This is Halloween! THIS IS HALLOWEEN! Not really, but we’re getting close. And then it’s all downhill from there!
The air is getting nippy in Boston and my diet mostly consists of hot drinks at this point, which is perfect for our cocktails inspiration for this month. Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost is sexy, adventurous, and great to pick up for the colder seasons.
For the hero, Ian, I definitely wanted a hot drink because whew, boy. The first time we meet him in this book, he’s wearing nothing but a circus ringmaster’s coat and proudly displaying his own pierced ringmaster. If you catch my drift. Dark spiced rum seems to be a great booze match for him. Ian is sly, charming, smooth, and definitely on the naughty side.
The heroine, Veritas, is a bit more serious. She’s like the equivalent of a police force for immortals, bringing down troublesome rogue vampires. Justice and righting wrongs are what she’s all about and those characteristics are so…pure, in my opinion. And that makes me think of apple juice. I adore apple juice. It was my favorite drink as a kid and I remember drinking gallons of it after getting my tonsils removed. I wanted to bump up the sophistication though, and cider is essentially a fancy man’s apple juice.
As a bonus, I added maple syrup to help blend the sweetness and spice together. It adds a great toffee note to the drink. Mmm….
I’m naming the drink after the heroine. Veritas means truth and is also the goddess of truth in Roman mythology. Drink a few of these and I believe you’ll have your own home-brewed truth serum on your hands.
Shopping list:
Fresh apple cider
Dark spiced rum
Quality maple syrup
Proportions:
12 oz. cider
2 oz. dark spiced rum
1/4 cup of quality maple syrup
Directions:
- The amount of cider is completely dependent on how big your mug is. I filled my mug beforehand and it worked out to around 12oz. Adjust as necessary. Six ounces of cider would call for one ounce of rum. Fractions! Yay!
- Put the cider and maple syrup into a small saucepan on the stove.
- Set to medium high heat.
- Stir until the syrup is incorporated and the mixture is hot, but not boiling.
- Pour into your mug. Add the rum.
- Stir and get cozy!
Modifications and notes:
- Because I live in New England, I had a variety of ciders to choose from. I picked Honeycrisp apple cider because those are my favorite apples. However, you can pick whatever you want.
- If you don’t have access to fresh cider, apple juice would be a good substitute. I highly recommend Simply Apple Juice; it’s my favorite brand and not too sweet.
- Regular dark rum would work with this recipe, but you’d be missing the spice. To add some, pop a cinnamon stick into the mixture when heating. For a non-alcoholic version, you could use the cinnamon stick trick and omit the rum entirely.
- I highly recommend using good maple syrup for this. I know good maple syrup is dang expensive, but I just bought a bottle for pulled pork and I sure as hell didn’t want to waste it on my Eggo waffles.
- My proportions have a mild spice note. Do add more rum, if you’d like.
Grab yourself a drink and build yourself a blanket nest!
I’ve been seeing that cover on your sidebar for weeks now and every time I see this…. http://www.ilona-andrews.com/revenge-is-best-served-tassled/
Guess it goes well with the pierced ringmaster.
On topic, I have all the ingredients and it’s finally starting to cool down in FLA. Yeah.
[…] based on Ian and Veritas? Then the SMART BITCHES, TRASHY BOOKS blog has you covered! Go HERE to see which drinks were recommended based on SHADES OF WICKED, and read the fun write-up. My […]
I was just at Costco and saw that they have maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels. Do you think that would add to the drink or muddle the flavors?
@Alexandra: That sounds so yummy! If you really want to cut through the sweetness, I saw go for it. If you’d rather have the cider on the sweet side rather than a spiced side, you may want to opt out.
Honeycrisp are the best apples!
I NEED your recipe for pulled pork using maple syrup. Pretty please….
OMG this sounds freakin delicious and so comforting!
@PamG me too! Yes please!
Seeing as how Carlson Orchards is one town over – I feel like I need to support this cocktail wholeheartedly this weekend 🙂
Awesome book introduction and great cocktail recipe!! Shared on all my socials!!
@PamG & EC Spurlock: The recipe comes from the Hot Mess Kitchen cookbook. My roommate gave it to me as a gift. The recipe is for chipotle-maple pulled pork.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 lbs pork stew meat (cubed pork shoulder)
1 (32-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
2 chipotle peppers (from a can, packed in adobo sauce), chopped
4 cups beef stock
1/3 cup maple syrup (the darker the better)
1/4 brown sugar
Black pepper
Directions
1. Heat oil in a large soup pot with a lid or Dutch oven. Add onion and garlic. Cook until fragrant.
2. Add pork and brown for about a minute on each side.
3. Add diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers, and stock.
4. Gently stir in maple syrup, brown sugar, and a couple pinches of black pepper.
5. Cover the pot and cook for 60 to 90 minutes, until the liquid has been reduced to a thick sauce and the meet is very tender.
6. Remove from heat. Remove the meat and shred on a rimmed cutting board, using two forks.
7. Return meat to the sauce and stir to combine.
My own personal notes!
– I used a 28 ounce can of tomatoes and still had a lot of juice.
– Ninety minutes wasn’t nearly enough time. I made this for a game day afternoon with friends. The sauce wasn’t very thick. Keep an eye on it, but you’ll definitely need more time for cooking and reducing.
– A Dutch oven would probably be better than a soup pot because maneuvering the pork around in a steep soup pot was a challenge.