It’s October, and that means it’s Halloween month! To celebrate, we’re running Halloween-inspired cocktail recipes each week. This one’s technically called a brain haemorrhage shot, and it’s been popular at Halloween parties since at least the early 2000s. There’s also a well-known variation called the alien brain haemorrhage, which swaps in a dash of blue curaçao for an even more unsettling colour combination. This recipe keeps things closer to the original: red grenadine at the bottom, green peach schnapps in the middle, and a float of cream liqueur on top that curdles into stringy, vein-like strands.

Prep time: 5 minutes | Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 10 ml grenadine
• 40 ml peach schnapps
• 2 to 3 drops of green food colouring
• 20 ml Baileys Irish cream (or other cream liqueur)

Method

1. Pour 5 ml of grenadine into the bottom of each shot glass.
2. In a small jug, stir the peach schnapps with the green food colouring until evenly coloured.
3. Slowly pour the green schnapps over the back of a spoon into each glass, layering it on top of the grenadine without mixing the two.
4. Just before serving, slowly drizzle the Baileys over the back of the spoon on top of the green layer. It will curdle and sins through the schnapps in thin, brain-like strands.
5. Serve immediately.