Kitchen Witchery: Samhain Sippers

There’s a good chance you’ll be celebrating Samhain Season this month. Maybe you gather with your coven in some secret place, go to a ritual, or plonk down on your couch wearing your black cat slippers and stripey witch socks, it’s all good. Here’s a little magick potion you might want to try. I call it “Samhain Sippers” because “Samhain Slammers” might give you the wrong impression. But hey, you know you, so whether your a sipper or a slammer, enjoy!

Samhain Sippers Spell

Samhain is a transition time. There’s a liminal quality about this season. Leaves are changing colours, once verdant fields are falling blissfully fallow, night time comes a little earlier. It’s well known that Samhain is a time when the veil thins and our ancestors are, perhaps, a little more accessible than usual. And yet for all the apparent falling away and endings, it’s a time of year that ushers in dinner parties and magickal gatherings and twinkle lights and decorations.

There is some magick involved in this recipe, beyond the alchemy of blending ingredients together. The recipe calls for blackberries and rum (among other things). Blackberries are an element of the late summer. Sweet and full. Rum is sweet too and works as a reminder that life is sweet and precious. Rum is a traditional offering to guardians of gateways in various occult traditions. In my case, rum was my dad’s favourite tipple, so there’s a connection to my ancestors there too.

As you drink, think of what is sweet in your life right now. Ponder which doors are opening for you this Samhain tide and which might be closing, forever. Celebrate your ancestors, be they ancestors of blood or magickal lineage, or those that have passed that influenced your life.

Samhain Sippers Recipe

This recipe takes 10 minutes to cook, 10 minutes to cool (if you make the simple syrup yourself) and 5 minutes more to whip together. I’m including two versions: one for making yourself a cocktail and a cauldron sized one for your Samhain get together.

To Make Blackberry Simple Syrup

1 1/4 cup water
3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 lime wedges
1 cup fresh blackberries

What you need to make the cocktails

Blackberry Simple Syrup
Rum (I like Lamb’s Navy Rum but whatever you have that’s dark)
A lime cut into wedges
Ice cubes
Lemon-Lime Soda
Blackberries
Chilled glasses

Let’s Get To Making This Thing Already!

Making simple syrup:

In your favourite saucepan, add the sugar, blackberries, lime wedges, juice, and water over medium heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and mash up the blackberries. You can use the back of a spoon to do this.

Pour the blackberry syrup through a mesh strainer into a bowl. You can use that spoon again to help push the mixture through the sieve.

If your not making the cocktail right away, you can store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

To make two cocktails

Add 6 ounces of simple syrup, 3 ounces of the rum and a good squeeze of a lime wedge into to a cocktail shaker with ice; shake vigorously. If you don’t have a cocktail shaker use your travel mug or something else with a lid. Strain into an ice filled glass. Fill up each glass with soda. Top with a lime wedge.

To make 8 cocktails

Mix up 2 cups rum, 1/2 cup fresh lime juice, 1 and 1/2 cups simple syrup, and 2 cups soda. Pour all of this into your favourite pitcher, punch bowl, or cauldron. Add some fresh blackberries and lime wedges.

Happy Samhain Sipping!

My recipe is based on something I saw a bunch of years ago and have played with. Here’s the original recipe, which is a little more summery.