Any resident of the Kingdom of Hyrule wanting to spice up their cooking with some interesting flavors needs to venture out into the outskirts of their town in the late night and look for a small, odd looking shop of curiosities. This peculiar boutique is the Fang and Bone, a monster based shop run by the proprietor Kilton. He spends his time researching monsters, and his shop only opens (and appears) at night.
One of his creations is a spice that he creates from the essence of monsters. How he gets this essence is unknown (and frankly, I don’t know if I want to know), but Kilton manages to combine the essence of various monsters in just the right way to create an unusual spice that adds a unique flavor to a dish. This spice is monster extract. It is a sought after ingredient by many a Hylian trying to create unique dishes.
"A result of Kilton's research into monsters, this suspicious spice can be used to punch up dishes while cooking. Apparently it can be used to make a number of monstrous meals."
The Halloween season is a great time of year for monster dishes, and what better monster item than the one that is the base for all the monster dishes! Even though monster extract is essentially a spice, I decided to go in a bit of a different direction and turn it into a fall cocktail. Red cabbage seemed an odd ingredient for a drink, so I went with blackberries for the base. Being an autumn cocktail, I wanted to infuse some fall spices. The combination of fall spices and blackberries immediately made me think this drink should be a bramble. So, my monster extract is essentially a blackberry bramble. Sweet, fizzy, and full of fall spice, I think it would work perfectly as a cocktail for a Halloween party with a Zelda twist… or even just to sip while playing a Zelda game on a quiet autumn evening. If Kilton’s monster extract was really this drink, I’d be hunting him down at night in Hyrule as well.
Ingredients
½ cup blackberries
2 oz Empress 1908 Indigo Gin
2 oz spiced blackberry simple syrup
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 oz seltzer water
Ice
Spiced Blackberry Simple Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
8 oz blackberries
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole cloves
½ tsp vanilla extract
First we will make the simple syrup, heat a small pot over medium heat. Add the water and sugar and stir until the sugar fully dissolved into the water. Add the blackberries, cinnamon stick, cloves, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Bring the pot to a simmer. Once it is simmering, use a potato masher to mash the fully blackberries. Turn the heat to low and allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes it should have thickened to a sort of loose purple syrup. At this point, remove the pot from the heat and allow it to cool. Once cooled, strain the mixture into a jar or bowl using a mesh strainer. Store the simple syrup in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Now to make the drink! Add the ½ cup of blackberries to a cocktail shaker (this will be about 6-8 blackberries). Add the gin and then muddle the blackberries in the gin. If you don’t have a muddler, just use a spoon, pestle, or any tool that will allow you to mash the blackberries into the gin.
Once the blackberries have been muddled, add the simple syrup and the lemon juice. Place the lid on the shaker and give the drink a good shake. Remove the lid and strain the drink into a bowl through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds.
Add ice to the cocktail shaker and pour the strained drink back into the shaker. Place the lid back on the cocktail shaker, give it another good shake, and then pour the drink into a glass through the cocktail strainer. Top off the drink with the seltzer water. Enjoy!