Black Licorice Bats

I recall several Christmas Holiday TV specials starting with terrible news that Christmas might get canceled due to inclement weather.  It seems like this year may be the Halloween that wasn't.  It's two days away and Hurricane has us all hunkered home and playing snow day.  I'm sure Halloween will be unaffected for us in Boston, so when given lemons make lemon gelee. In this instance, Concord grape, pomegranate, and black licorice bat edible cocktails.

These Halloween edible cocktails start with a blend of Concord grape and pomegranate juices.  Concord grapes started locally by a Concord, MA grape grower in 1849 and were then grown in large quantities in Upstate New York in a region known as the grape belt.  As of today, most grapes consumed are grown in one of two valleys in California and the Concord grape still dominates the juice and jam grape market.  It's one of the very few varieties of grapes around today with a distinct flavor, sometimes described as foxy according to Russ Parsons, author of "How to Pick a Peach."

Pomegranates haven taken America by storm and the sweet and tart juice blends nicely with the grape juice.  So would black licorice work with these two juices? As science is based on evidence and Gelology is the science of delicious gelatin, experiments commenced in the Gelaboratory and results came back a resounding yes. The licorice flavor came from vodka lightly infused with black licorice and Sambuca. The black licorice adds a nice bite to the gels, not it's not overpowering- just hanging in the background of the fruit flavors.  And bats and black licorice seem as natural as zombies and brains.... which by the way shall be coming up in the next post.