Eyeball cocktails

Eyeballs look great in Halloween cocktails. Here are a couple of popular ways to make them, if you lack a supply of the real thing: olives stuffed into peeled radishes, and cranberries in lychees.* The former looks like it's been freshly plucked from a shambling zombie, complete with optic nerve - the latter has a slightly shrivelled, half-rotted look to it. Both are particularly effective if served disguised in a smoky cocktail; the fog clears and the eyeball leers back at the drinker...

_{* Both of these ideas are all over the internet, and I found out about them when my color-changing martini appeared on various "Creepy Halloween Foods" lists (dabbled, neatorama, mentalfloss, etc). I concede that it does have a certain mad scientist vibe to it, but it's hardly gross or scary!}

Step 1: Ingredients

For the zombie eyeball martini:
Gin
Vermouth
Radishes
Pimento-stuffed olives

For the bloody eyeball cocktail:
Vodka
Triple sec
Lime juice
Cranberry juice
Lychees, canned and peeled in a can
Cranberries (fresh or dried)

Dry ice is optional for both, but makes for a great creepy effect - and of course very effectively chills the drink.

Comments

[WurdBendur]

What about freezing the eyes and using them like ice cubes?

[makendo]

Sure, that would work (step 2 mentions freezing them inside ice cubes), but you couldn't eat them immediately and I'm not sure what they're like after thawing (some vegetables turn into mush).

[susanchen2011]

lovely.

[jjula1979]

Thanks for your instruction about the dry ice. I never have used it and since this will be our 5th annual party I want to do it up. I was wondering what the "precautions" were in using dry ice...This is great!!

[makendo]

Dry ice is pretty easy to handle. Use tongs to pick it up (though quick handling with bare hands is fine). You just have to make sure no one ingests it, so tell your guests to wait for the dry ice to disappear before drinking. Generally best to serve this sort of drink early in the party while everyone is reasonably sober. Have fun!

[fuzz321]

looks gross but cool

[zaklopolis]

weniiiiiisimo!!!!

[lancmaltby]

I like this!!! Great idea!!!

[tbcross]

Very very cool, the garnishes would even work well in a virgin bloody mary for kids. Great ible. I would offer one word of advice though, dry ice can do some major damage to the inside of your mouth and/or throat. So I'd say make sure none is left in the glass before turning up and gulping down.

[makendo]

Cheers! - and you`re quite right about not consuming the dry ice. I alluded to that in step 2, but I`ve added a reminder to step 3 as well. There is actually a commercial product that makes smoky cocktails safe, but provided you don`t serve them to someone who`s completely plastered, it should be OK. And as a side note, these drinks are probably a lot less hazardous than my liquid nitrogen cocktail...  :)

[tbcross]

Cool :) musta had a blank on the step 2. I'm that person who would plop a piece into my mouth. Of course I am a tremendously clumsy person!