Welcome to Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Atomic Fireball!

A tasty Halloween candy cocktail for the season.

Greetings, Wonketteers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. Time for a Halloween cocktail. Most “spooky” cocktails I see out there are bland and ugly. I wanted to write a Halloween candy cocktail, something spicy and vibrant to the eye. And I really hit it out of the park this time, if I say so myself. Let’s make an Atomic Fireball. Here’s the recipe.

Atomic Fireball

2.5 oz. Wild Turkey 101 Rye Whiskey

1 oz. cinnamon candy syrup (recipe follows)

1 dash orange bitters

Stir all ingredients over ice. Pour into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist.

Cinnamon Candy syrup

½ cup crushed Reed’s cinnamon candy lozenges

½ cup water

1 drop red food coloring

Place candy and water in a small saucepan. Stir frequently over medium heat until the candy is completely dissolved. Add red food coloring. Keeps refrigerated 1-2 weeks.

There is historic precedent for dissolving candy in your booze — strictly for medicinal reasons, mind you. This mixture of rye whiskey, dissolved rock candy, spices, and citrus was the cough syrup of choice in the late 1800s. It didn’t actually cure your cough, but it tasted good and knocked you out until the sniffles were gone. Best of all, as “medicine” it was taxed at a lower rate than whiskey. America has always loved sweet, cheap booze.

Rock candy is nothing more than crystallized sugar. It doesn’t add any flavor to a cocktail. Modern versions of the rock and rye use horehound candy instead of rock candy. Horehound has a vaguely sarsaparilla flavor, sort of a vegetal root beer. It’s not bad, and it cooperates with the rye whiskey nicely, but it doesn’t usually appeal to the modern palate. (Although my daughter informs me that Faygo makes a Rock and Rye-flavored soda that is much beloved by Insane Clown Posse fans.) I thought a different flavor of candy might be tastier.

Enter the red hots. Fireball “whiskey” is pretty popular these days. Much like the original rock and rye, it’s sweet, boozy, and cheap — a modern American rock and rye. You can even buy low-proof bottles of the stuff at the convenience store. Fireball is extremely sugary, has little to do with real cinnamon, and doesn’t taste much like whiskey. But artificial cinnamon candy flavor can be appealing in its own right. A dark, peppery spirit like rye whiskey can accentuate and deepen that cinnamon flavor. And bumping the proof on your cinnamon “whiskey” from 66 proof to 100 sure doesn’t hurt.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Ingredient shot. The cocktail disappeared in a puff of sulphur and brimstone smoke after this photo was taken. Matthew Hooper 

Wild Turkey 101 Rye Whiskey: My usual go-to is Rittenhouse Rye, but I thought I’d branch out to some other bargain high-proof ryes. Wild Turkey makes some nasty rail whiskey, but their top shelf is really good. This rye is peppery up front with a marked bourbon note midway through. It’s pretty rough served neat, but the sugar will balance that nicely. Feel free to use a less intense, lower proof rye like Buleitt for a smoother experience.

Cinnamon candy syrup: Use a translucent red cinnamon candy likeReed’s or Brach’s for this syrup. Claey’s is ideal as well. A coated hard candy, like Red Hots or Hot Tamales, might end up with a strange color. Resist the urge to add a real cinnamon stick or clove to the pan; this drink revels in its artificial flavor. The red food coloring provides a visual cue that this is a “cinnamon” cocktail. Without it, the drink takes on a vaguely peach hue. Omit the food coloring if you prefer, but we’re already hip deep in artificial ingredients here. If you are feeling adventurous, try this technique with other candies.

Orange bitters: Some citrus notes balance the cinnamon, and anything we can use to tamp down the sugar is welcome. Angostura bitters would add some extra spice kick.

Garnish: In a perfect world, I’d use a little pitchfork-shaped swizzle stick here. Feel free to exercise your creativity. The orange oil from the twist adds needed complexity to the glass and sharpens the flavors.

Fireball finds its way into all sorts of cocktails these days. For a gentle evening sipper, make up an Atomic Fireball and add cider, cola or ginger ale. If you’re looking for a non-alcoholic beverage for the season, the syrup and sparkling water can make a dandy homemade soda, or use the syrup as a mixer. A little lemon candy syrup to Sprite or cinnamon syrup to Coca Cola would certainly ensure your trick-or-treaters are energized for the evening. Make your own witch’s brew for the season.

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