I’m usually a fan of holiday-themed food items like gingerbread houses during Christmas and multi-colored eggs for Easter, but there’s something unsettling about Halloween treats.
Most Halloween-themed food items you see at parties are meant to look like they’d be found at a crime scene. Nothing is appetizing to me about eating something that looks like human remains. Even Burger King’s new Whopper with the black bun makes me think twice.
So when I volunteered to make a Halloween treat of my own and write about it, I had a few things to consider.
I have a weak stomach for anything that appears to be covered in blood. I’m an abysmal cook, so there can’t be too many steps in the recipe. If the preparation time is longer than a few minutes, I’ll probably lose interest and eat the ingredients individually.
I decided I should just make a drink, and better yet, a drink that could deliver a little “liquid courage” on such a spooky holiday.
This is when I found instructions for the “Alien Brain Hemorrhage” on BuzzFeed.
The ABH is made with peach schnapps, red grenadine, blue curacao and Irish cream. Three of the ingredients can be found at the local liquor store, and the grenadine will be at any grocery store. Sorry, underage friends, maybe you can indulge next year.
The process is easy and truly horrific. Fill a shot glass about three quarters full with peach schnapps. Next, pour in just enough grenadine so it settles at the bottom and creates a red base. Add roughly the same amount of blue curacao, and that will sink to create a blue layer on top of the red. To finish, fill the rest of the shot glass with Irish cream. The cream will separate from the rest of the drink and coagulate into what looks like a small mass of hemorrhaged gray matter floating near the top.
I didn’t want to drink it. If an alien fatally crash-landed his flying saucer on earth and someone put what remained of his brains in a shot glass, this is probably what it would look like.
I still drank it, of course. Then I followed it up with one or two or seven more. Turns out, alien brains taste pretty good. The drink was almost overwhelmingly sugary, which means it might not be good to have too much of, but the only real downside was the texture of the Irish cream. I could feel it slide across my tongue and down my throat, still in a big, brainy clump.
If you want a drink that looks disgusting, and if you’re a responsible adult, give the “Alien Brain Hemorrhage” a try. It might not look great, but after you down two or three, I’m sure you won’t mind anymore.
Bottoms up.