Now you can make your own homemade flavored shimmer liqueur! Check out my video and recipes for 5 fruit / herb flavored liqueurs and the recipe for homemade Viniq. For more fun Halloween cocktails, check out this witches brew, hocus pocus cocktail, unicorn blood cocktail, and flaming dragon’s blood cocktail! I created this original recipe for The Witch’s Heart cocktail back in 2015! Since then, a viral video and many Halloweens later, this is one of the most popular Halloween cocktails on the internet. Many hundreds of thousands of my lovely readers have made this fun, whimsical drink for Halloween to share with family and friends! I love Halloween (which is why I’ve got a whole archive of spooky Halloween recipes)! I’m still mortally afraid of ghosts, although I do watch horror movies. Logically, I know that ghosts are fiction, but I can’t help but be afraid. Thankfully, I do also love a good scare, especially during Halloween! I was also partly inspired to do this Halloween cocktail idea by the TV show Once Upon A Time. I loved watching this show, and love to depict potions and magic spells in swirls of shimmering light and smoke. And, of course, who can forget Regina’s (when she used to be evil!) fondness for ripping out hearts. The result was the combination of homemade blackberry shimmery liqueur (purple shimmery liqueur). Combined with apple liqueur or apple juice, lemon juice and grenadine, and voilà – The Witch’s Heart Cocktail is born! This, along with my witches brew, hocus pocus cocktail, and unicorn blood cocktail are dark magical potions that I concocted for all the witches, monsters, vampires, werewolves, unicorns and other extra natural entities out there!
A note about this Witch’s Heart Cocktail
When I created this Halloween cocktail recipe in 2015, I was inspired by Viniq to create a homemade viniq that is accessible to everyone, which you can find here. Since Viniq has been discontinued, I am making a few changes to the recipe and providing ingredient substitutions so that you can easily make this gorgeous, magical cocktail. But as mentioned in Mashed.com, I was able to share how to make a homemade version very easily. So now, this vodka Halloween cocktail is more accessible, easy to make, and even more delicious! It looks so mesmerizing, it’s the perfect witch’s brew!
Ingredients to make Witch’s Heart Cocktail
Purple shimmery vodka (blackberry flavored) Vodka Blackberries Purple luster dust OR pearl luster dust Simple syrup Apple liqueur (of your choice – not sour apple) Lemon juice Grenadine
Ingredients substitutions
Instead of blackberries, you can use blueberries to make the purple shimmery liquor to make this purple cocktail. I have also made this cocktail with homemade viniq. Since homemade viniq is sweeter than blackberry vodka, and the flavors are different, it will also change the flavor of the cocktail. You can make homemade original viniq, or other flavored shimmery liqueurs here too! If you cannot find apple liqueur, you can use apple brandy and add extra simple syrup to make it sweeter (optional). It is harder to find apple liqueur, and apple brandy can be very expensive, so I also use apple juice instead sometimes. You can adjust the sweetness of the cocktail with the simple syrup, which is a combination of water and sugar at a 1:1 ratio by weight. Instead of grenadine, you can make a syrup with pomegranate juice and sugar too. Just combine pomegranate juice and sugar and simmer until it thickens into a syrup.
How to make The Witch’s Heart cocktail
Make the blackberry shimmer liqueur. You can make this about a week ahead of time. However, if you do have a sous vide, this blackberry infusion can be made in 2 hours!
Blackberry infused liqueur – in the fridge
Place the blackberry and vodka in a glass jar with a sealable lid. Give it a gentle shake and place it in the fridge for about 1 week. You can easily use fresh OR frozen blackberries for this. When the vodka has turned a dark purple color, strain the vodka through a fine cheesecloth sieve to remove the fruits and any other impurities. The infused vodka should look purple, but very clear.
Blackberry infused liqueur – in the sous vide
Set your sous vide to 145°F (62°C) with a water bath. Place the blackberry and vodka in a ziploc bag. Seal the bags after removing as much air as possible. For ziploc bags, use the water immersion technique. Place the bag in the heated water bath and let it sit there for 2 hours (or up to 3 hours). Strain the liquid.
Finishing the liqueur
To add sweetness to make this into a liqueur, heat 200 g of sugar with about 200 mL of water. When the sugar has dissolved, let the simple syrup cool down until just warm. Add between ¼ to ⅓ cup of simple syrup per 1 cup of infused vodka. Add pearl luster dust OR purple luster dust to the liqueur to give the liquid a shimmery look. For every 2 cups, I only use ¼ tsp or slightly less. You do not have to add too much to get the shimmery effect in this purple cocktail.
Assembling the Witch’s Heart cocktail
Place the shimmery blackberry liqueur in a cocktail shaker. Add the apple juice or apple liqueur / brandy, and lemon juice. Then add a generous amount of ice and shake or stir to combine. Strain the cocktail into cocktail glasses, preferably martini glasses or coupe with a narrow bottom. Add a few drops of grenadine to each glass. The grenadine should sink to the bottom. Garnish with berries and a stir stick. When serving, allow your guests to stir the drink to watch the shimmery swirls. You can also add powdered or finely crushed dry ice for the smoky effect! Dry ice also causes bubbling in the cocktail which create the swirls too. But please be cautioned before using dry ice. You guys are going to love this spectacular yet simple Halloween cocktail. It’s so easy to make and you can adapt it to your taste absolutely any way you want. Plus it looks so gorgeous you could make this Halloween themed cocktail for any type of themed party, really! Dry ice is simply solid CO2 gas and it goes straight from solid to gas without a liquid phase in the middle (this is called sublimation). So, the smoke effect you see here is the solid dry ice evaporating. Wait until the smoke effect stops, because then you know the dry ice has completely evaporated, and the drink is now completely safe to drink. Just crush the dry ice (into a powder). I add the dry ice into an ice bag and crush it using an ice crushing mallet or similar tool. You can add a little to the bottom of your cocktail glass to give it that spooky, smoky effect when you pour the drink, and maybe add another touch of powdered dry ice after that for a smoky effect that lasts a bit longer. But you should NOT swallow or ingest bits of dry ice. Wait until the dry ice has completely evaporated. This happens fast, and it leaves no residue behind as it evaporates. And ALWAYS use gloves when handling dry ice. Never touch it with bare hands. Make sure dry ice is used in a ventilated space. Make sure the cocktails are used in an open setting to avoid CO2 build up. I have made this Halloween cocktail using Viniq as well, and the flavor profile does change when you use Viniq as opposed to homemade blackberry liqueur (you can make original viniq OR make flavored viniq at home too!). Every time I walk past the liqueur section in the store, I linger a little longer in front of the Viniq. And every time, I pick it up, give it a couple of swirls to mix it and then put it back. 🙂 That beautiful purple color with the shimmery liquid just calls out to me. It’s what inspired my to create my own version at home, and create purple blackberry shimmery liqueur. It looks so mesmerizing, it’s the perfect witch’s brew! You can make this with Viniq, if you prefer (update as of 2023 – this is no longer possible because Viniq has been discontinued). However, the flavor of this purple cocktail will change with Viniq. Plus, I am aware that not everyone has access to Viniq. An optional choice would be to mix in some strained raspberry or strawberry puree. That could really kick up those flavors too. The blackberry liqueur is delicious and sweet on its own, so paired with that, the apple brandy gives it even more of a fruity flavor. But you can pair it with any kind of flavored vodka that you like, to give it that extra boost of flavor. I’m no mixologist, but this was so easy to put together and the flavors work beautifully. What I love the most though is how this Halloween cocktail drink looks. The shimmery purple with the “witch’s heart” at the bottom is just so elegant. And eerie.
Recipe video
And the dry ice gives it that final spooky touch. This is optional (though highly recommended if you’re going all Halloween on this one), but if you do use dry ice remember to ADD COMPLETELY CRUSHED DRY ICE ONLY. Just crush the dry ice (to a powder) and add a little to the bottom of your cocktail glass to give it that spooky smoky effect when you pour the drink, and maybe add another touch of powdered dry ice after that for a smoky effect that lasts just a little bit longer. You don’t want to swallow bits of dry ice though, so the powdered dry ice “melts” much faster. So remember this Halloween,
More Halloween recipes
The phoenix cocktail – Shimmery color changing gin Halloween cocktail Witches brew drink Hocus pocus cocktail Unicorn blood cocktail Color changing cocktails Color changing alcohol All natural magical galaxy lemonade Bloody red velvet hot chocolate Brownie bottomed pumpkin cheesecake Flaming dragon’s blood cocktail Spooky chorizo hand pies Black Halloween cupcakes Halloween monster cookies
