Goth Cocktail Hour
Three goth cocktails for Halloween night, straight from our upcoming cocktail book. Each one named after a song, each with a B-side of music trivia.
We have a theory that you can tell everything about a person by what they order at 1am.
The vodka soda people want to be invisible. The espresso martini people have somewhere to be. And then there's us, the ones who ask the bartender what's dark, what's bitter, what's got a little smoke or a little sorrow in it. The ones who want a drink with a backstory.
That theory turned into a project. For the last few months we've been building a goth cocktail book: nineteen recipes, each named after a song you probably wore out on cassette, each with a B-side page of music trivia nobody asked for. It's coming soon. In the meantime, here are three recipes straight from the manuscript, picked for Halloween night.
Mix them for your party. Mix one for yourself while you hand out candy. Mix them at 1am and see what they say about you.
Dead Can Prance
Gold and glittering, until something dark moves through it.
- 0.75 oz elderflower liqueur
- 0.5 oz lemon juice
- 4 oz chilled champagne or cava
- 1 barspoon crème de cassis
- Lemon twist
Add elderflower and lemon to a flute. Top slowly with bubbles. Drop the cassis straight down the center and do not stir. Watch it tendril through the gold like smoke in a cathedral. Express the lemon twist over the top. Let it dance.
Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne in 1981 before moving to London and signing to 4AD. Lisa Gerrard often sings in a language of her own invention, which is the most goth thing a person can do with a voice.
Why it works on Halloween: It's the welcome drink. Pretty, festive, and then a little ominous once the cassis starts creeping. Make a tray of them and watch your guests lean in.
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Sour
A gloomy cloud you can drink. Foam like weather.
- 2 oz bourbon
- 0.75 oz lemon juice
- 0.75 oz simple syrup
- 1 egg white (or 1 oz aquafaba)
- Angostura bitters
Dry shake everything except the bitters, no ice, hard, for 15 seconds. Add ice and shake again until it's freezing. Strain into a coupe. Drag three drops of bitters across the foam with a toothpick, like tears that gave up halfway.
The Smiths' title is a wink at Sandie Shaw's 1960s hit "Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now." Morrissey adored her. That same spring, she released her own version of the Smiths' "Hand in Glove," with the band backing her.
Bartender tip: The dry shake (shaking without ice first) is the whole secret to a foam that holds. It lets the egg white whip up before the cold tightens everything. If your foam is sad, shake longer. If you're sad, shake longer anyway. It's cardio.
Nobody remembers the fourth vodka cranberry.
Peek-A-Booze
The reveal is the ritual. And it isn't finished with you yet.
- 2 oz mezcal
- 0.75 oz lime juice
- 0.5 oz agave syrup
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 1 large ice cube with a raspberry frozen inside
- Optional: a smoke dome or a torched cinnamon stick
Freeze the raspberry into the cube the night before. Shake the mezcal, lime, agave, and bitters with ice. Strain into a rocks glass over the raspberry cube. If you have the gear, cover the glass and trap cinnamon smoke inside. Lift the lid at the table. Then wait. As the cube melts, the drink slowly blushes pink from the inside out. Now you see it. Now you see more.
Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Peek-a-Boo" (1988) is built on backwards tape loops and a squeezebox, and it went to number one on Billboard's brand new Modern Rock chart, the very first song ever to top it. A goth band won the first race. Never let anyone tell you we can't have nice things.
Why it works on Halloween: Theater. Nobody remembers the fourth vodka cranberry. Everyone remembers the drink that changed color in front of them.
How to Throw a Goth Cocktail Hour
You don't need a home bar that looks like a speakeasy. You need three things:
One signature drink, batched
Pick the Dead Can Prance for a crowd. It's built in the glass, no shaker required.
One showpiece
Make the Peek-A-Booze for whoever looks like they need a moment. Let the room watch.
The right soundtrack
Our deep-cuts goth Halloween playlist is right here on the blog. Play it loud, then quieter as the night goes on.
And please, a pitcher of water and something salty on the table. The witching hour is long. Pace yourself, darling.
Want the Other Sixteen?
The full book has nineteen drinks, from a Manhattan with a dark streak to a martini that gets the truth out of people. The newsletter crowd hears about it first, with early access when it drops.
Set the Bar
Coasters, candles and a little drama for the coffee table.
Please drink responsibly, and only if you're of legal drinking age where you live.