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A sweet, sour and spicy flavour bomb that’s wickedly good.
About the cocktail
Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Antichrist… the devilish Prince of Darkness goes by many names. The same goes for drinks donning the fallen angel’s moniker: El Diablo, Red Devil, Dancing With The Devil, Devil's Cocktail, even Devil’s Lair Cab Sauv… sheesh, he really does work hard. One such demonic-dubbed drink not only tastes the part, but it looks it, too – enter the Devil’s Horn cocktail, with its fiery-red appearance that matches perfectly to its spicy, sweet and sour taste. The Devil’s Horn is said to have been created in 2010 by Roger Vilalta at the Mandarin Oriental’s Banker's Bar in Barcelona, and it gets its name from its blood-red colour and chilli garnishes that perch on the glass rim like devil’s horns. A blend of spiced rum, cranberry juice, honey syrup, fresh lime juice, raspberries and a cheeky dash of Tabasco, it’s a close cousin to the Blood Orange Marg, Spicy Buch-erita and Lucifer’s Margarita, swapping out the tequila or gin base for spiced rum, which puts a sweeter, vanillin take on the mix. Perfect for Halloween, the hell-raising combination of flavours makes this cocktail a spooky szn favourite. The citrus hit of fresh lime juice, cranberry juice tang, sweet honey syrup and fresh raspberries balance perfectly with the rum and the spicy hit of Tabasco for a zippy, fruity crimson drink with a real sting in its tail.
Watch: How to make a Devil’s Horn
Ingredients: honey syrup
2 parts quality honey 1 part boiling water
Ingredients: cocktail
50mL spiced rum 20mL cranberry juice 20mL honey syrup (see method below) 20mL fresh lime juice 4 raspberries 3 dashes Tabasco (or more to taste) Pinch of salt Glass: coupe or martini Garnish: 2 bird's eye chillies
Method
For the honey syrup, it’s worth making more than needed as this will keep in the fridge for up to one week. We suggest combining 200mL honey with 100mL boiling water (just make sure your chosen quantity is 2 parts honey to 1 part water), and stir until fully combined. Set it aside to chill
Prep your glass by slicing the chillis on an angle, but only part-way through so they sit up on each side of the glass like devil's horns. Pop your glass in the freezer to chill For the cocktail, add all ingredients to a shaker Add cubed ice and shake until the outside of tin is frosty Fine-strain into your chilled, prepped glass
Dan’s top tips
To ensure this sinfully delicious drop sings, be sure to use good-quality spiced rum to capture all those bold flavours of cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and cloves. Not a rum fan? Swap it for a quality blood orange gin or tequila akin to a Lucifer's Margarita. For our take on the Devil’s Horn, we’ve subbed out muddled chilli for Tabasco to give us a more controllable mix, as muddling can often be trickier to balance spice levels. However, if spice-roulette is your thing, feel free to muddle in a few slices of your fave chilli or even some jalapeños, should a devil-may-care attitude strike. To master the malevolent appearance, don’t forget the two Thai chilies for garnish, sliced on the side and placed on the rim like horns – just be sure to wash your hands after. And for any chilli demons out there, you can rub the garnish around the rim before placing them to really bring on some extra heat. After all, the devil's in the details.
image credits: Shelley Horan (photography), Raye Scerri (videography), Bridget Wald (styling), LSS (production).
