Certain times of the year lend themselves to the dark and spooky. Ghoulies and ghosties come out of hiding and dark tales begin to form…or we forget all that and have a wonderfully scary Shaker get together.
(insert scary Boris Karloff voice here)
On Halloween eve, the stage was set, costumes donned and munchies made…it was time to invite some of our followers in for the Shaker experience.
Guests were greeted with a lovely concoction: the Apple Thyme Martini.
This one is a rather delicate blend of apple juice, thyme simple syrup, vodka and an apple slice for a garnish. These were a big hit with the guests. The flavors blend together beautifully – nothing overpowers anything else. This one was basically made exactly as written, though we did cut down the simply syrup a bit.
Shaker One and Two give this one a 4.5 olive rating. 
To go with this, the table was set with mummy dogs, gougéres, an onion and sage tart, southwestern pumpkin soup shooters, ginger roasted butternut squash soup shooters, caramel corn and fabulous white chocolate pretzel “fingers” and chocolate dipped pretzels sent by Shaker One’s sister (thanks, Cyndy!!)
Zombies!!
Attending this get-together was a James Dean, a Pink Lady, a zombie couple, a preppy, a guy who got off work and refuses to don a costume and two zombie Shakers
The Balcony Bar was decked out in tulle, skulls, pumpkins and bats. Quite the festive scene.
Next martini on deck was the Corpse Reviver.
Admittedly, most at the party did not get around to trying this one as they were drinking the Apple Thyme Martinis like they were going out of style.
For this one, we used 3/4 oz of each ingredient (though used vodka instead of gin) and a bit less lemon juice (1/2 oz) and skipped the absinthe. We garnished this one with a piece of star anise, which gave it a very subtle anise flavor.
We give this one a 3.5 rating. 
Enjoyable, but not a favorite.
We soon had a special guest at our little Dread Shaker Night – honorary East Coast Shaker, John. He attended via Skype and showed off his costume for a fabulous themed get together he was attending the next night.
John getting to try the apple thyme martini
Love that smile
Showing off his fabulous costume
In honor of the season (and a bottle of Modern Spirits Pumpkin Pie vodka) we Shakers created our own festive concoction, aptly entitled:
The Jack-o-Tini.
The Pumpkin Pie vodka is a subtle infusion. It is not overly pumpkiny and the spices are complimentary and not overpowering. To this, we floated freshly whipped cream flavored with cinnamon and confectioner’s sugar. For a dessert martini, this one is really nice. Not too sweet, depth of flavors with the spices but nothing too cloying.
We give this one a 3.75 (mostly for the creamy goodness) 
Zombie and Shaker Two
Shaker One and Shaker Two would like to thank our excellent guests for helping us make our first Dread Shaker event Spooky Fabulous!
Good night and Happy Hallo-tini!!
