I don’t know why Labyrinth has been on my mind lately, but I suspect it has something to do with all this rain we’ve been having. Rainy days always make me want comfort food, even when it comes to books, TV and movies, and it really doesn’t get much more comforting than a muppet-based fairytale, right?
So when I set out to make a cocktail based on a particular story, one of the things I always take into account are any actual drinks, foods or flavors present in canon. There isn’t too much of that pictured in Labyrinth, aside from the goblins sipping grog up in the castle, but there is one particular thing that gets eaten onscreen: the drugged peach that Jareth forces Hoggle to give to Sarah.
As Sarah takes a bite (and really, she should know better than to eat fruit in a fantasy mirror-verse, being a fairytale connoisseur herself) she remarks that the peach tastes strange, and that suddenly “everything’s dancing.” After the masquerade ball dream sequence, Sarah wakes up with the peach still in hand, and to her horror finds a glistening worm crawling out of the core.
So! We’ve got one poisoned peach, complete with worm. Obviously, this is a job for mezcal.
I used a passionfruit-infused mezcal because I happened to have it on hand, and the sweet fruitiness of the passionfruit mixes really well with the smokiness of mezcal. If I’d planned to make up a special batch just for this cocktail, though, I might’ve tried infusing it with peach rather than passionfruit. But I did have ripe peaches on hand, so I mixed up a peach syrup instead. I knew I wanted an ingredient that would contribute to the strange taste and the hallucinatory quality of the peach, so I decided on Gran Classico, an amaro aperitif with a range of ‘strange’ flavors, including rhubarb, bitter orange and wormwood, which carries (incredibly trace amounts of) the hallucinogen thujone. I chose grapefruit for the citrus-- no particular reason, just thought it would go best. And of course, the whole thing must be topped off with bubbly, in a nod to Jareth’s crystal ball-bubbles, and the lavish mirror-masquerade Sarah finds herself lost in.
Everything’s Dancing
2 oz passionfruit mezcal
1/3 oz Gran Classico
1/3 oz peach syrup
1/3 oz grapefruit juice
top with prosecco
Shake mezcal, Gran Classico, peach syrup, and grapefruit juice on ice. Strain into a chilled coupe and top with cold bubbly. Garnish with a sliver of peach, and enjoy the illusion, while it lasts.
