Slow Death Martini ~ Friday's 5 o'clock Wet Your Whistle Call!

This lemony drink will sneak up on you! As the black skull floating in the yellow drink slowly begins to melt, an eerie affect begins to swirl around in your glass. As you sip your martini, the anise scent of the skull permeates your senses and combines with the rosemary lemon on your tongue. Your guests will all be talking about how nice a Slow Death can be….

Slow Death Martini

Ingredients:

4 ounces vodka

2 ounces Rosemary-Lemon Syrup

1 ounce Limoncello

Licorice Ice Cubes

Directions:

Combine vodka, syrup, and Limoncello in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Pour into 2 chilled martini glasses. Drop a licorice skull ice cube in each glass. Serve immediately. Makes 2 drinks but can be multiple for as many drinks as you want to serve.

Rosemary-Lemon Syrup

Ingredients:

2 lemons

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

3 sprigs rosemary

Directions:

With a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from lemons, leaving bitter white pith behind. Combine peel plus remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain through a fine sieve to discard solids and chill. Enough for 9-10 drinks.

Licorice Skull Ice Cubes

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 tablespoons anise seed or anise extract to taste

4 drops black food coloring

Directions:

Bring the water and anise seed to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat; let cool 30 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or cheese cloth and discard solids, then stir in food coloring. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze. Use skull shaped trays if you can find them, if not then small ice cube trays will work. Found my skull trays at Michaels but have seen them at dollar stores too.

Anise extract will also work instead of the anise seeds. Flavor water with extract until you have the right taste. No need to bring to a boil, just drop enough to flavor the water with licorice.