by Erica Lee
I was going to call this Love Potion No. 3, because it is my third iteration of an old favorite concoction of mine. I created it years ago to find a way to showcase Irish Whiskey and make it more palatable to people who don't think of themselves as whiskey drinkers. Now I've re-imagined it to give it all the loving vibes you may want and need in your life and heart at the moment! But, I thought Love Potion No. 3 might have been a little bit much. I wanted it to be a love potion that would work most effectively on us and our love relationship with the Universe, which we communicate with constantly, for the creation of endless magic. Still, this is a great magic potion to restore your anchor in knowing that you are inherently loved and loveable. Your worthiness for love depends merely on one thing, and one thing alone: your existence. Love is here for you, no matter what. Besides, there is a lot of love going around right now. And I'm not just saying that because of Valentine's Day!
The History
As someone who did time in a convent, I can tell you that in the original tradition of saints it's not Saint Valentine who is the original patron of love and lovers. In fact, that would be Saint Raphael, Archangel; himself a Libra, which is the sign that rules transpersonal love. Don't we love how it all connects? Saint Valentine was beatified as a saint because he prayed day and night over his lover's blindness, until she was finally cured and could see. Clearly there is a strong loving association right there, too. Having said that, there is plenty more to love about this month. This month's majority is under rulership of Aquarius, which represents love for humanity and the community at large. February also sees the ingress of Pisces, and unconditional love falls under the arena of Pisces. We also have the Full Moon in Leo in the month of February, and Leo rules the heart. So there we have it. It's a great time to think about love, of any kind.
February was once known as Februalia, which was a month of cleansing and purification. Eventually it came to be associated with Vesta, as fires in February were used to purify and cleanse, as celebrants would atone and sacrifice. While in our current conventional calendar, February still finds us at the outset of the year, the concept of purification and sacrifice aligns beautifully with winter, a season which February occupies in both ancient Rome and modern Salem. Also too, Pisces is the final sign of the zodiacal wheel of the year, so if you're ready to release some density, and sacrifice what no longer serves you, do it! You are synchronized in ideal timing.
Furthermore, this February particularly, we have the benefit of all planets being entirely direct. Mercury has even left his shadow phase already! So now you can move and operate freely, all systems go, green light ahead (green is a love association as well!) to create unencumbered, and free from your past. Boom! Here's your whiskey libation to mix with intention.
The Recipe
Whiskey is a liquor of the heart, the water of life. We want that warmth and spice in our love life, whether it's relationship to self or love for another(s). This punch is a good blueprint for any love focus you'd like to apply. It's sweet and deep, complex and surprising; like most loves we'd like to have in our lives. Also, the best love relationships, whether with self or others, have many layers and comprise several elements. So here we have a recipe within a recipe, a few pieces you can keep and add as a base to other drinks.
Cherries have a long legend of love and lust associated. Perfect for a love potion. Grenadine is essentially a fruity, cherry pomegranate syrup, and those elements along with the actual cherries included impart a sweetness and lots of love lore right into your magic potion. Your sweet-and sour-mix is so ripe for love, too. Lemons are long known for love, and good cheer, and protection too. This fruit can help to strengthen your intentions for love, and imbue them with joy and safety, too. Obviously we know sugar to be sweet, and it is also an attractant, and there is plenty of it right there in the mix. So ample intentions automatically in the mix to attract any kind of sweetness your way, too. Whiskey itself is a liquor of the heart, as we were saying, and also a beverage of courage, which the heart is the center of. Adding the whiskey adds a depth to the drink and we want our love deep and brave so, perfect. Here we have all kinds of beneficial associations, which will amplify your intentions for love, in this beverage.
Our own Rose Quartz Radical Love Essence from HausWitch is something that meshes beautifully with the other elements of this cocktail to bring additional love magic – however directed – into your intentions for this alchemical love mix. Let this cherry sour deepen and carry any loving intentions you have. Whether it's self love, or interpersonal love, love for humanity or loving renewal of your life; whatever you intend, allow the warmth of the whiskey, the sweetness of the sugar, tartness of cherry and brightness of citrus to uplift your intentions and soften your heart.
INSTRUCTIONS (Scroll to the bottom for the mocktail version!): Makes one cocktail, and you can double it for two, etc.
Pro Tip: Screw-top lidded Mason jars make great stand-ins for conventional Boston shakers, and also the sweet-and-sour mix recipe I'm going to give you here can find an ideal home in a quartz size mason jar, too. It will nearly fill the glass, but not quite. This is good news, because when you screw on the cap it will leave just enough room to give it a good shake.
MAGICAL INGREDIENTS:
-HausWitch Radical Love Rose Quartz Essence
-3 Alcohol Infused Cherries (or more or less, but they impart flavor, fun, color, and garnish, so I'd use at least one!) I used original Luxardo Maraschino Cherries in this. Another variety I can recommend are Stonewall Kitchen & Tillen Farms Bada Bing Bourbon Cherries.
-2 ounces/60 ml of a Whiskey of your choosing except Scotch, the flavor notes of which may overpower the drink; or top tier blended whiskey, in which case the flavor notes of the cocktail may overpower the top tier whiskey. I used Powers Gold Label which is an excellent whiskey because it's versatile enough to drink neat or to mix with cocktails. Jameson would work very well also, and Crown Royal would be a fabulous touch. These are three whiskeys I feel confident recommending anyone add to their wet bar; all three are good enough in quality to stand alone, and smooth enough in profile to play well with others! You can even incorporate your magic in choosing. Remember, spelling is for spells. I love how Powers Gold Label has “Gold” and “Power” in the title. Crown Royal has “Crown” and “Royal” so again, can you really go wrong? You can think of locations, too: Crown is Canadian and Powers and Jameson are Irish. If you have connections to these countries, that can count also. Next time I make this it would be fun to use Powers and Crown for a Royal Gold cocktail. See? The possibilities are endless, my pretties.
-1⁄2 ounce/15 ml Luxardo Maraschino Originale This is a liquor in manufacture by the Italian Luxardo family since 1821 by the same recipe! Think of all the magic that goes along with a two-hundred-year old recipe! They also have a Luxardo Cherry liqueur too, which is a dark color instead of the transparency of the Maraschino. That variation would also work in this cocktail, and impart a stronger sweet cherry flavor, with a much deeper red color.
-3 ounces/90 ml Homemade Sweet-and-Sour Mix (the recipe within the recipe!)
-1 cup granulated white sugar (any kind)
-1 cup water
-1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (it took me about seven lemons to squeeze this, but they were organic lemons and much smaller than conventionally grown).
-3⁄4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (this took me a mesh bag of organic limes to squeeze).
-1.5 ounces/45 ml Grenadine any brand, but I love Barsmith, it's small batch prepared and all natural ingredients. So, predictably, as my favorite, it is what I personally used in my love potion.
Optional Add Ons:
A few elements I added and enjoyed were pure organic Madagascar vanilla (just a dash) and also Fee Brother's Orange Bitters (just a dash). I recommend you use both, or simply the vanilla. Vanilla will add an extra element of sensuality and depth to your cocktail, and accentuate the sweetness while also adding a more earthy, musky element. Very magical. So keep that in mind if you'd like to add it. The Orange Bitters add a bit more alacrity and spice, so keep that in mind if you'd like to add that to your intentions as well. Get bold and creative with it, of course, as always. I wouldn't recommend the orange by itself, because with the lemon and lime element already present, it may create just a little too much citrus effect on the palette to balance with the other elements. But with the vanilla included, the orange bitters will add a lot of extra flavor and balance.
First, let's make the recipe within the recipe: our sour mix. Well, really, this is a recipe, within a recipe, within a recipe. Yes, really. The sour mix itself is a recipe within your recipe, but the simple syrup is the recipe within the sour mix. So, good news, simple syrup is very versatile and great to have on hand (as is sour mix). You can even add different elements to infuse their flavor. For example, if you scroll back to January's cocktail, it includes a homemade rosemary syrup! That's simple syrup with a rosemary infusion. Anyway, on to the standard simple syrup.
Simple Syrup:
Add one cup of sugar to one cup of water in a small saucepan. Stir over heat to ensure sugar fully dissolves in the water, and bring to boil. Personally, I wire whisk this baby just to have full confidence that it's completely integrated. Once boiling, and the sugar has fully assimilated into the water, remove from heat, and allow to cool.
Now, for the Sour Mix:
Squeeze one cup of lemon juice, squeeze three quarters of a cup of lime juice, and combine. Now pour in your cooled simple syrup, and give it a good shake.
This is an awesome (and very simple!) sour mix recipe. I LOVE it. Once made it will last approximately ten days to two weeks in the fridge, but it never lasts that long in MY fridge. This is my love gift to you, because you can even keep this sweet-and-sour mix recipe by itself to use for so many other concoctions! It's not only good for this particular concoction, it works beautifully as a homemade margarita mix, or in a bourbon sour, or for any Collins drink. It's a good versatile cocktail staple, and useful in our mocktail too.
*One note, if you want to cut corners and buy sour mix, please only get Rose's. That's the one sour mix that is surprisingly tasty in a variety of cocktails. Many if not most of them have a chemical taste, and a kind of hyper quality. When I say hyper I can't tell you if they're too sweet or too sour, but they're definitely extra, and I don't mean that in a good way. Plus with all the added chemicals, they're not the healthiest additions to your secret sauces. Don't get me wrong, I am in full observance that being able to access fresh citrus fruits for your cocktail and have the time to make your own sour mix from scratch is a bit of a privilege! So if you can't or don't want to go whole hog and make your own stash of sour mix, there's a better shortcut than the bottled stuff! I'd really rather that you instead just squeeze three lemons and two limes into your individual cocktail glass, add a teaspoon of sugar, and give it a shake along with the rest of the ingredients. This is a special secret to bypass making a batch of sour mix and also avoid the bottled crap too, but that's a per drink shortcut.
Now, with all of your ingredients prepared, you can build your Hunch Punch for the Heart!
To build the drink, I start by measuring the whiskey, then adding the Luxardo Maraschino Originale. Then, the sweet-and-sour-mix goes in, followed by the grenadine. It will be fun for you to witness the cascade of colors: deep orange whiskey, clear Luxardo to bring some clarity and purity to your love, the sweet-and-sour-mix which usually blends to a lovely bright yellow for joy and energy, and finally grenadine layered on top brings a pure red that has been associated with hearts and love since time immemorial. Watch the colors mix and blend in a sensuous dance of magic, and think of your intentions once again! Then, give this cocktail a shake, and see what color emerges. Is it a dusty rose or a darker pink? It will all depend on your ingredients, but part of the magic is, like each magician, each concoction is entirely individual and that is part of the power. As for the cherries, I have put them in first, and I have put them in last (remember I've made three iterations of the love potion lately for you, my darlings). It's very cool, both ways. If you try both and have a preference, I'd love to hear about it! Also if you go the extra mile and make your own grenadine, a feat I've never attempted, I'd love to hear about that, too!
For the MOCKTAIL, CHERRY LOVE LEMONADE
I recommend a very similarly fashioned potion, minus only the whiskey and Luxardo Maraschino Originale. The proportions are a little different, but try as follows:
3 ounces/90 ml Soda Water
2 ounces/60 ml Sweet-and-sour mix
1 ounce/30 ml grenadine
3 (or more or less) Maraschino cherries, the virgin variety that you might have for your ice cream sundae!
In this case, I'd build the mocktail by pouring your sour mix with grenadine and shaking it with your cherries. Then, I'd pour the mixed ingredients together over the soda water, for a bright and refreshing cherry lemonade!
Voila, mocktail or cocktail, here you have a hunch punch that's made for the heart! Happy Magic Making! I am sending you ample love and magic. Xxx Erica Let me know about your magical cocktail experiences and edits, I'd love to hear all about them at @ericaleemedium or ericaleemedium@gmail.com
