As I’m writing this, Boston is getting hit with a snowstorm, delivering 8-14 inches (hehehe). Both of my roommates are working from home with me, so this drink cocktail post has turned into a full day-drinking party. I couldn’t be happier. Snow. A beautiful, boozy cocktail. Good books. Marie has Swing Time by Zadie Smith. Stephanie has At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson. And me…I’m finishing up Wintersong and oh, boy.
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones has so many elements that the Bitchery is going to love. There’s the obvious Labyrinth element with a mischievous Goblin King, who spirits away the heroine’s sister. Music plays a huge part of the story as well and, at times, has moments reminiscent of The Little Mermaid and Phantom of the Opera. Plus, the heroine, Liesl, is severely under appreciated, making sure her siblings succeed rather than putting her own success first. Talk about Cinderella vibes.
It’s a beautiful book set in Bavaria and it’s darkly romantic. It reminds me a lot of Deathless by Catherynne Valente ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) even more so than The Bear and the Nightingale did.
For the cocktail, I used Echte Kroatzbeere. It’s German blackberry liqueur. If you can’t find it, no worries. I only lucked out because my local store had one left and it was on the discount shelf. But blackberry brandy is a great substitute. I also used cran-peach juice. A peach is the catalyst to Lisel’s sister being taken by the Goblin King, a peach whose juice seems to look eerily like blood. Like I said…darkly romantic.
I’m also calling the drink Crescendo because 1) music is a huge part of Liesl’s life, 2) the drink gets stronger the more you have due to the layering, and 3) the book gets crazier and crazier the more you read, especially once Liesl goes up against the Goblin King .
If you’re even slightly curious about this book, I suggest you give it a chance. When you do, you’ll have a cocktail to go with it.
Shopping list:
Echte Kroatzbeere
Cran-peach juice
Grapefruit
Proportions:
1 1/2 oz of blackberry liqueur
2 oz cran-peach juice
2 oz of grapefruit juice (about half a grapefruit)
Directions:
- In a shake full of ice, put in the blackberry liqueur and shake it up to get it cold.
- Pour the liqueur on the bottom of the glass. It’s the thickest liquid out of the bunch and when “floating” liquids, you have the heaviest at the bottom.
- Rinse out the shaker. I had my juice in the fridge, so there was no need to use the ice. Combine both juices and shake.
- Pour the juices over a spoon, with the bottom face up and the tip touching the glass. You want the liquid to touch the spoon and the side of the glass first before falling to the bottom of the glass. You don’t want the juice to break the surface tension of the liqueur. It’ll give it that nice separation of the light and dark elements of the drink
Modifications and notes:
- As I mentioned before, the Echte Kroatzbeere might be hard to find. So feel free to use a blackberry brandy instead. Leroux makes a decent blackberry brand that I’ve used in a previous cocktail!
- I like the addition of the grapefruit because it counteracts the sweetness of the peach. But I think another citrus juice would work as well.
- I’m curious about using fresh peach juice or peach syrup because it’s thicker in consistency than the juice, so feel free to experiment!
We also have a giveaway! Up for grabs are two (2) copies of Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones.
To enter, comment below with your favorite Labyrinth moment! The giveaway will end Sunday, February 11, 2017 at noon, EST, so get your comments in before then!
Standard disclaimers apply. We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to US residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18. David Bowie-related codpieces are encouraged! You also must remind me of the babe. What babe? The babe with the power. And kudos to anyone in the Bitchery who can rock a patterned vest with a blousy shirt.
Best of luck! Cheers!
UPDATE: Our winners are SeventhWave and Leigh Kramer! Check your email shortly!
Trader Joe’s used to carry a peach sauce, but I don’t know if they still do. It was basically a peach equivalent to applesauce. I suspect you could puree your own peaches. If fresh aren’t reasonably available, use the ones packed in fruit juice (much less sugar). You can always strain the pulp out for scooping over ice cream or cake.
You want me to pick just 1 favorite, Labyrinth moment? Cruel and unusual torture… I don’t know if I can pick just one. But you know that scene when she’s running home with the sheepdog in the rain from practicing in the park? Love that. Because that wasn’t Jennifer Connelly. That was me. Really.
Oh so many, but the crowner has to be “You have no power over me”. It was audacious and brave then, and frankly hasn’t lost any of its impact over time. That there exists a heroine who had the spine and integrity to throw the villian’s considerable temptations and inability to see her as anything but a prize to be won (much as I do love me some Jareth/Sarah-holla at Girls Next Door-once he’s evolved some empathy/conscience) back in his face and stand firm…it still floors me. People are hard on Sarah sometimes for how over the top bratty she was in the beginning (and I get it), but even if she hadn’t had the considerable character growth she did over the course of the film, this would have nonetheless served as the ultimate redeeming moment. Sarah Williams is a total underrated badass heroine, and one we still need today given the number of people who sincerely say she should have taken Jareth up on his offer and ‘forget about the baby’.
(Labyrinth feels for days, I have them. OTL)
“It’s not fair.” “You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is.” It’s a constant reminder that there is work to be done, for lots of people, and there are those who want to accept the world as it is because they are afraid they would lose power in the world as it could be. Sarah was warned, she was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.
I’ve never actually seen Labyrinth. I’ve seen Pan’s Labyrinth, which I do believe is a completely different type of movie, lol. But I’ve always meant to get around to watching Labyrinth.
The whole Escher stairs scene. Love it. Love it so much!
I’ve never seen Labyrinth either. Maybe my favorite moment will be watching it for the first time:)
I’ll join the group of those who have never seen it. I’m not sure why, though. I thought maybe I was in college when it came out, but I checked the date, and no – it was after college (aging myself here). I’ll have to check and see if the local library has a copy.
I like the bizarre puppets, they were so fascinating!
I didn’t see Labyrinth until I was in college and it was wonderful. I love the ball scene but I think my favorite is “you have no power over me.”
Everything about this post makes me incredibly happy. Can’t wait to read this book (and try this cocktail)! Thank you!
As to favorite Labyrinth moment… Oh goodness, there are so many. I agree with all the ones that have been mentioned, but I also love that little scene with the Cockney worm. “‘Ello.” “Did you just say hello?” “No. I said ‘Ello’!” 🙂
P.S. Did any of the Bitchery read the Labyrinth sequel manga? Talk about crazysauce!
I need to watch it again! “you have no power over me” definitely!
The masquerade ball, because how could they see into my heart like that?
But actually, every single moment of it. Now I want to call in sick and snuggle on the couch and watch Labyrinth.
Its such a weird and fantastic movie that its hard to pick one scene–not due to the human actors but the incredibly imaginative muppets.
I have a fondness for the ball scene echoing the opening scene when Sarah is practicing her play with her costume and crown. And, of course, “you have no power over me” says such much!
Gosh, it’s been too long since I’ve watched Labyrinth to even remember anything, other than David Bowie’s fierce eyeliner. This book sounds completely up my alley though!
Oh, I’m even more interested in Wintersong now (though the big draw for me is the connection to Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”).
Can I count a character as my favorite part of Labyrinth? I like Sir Didymus. If it’s a scene, I have to be another vote for “you have no power over me.”
When Sarah is in that fabulous dress and the shot is of her face, looking up, I think, as she runs. My girl crush was lifelong and instantaneous in that moment, as much for the dress, but I remember thinking Jennifer Connelly was the most beautiful human being I’d ever seen.
I always like the “Underground” musical number…Bowie’s mullet + singing Muppets = gold. (Plus, the song is stuck in my head now…)
I love the bit where Sarah finally asks Sir Didymus’s permission to cross, and he’s so surprised.
Oh, the incredibly seductive beauty that was David Bowie. He was just so perfect for this role.
SO many good scenes and lines, but the first one that popped up: The chat she has with the Cockney worm, where he starts by insisting she come inside his tiny little hole for a cup of tea with the Mrs., and ends up warning her not to go a certain direction in the maze. Then after she leaves, he mutters to himself “NEVER go that way. That way leads right to that castle!”
Hmmm. Hard to pick, but I would say a tie between “Magic Dance” and the Fireys.
“It’s not fair!”
“You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is.”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/74/17/22/7417224cd87375308aebd27ee55cf597.jpg
I can pick no favorite Labyrinth scene as I like it all equally. Your cocktail sounds delicious!
“You have no power over me!” Is there any better moment?
*Instagram profile photo is my as Sarah with two lovely Jareths, a crystal ball and Toby.
Oh, easy. The scene with the masquerade ball in the bubble. As an adult, I know that that dress was huge, but when I was a kid, I just thought that that sparkly silver dress with its gigantor sleeves was everything that a princess could ever need. And David Bowie pulls the mask away from his face and looks straight at her and DEAR GOD. Hello, first imaginary husband. And then he sings to her as they dance. Jareth was sexual awakening fodder for damn near everyone in my generation, I think.
Other than that, the scene where he kind of chews her out about how living up to her expectations is exhausting is also EVERYTHING. He just spits the words with such venom, but under it is this undercurrent of hurt. It’s so easy to focus on what a fabulous visual Jareth is, that it’s almost easy to miss how witty and sensitive the acting was on Bowie’s part.
:::goes off to fall to Labyrinth youtube hole:::
Aw, sounds like my kind of book. But I cannot participate since I have still not watched Labyrinth. So, no favorite moments 😉
Labyrinth is such a beautifully crafted movie, and so wonderfully, insidiously feminist. Best coming-of-age movie ever.
Like everyone else I love the Escher stairs, the ballroom and “You have no power over me”; but I think my favorite is when she first makes the Wish, and in the sudden silence she can hear the goblins rustling around the room and see them out of the corner of her eye but never really SEE them… Haven’t we all felt that way when we’re alone in the dark with our personal goblins?
Joining #3 fairywine with a shoutout to Girls Next Door; and that cocktail just sounds luscious. Thanks for that!
I have many favorite moments in Labyrinth, but I’d rather share my daughter’s favorite. 🙂 When my daughter was about two, my sisters and I were watching Labyrinth with her playing on the other side of the room (she rarely expressed any interest in the tv at that point). When it came to the Magic Dance segment, suddenly she pressed herself up close to the tv and was totally enchanted.
From then on, if you wanted to calm her down you could just play that part of the video and she would instantly calm down and watch it intently. Sometimes she would also bounce up and down to “dance” along with it. When she started talking more, she would call it the “baby dance” and demand to watch it all the time. But just that segment. Over and over and over again. We wore out that VHS that’s for sure.
It was several years before she actually cared about watching any of the rest of the movie. LOL.
During the staircase scene, when Jareth is singing “Within You”, and his voice catches, there is a hint of tears in his eyes, and Bowie projects such longing and hurt when he sings, “I can’t live within you”. It gets me in the feels every time.
David Bowie’s Magic Pants.
That is all you need to know. 😉
I love Labyrinth. Lots of great parts, but I have to agree that my favorite is Sarah’s realization – “You have no power over me.” Great movie. She persisted, indeed.
Loved the “Magic Dance” sequence and the scene where they are all crossing the Bog of Eternal Stench and the rocks each make a farting noise when stepped on. Makes me giggle even today!
Anyone who is near Atlanta, the Center for Puppetry Arts has several of the Labyrinth puppets and the Goblin King’s throne. They sometimes show “Labyrinth” in their theater and are even having their own Labyrinth-themed masquerade ball.
I don’t think I’ve seen Labyrinth! Will have to add that to the TBW 🙂
I haven’t seen Labyrinth either, but loved the review and cocktail recipe!
Peach nectar is not bad but not very sweet and you’ll need to strain well. Rainy here to and I’m fly-ladying, sipping tea and dreaming of rum or COurvoiseur. No more though–StraightEdge now. PS Sneaking in a liddle reading too–latest Neil Gaiman on Norse Myths. xxoo:-(cf
My favorite moment is when Sarah gets back in her bedroom, and is relieved, thinking “Oh! it was all a dream!”, only to open the door and find the junk lady outside. I loved that they played with her sense of reality.
I cannot wait to read this book. Thank you for the giveaway!
I’m also in the ‘I’ve never seen Labyrinth’ camp. I blame it on poor parenting.
“Magic Dance”!! Forever! All of the visual tricks, like the Goblin King’s face hiding in the rocks and Escher stairs were special. I would also like to give a special shout-out to Bowie’s trousers. Post-puberty they were definitely my favorite part =)
The dawning realization at the end when Sarah says “You have no power over me.” as she realizes the truth.
Or the conversation with the Wise Man and his Hat.