Happy Halloween everyone! While 2020 has been nothing short of horrifying, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t raise a glass. Last year we celebrated with both Slimer and Dracula, and this year pays homage to another classic, Frankenstein.
Frankenstein the Movie (1931)
Before we get into the drink itself, I think it’s worth taking a minute to talk about Frankenstein, specifically Universal’s Frankenstein from 1931. This period of monster movies really laid the ground work for all sorts of tropes and themes in horror movies. If you’ve seen a mob scene or lot of crazy mad scientist laboratory equipment, you can trace some of the inspiration for the scene back to Frankenstein. The setting and feeling really capture the atmosphere of horror all with that classic feel of 30’s Hollywood. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely check it out if you get the chance, and James Rolfe of Cinemassacre really shines a light on some of the great elements of this series.
It’s also a bit of where the greenish color starts to creep into Frankenstein. While there’s of course creative license, some of it may have also been to pull out the greyish-yellow color described by Shelley. That said, so many people think of Frankenstein as green, and so this cocktail is green as well.
Frankenstein the Cocktail
Starting it’s life out as a Silver Fizz, our Frankenstein cocktail got stitched together with a Pineapple Margarita. What easily seems like it could have went wrong, ended up as an intriguingly refreshing and smooth cocktail.
Frankenstein has luxurious mouthfeel thanks to the foamy top, with a little extra hint of sweetness from the sugar rim. The drink itself is more ethereal and airy, popping with notes of tropical fruit, peppery spice, touches of exotic oranges, and just the slightest hint of vanilla and smoke. It’s more than a little mysterious and ready to give a zap of brightness to your live up your evening.
Drink Notes:
As this drink contains egg whites, make sure you shake for 20 – 30 seconds hard. Thanks to the foaming of both the pineapple and the egg white, you’ll get a nice rich froth if you’ve done it right. It will take a couple minutes for the drink to settle out, as you can see from the freshly poured version above.
- Tequila – We use blanco tequila here, and feel free to pick your favorite 100% agave brand. Our house crafting bottle right now is Olmecas Plata.
- Mezcal – This is an accent, looking for some of the smoke and herbal notes of the mad laboratory. For this recipe we used Del Maguey Vida which won’t break the bank. Treat a dash in this case as .04 oz.
- Licor 43 – This is a primarily vanilla forward liqueur which is quite sweet. It has some other notes of caramel and a hint of citrus or spice. At this time, I don’t recommend substituting any other liqueur in it’s place. Please also note, this is critical for the color balance at the end.
- Blue Curacao – While there are plenty of brands, our go to for all drinks is Giffard Blue Curacao.
- Pineapple Juice – You could juice your own, but Dole works just fine here. We use the small cans to minimize waste.
- Egg Whites – Use the freshest possible eggs. Make sure to not accidentally puncture the yolk (or you’ll be making a fizz).
- Saline Solution – Combine 5g of salt to 100g water. Shake to combine, use 3 drops. It will essentially keep forever, we like to keep ours in these pipette bottles*.
- Lime Juice – As always, use fresh squeezed.
- Sugar Rim – In this case we use plain white sugar. To rim, use the lime to wet the outside of the glass. Pour sugar on a plate, and then roll the edge of the glass through the sugar to stick.
- Club Soda – Make sure to chill your club soda first – it’ll result in less dilution. We use our generic grocery store brand for our cocktails. Date your club to remember when it was opened, and do not use flat club!
* – This is an affiliate link that we might get a commission from – it helps us to buy more bottles and experiment with more fun combinations. If you feel like supporting us, please click through and buy this or whatever you fancy.
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