesting”… During the evening I realized this drink would make great Arcane Cocktail 🙂

Red wine and orange juice go well together, everyone knows that, but instead of turning it into a one more Sangria variant I wanted something mysterious and threatening… well, add some coffee: the whole shebang turns opaque, starts to look like a mixture of mire water and clotted blood…and naturally you gotta love the bitterness of coffee: of course you’ll need to add some sugar, but please don’t overdo it! Let the coffee “breath” through… if you can’t handle the aroma, dont drown it with simple syrup: add some vanilla extract instead.

By the way… Swamp Thing cocktails right here

BLACK MANTA

2 part Campari

1 part Kahlùa

2 parts vodka

2 parts extra dry vermouth

(black food colouring)

Shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with some ice in it. If you go with a black colouring, garnish with two red cocktail cherries 🙂

Coffee adds mystery and danger to Arcane The Cocktail; Kahlùa does that here. Campari and Martini are harsh combo, but luckily the sugar of Kahlùa softens it up a bit… and still there is a bottomless bitterness of David Hyde. The combination is a bit too tense, lets cut it down with neutral vodka.

I think it’s okay. Need some rhyming drinks? Aquaman, Mera and Ocean Master… enjoy. Unfortunately it looks like it’s going to be miserable rowanberry year here in Finland 😐

Next time: something less harsh.