And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
The Tale
Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” was first published in 1842. In essence, it’s a tale about a self-seeking prince’s attempt to sequester himself and a large number of his friends and courtiers in his large castle, away from a fearsome plague that was rife throughout the land. You can guess how well that plan worked out.
The story works on a number of levels. On its face it’s a Gothic tale rich in imagery and Angst and, ultimately, doom. But it also works on an allegorical level, reminding us of the folly of trying to cheat Death. It’s been the subject of many films and plays over the years, most notably the 1964 Roger Corman movie starring Vincent Price. You could do worse than to spend an evening watching it with the lights down and with this cocktail in hand.
The full story is available here.
The Drink
Obviously, the drink has to be red. The “death” part is symbolized by a marshmallow garnish in the shape of a skull. OK, subtlety is not my strong suit.
The red color comes largely from pomegranate juice. I added some muddled blackberries (which darken the color a bit) and some mint (which prevents the drink from becoming too heavy).
Ingredients:
1-½ oz. white rum
½ cup pomegranate juice (chilled)
A small handful of blackberries
A few mint leaves
For the skull:
1 regular marshmallow and one mini marshmallow
Black icing and/or black jelly beans
First you gotta make your skull. (That would make a good bumper sticker.) Use a standard, regulation marshmallow for this, and add eye sockets and a nose hole. Use your own instincts here. You can use either small, black jelly beans or icing for these.Then dab the top of a mini marshmallow with black icing, and stick it on the bottom of the regular marshmallow to serve as the jaw. Add a little icing where the two marshmallows meet to represent the mouth.
Set aside your skull (another bumper sticker candidate) and muddle the blackberries and mint leaves in a cocktail shaker. Add rum and chilled pomegranate juice. Shake it up. Then remove the top and pour the un-strained mixture into a wine glass. (I suppose you could strain it if you don’t want bits of blackberry and mint leaves in your drink, but I like the added texture.) Add the skull as a garnish, perhaps at the end of a straw, a cocktail pick, or a catheter…whatever you have around should work.
This drink is already pretty sweet, but you can add a little simple syrup if you don’t like the slight tartness of the pomegranate juice. You might want to affect a Prince Prospero pose, laughing carelessly at the latest disaster broadcast on the evening news as you throw a few of these back in your gated McMansion.
Poe-script
Despite the plot’s central reliance on the idea of a fatal plague called Red Death, there is no such disease. So, you can at least rest a little easier knowing that.
Chasing Phantoms 