Bloodshot Cocktail – an eyeful of a recipe for Halloween terror

Have you ever faced a night of dread, fearing what you would feel when you woke in the morning? Well the Bloodshot cocktail can give you just such a night if you have too many, so keep a bleary eye on your drink tally. This recipe for disaster tastes so good and goes down so easily that it’s easy to over indulge (assuming that you like Cassis the way I do; my motto is “a Kir a day keeps the doctor away.”) Conceived in a fit of lust for Halloween blood and gore and perfected in a single evening of over-consumption, this watchful cocktail would scream in terror as it approached your glistening eye-teeth and greedy gullet if it only had a mouth. Do the humane thing and eat its bloodshot eye first so it can’t see what’s coming…

The Bloodshot is best served in a tall, narrow glass so you can skewer its weeping eyeball on a cocktail pick and perch it above the drink. My eyeballs (see photo) are constructed from a Maraschino cherry for the ball, and a half of a dried Montmorency cherry for the pupil (a whole dried cherry is a little too large, you could substitute a raisin). Split the Maraschino just enough to jam the pupil in and then skewer it. You will need to balance the eyeball so that it is either looking up or tilting toward the drinker, which is harder to do. There are other eyeball construction techniques on the web, just pick one that looks gross enough and be sure it looks good and red. Use you favorite mixed-drink vodka (Gordon’s is a steal at $10/bottle). Don’t go too cheap on the Crème de Cassis (unless you like the taste of cough syrup). In Utah, you will have to spend over $20 a bottle for Cartron to get something decent. If this cocktail doesn’t suit your Halloween taste, try a Corpse Reviver.

Bloodshot

1 ½ oz Vodka

¼ oz Crème de Cassis

1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice

Make and skewer an eyeball (see above). Add ingredients to a mixing glass half full of ice. Stir for as long as it would take for a blind zombie seeking eyeballs to chase you half a block. Strain into a shot glass (2 to 2 ½ oz) and perch the Bloodshot eyeball on top. Here’s looking at you, kid.