Imbolc

St. Brigid watches over the unfurling of seeds in hibernation, welcoming the upcoming change of season. If you’re under the weather, or just in need of the comfort of knowing the sun is returning, this toddy-style drink is made with traditional offerings.

 ¼ C Scotch

2 Tb Honey 

1 C Milk 

2-3 Blackberries (frozen and thawed is fine)

Gently warm scotch, honey, and milk in a saucepan. Smash the blackberries in a mug while you wait. Once drink mixture is steaming hot (but not boiling!), pour into the mug and enjoy.

The Maze

Bitter and sweet, like the coming spring and the choices ahead.

2 oz Sweet Mead

1 oz Kale Juice (sub a sweeter green juice if you prefer)

Soda to top

Lemon Wedge

In a cocktail glass of ice, combine mead and juice. Top with soda and serve with lemon.

Convivificat

Allegedly, the poison of Catherine d’Medici was hidden within a delicious scent of orange, rose, and rosemary. So, too, do the friends toast with champagne, not realizing that the word setting everything in motion will also prove to be more dangerous than anyone could guess.

1 tsp Rose Syrup

½ tsp Orange Blossom Water

Chilled Champagne to top

Burnt Rosemary Sprig 

In each champagne flute, add syrup and water, then top with chilled champagne. Wave a sprig of rosemary through a flame several times to bring out the oils and then stir with it.

Beltane

The May Day festival is a riotous celebration of fertility that starts in the brightest sunlight before culminating in the bonfires of darkest night. This delicious punch is scalable for a crowd, but not so boozy that you’ll miss the Wild Hunt if you start early.

½ part Creme De Cassis

3 parts cold White Wine

2 parts cold Sparkling Water

Sliced Strawberries--as many as you want!

Fresh Mint Leaves--3-4 per serving

Add in order, either to individual glasses or a punch bowl. 

The Stag

The Celtic horned protector of the forests enjoys the lusty offering of honey and the warm scent of cinnamon. 

1 ½ oz Honey Liqueur

1 ½ oz Cinnamon Whiskey

Shake with ice and strain into a shot glass.

The Chapel

Cakes and ale, the traditional end to a ritual, has been interpreted liberally by the Thornchapel revelers. Imagine a delicious layer cake, overflowing with the edible flowers of the English countryside, as beautiful as Delphine’s photographs (but drinkable). 

2 shots Cake Vodka

1 TB St Germaine

1 tsp Rosewater

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe or martini glass.

The Tears of Saint Sebastian

Based on the classic gin & cherry drink The Martinez, The Tears of Saint Sebastian features Mezcal in homage to Saint’s Texan home. The pomegranate of the grenadine represents the seeds Persephone ate, tying her forever to Hades in the same way that tasting the forbidden fruit of Auden meant Saint could never truly walk away. 

1 ¾ oz Mezcal

¾ oz Vermouth

1 tsp Grenadine

2 dashes Orange Bitters

Rim only an inch of a cocktail glass with salt. Stir all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, and then strain into the cup.

Lammas

The first harvest festival is an embarrassment of riches. Fruits drip from trees and the fields overflow with ripe wheat, an abundance to make one forget the value each precious grain holds in deep winter. Peaches and beer combine to make a cocktail that’s both cooling and arousing, perfect for a hot summer’s day (or a hot summer’s lay).

1 shot Peach Vodka

2 dashes peach bitters

1 cold bottle farmhouse ale, Boulevard’s Tank 7 if you can find it

Add to a frosted glass in order.

The Altar

Now I Lay Me Down To Fuck. The sweet, delicious flavors of the harvest and the sweet, delicious flavors of sex are no Venn Diagram, but rather a perfect circle.

1 shot Honey Liqueur

½ shot Rose Syrup

Apple Cider to top

In a glass filled with ice, add liqueur and syrup, then fill with cider.

The Rebecca 

Poor Bex is torn between two worlds, two parents, her work and her friends, her head and her heart. This drink is a perfect addition to her Tea Set Barbie.

1 brewed mug Orange Spice Tea

2 oz Dry Orange Curacao

Add the orange brandy to the tea in case of headache, heartache, or simply chill. Milk and sugar to taste.

The Delphine

Delphine is more than sunshine and smiles, haunted by her past. But when you add her secrets and a splash of chocolate to her beloved bubbles, it’s a treat as delicious as kink.

1 tsp Luxardo Cherry Liqueur

1 tsp Creme De Cocoa White

Chilled Prosecco to top

Combine liqueurs in a coupe glass, top with bubbles. Add a cherry or two to garnish.

Samhain

Hazelnuts have a particular resonance with the old Samhain celebrations, but there’s nothing wrong with some new-school pumpkin spice action either. Split the difference and enjoy them both. You don’t have to choose! You can have it all!

½ Cinnamon Stick

1 Vanilla Bean

1 Star Anise

½ C Frangelico

2 C Almond Milk

Steep the spices in Frangelico all day. Strain and add to milk. Makes 2, or just one big one if, unlike our intrepid Thornchapelites, you’ve spent the season arguing with your children about their costumes.

The Door

The line between life and death, here and there, is permeable in certain spots, at certain times. The door must be closed. A sacrifice must be made.

Black Water (blk is the most common brand)

2 oz Whiskey

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

1 tsp Grenadine

 Use the black water to make ice cubes*. Once they’re frozen, combine whiskey, bitters, and grenadine in a cocktail glass. Add 3-4 ice cubes and stir. 

*Note, the black water will separate a little when frozen

The Auden

The first thing Poe notices about Auden upon her return to Thornchapel is his scent of citrus, pepper, lavender, and pine. Now you, too, can sniff the heir, as you ponder the impossible choices he must face.

Here and there/king and door.

Cup and spear/corn and war.

4-5 Lavender buds

1 Tb sugar

1 slice grapefruit

3 oz Gin

Grapefruit Soda

 Muddle lavender and sugar in the bottom of a cocktail glass. Squeeze the grapefruit, then muddle the slice. Add ice straight on top, then gin, then top with grapefruit soda.

The Blood of Father Becket

Fernet-Branca is a storied liqueur, the kind with a secret recipe. It’s filled with sacred medicinal herbs, and even myrrh. Our priest surely appreciates each mystical drop, within the wine, as a sacrament of health, mystery, and complexity of flavors from around the globe that celebrates all God’s creations--whichever face of God you choose to worship.

1 oz Fernet-Branca

4 oz Dry Red Wine

Combine in a coupe glass and say your prayers.