It's almost Halloween and that means it's time for all the witches, ghosts, and other creatures of the night to have their time to shine. With a name inspired by some of the most famous witches of our time, Macbeth's Weird Sisters, you get into an appropriately spooky mood drinking this twisted cocktail. Create your very own witches' brew with this Toil and Trouble cocktail and feel the magic run through your veins.
The Toil and Trouble cocktail is inspired by a classic drink, The Last Word, but with some twists—including the addition of lychee simple syrup. Lychee simple syrup adds sweetness and a hint of fruitiness to the strong herbal gin and green chartreuse combination. If you can't find pre-made lychee simple syrup, making your own is extremely easy. You can follow any simple syrup recipe and replace whatever added ingredients they use (besides the sugar and water) with 1 cup of lychee fruit.
Lychees are small, round fruits native to China. They are covered with a pink or red inedible skin and contain a large black seed in the center. The flesh of the fruit is white and has a delicate floral smell and sweet taste. If you can't find fresh lychee in your local Asian or international supermarket, you can replace them with canned lychees. Keep in mind that much of the signature aromatic flavor dissipates during the canning process, so try to use fresh lychee if possible.
The cocktail is topped off with club soda to make your witches' brew bubble appropriately. If you prefer your cocktail to be even sweeter, you can replace the club soda with a citrus-flavored soda of your choice.
This cocktail can be enjoyed at any time of year, but to make it even more Halloween appropriate, don't forget to add a few lychee eyeballs to your drink—they're easy to make and impressively creepy. Plus, to keep your cocktail cold without having it become watered down, you can replace ice cubes with these frozen eyeballs. Just freeze the lychee eyeballs for several hours before you plan to serve the drink. Make sure that if you plan to keep your eyeballs on a skewer, impale them before they go into the freezer.
Toil and Trouble
- Prep Time:5 mins
- Cook Time:0
- Total Time:5 mins
- Servings:1
- Easy
- 1-3 peeled and seeded lychees
- 1-3 maraschino cherries
- 1 jigger gin
- 1 jigger green chartreuse
- 1 jigger lime juice
- 1 jigger lychee simple syrup
- Club soda
- Ice cubes optional
Ingredients
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Step 1
Push 1-3 maraschino cherries into hole in side of 1-3 lychees. Skewer one of the eyeballs. Put to the side or freeze for an hour if using them to replace ice cubes.
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Step 2
Shake gin, green chartreuse, lime juice, and lychee simple syrup with ice.
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Step 3
Strain into a glass.
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Step 4
Top off with club soda.
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Step 5
Add (optionally frozen) lychee eyeballs to glass directly or rest on rim of glass.
Taylor Park
It's never too early to get into the spirit of Halloween, especially when said spirit—or should I say, spirits—comes in the form of a unique, refreshing cocktail. Whether you plan to make a Toil and Trouble cocktail for yourself, or a group of friends as a pre-trick-or-treating refreshment, it is sure to be a spooktacular hit.