BenchFly’s Bloody Dry Ice Halloween Punch
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What’s scarier: Michael Meyers chasing you down the street with a knife -OR- Getting scooped as a 6th year grad student one week before submitting your manuscript? Being submerged in a pool of bloodsucking worms -OR- Contaminating the cell line it took you nearly two months to make? Spending the night in a haunted mansion alone with no electricity -OR- Discovering the plasmid you thought you were working with for the last five years is actually a completely different construct? Seems like every day is Halloween in lab…
Regardless of how you answered above, looks like it might be time for a relaxing concoction to calm the nerves. We’ve got a Halloween punch recipe that’s not only delicious and easy, but it also involves probably the flashiest of lab materials that we have access to – dry ice.
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BenchFly’s Bloody Dry Ice Halloween Punch
Ingredients
- 1 6-ounce can orange juice concentrate
- 1 6-ounce can pineapple juice concentrate
- 1 12-ounce can cranberry juice concentrate
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup brandy
- 2 750mL bottles champagne, chilled
- Dry ice (“borrowed” from lab…)
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Procedure
Phase 1: Make Punch
- Prepare each juice as described on the can (dilute the concentrates with water) and mix them together
- Add brandy and lemon juice and chill until cold
- Pour punch mixture into serving bowl and add champagne immediately before serving
WARNING: If serving the Halloween punch over dry ice, use a PLASTIC serving bowl to avoid cracking glass
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Phase 2: Serve on Dry Ice
- Place plastic serving bowl containing punch into a larger plastic serving bowl
- Add dry ice to the space created between the bowls
- To commence smoke, pour water over dry ice.
WARNING: Adding the dry ice directly to the Halloween punch increases the risk of someone burning their mouth by accidentally scooping up a piece in their glass.
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Phase 3: Pimp the Punch (Optional)
- To increase the “bloodiness” of the punch, red food coloring can be added.
- To increase the creepiness of the punch, add plastic spiders, gummy worms, fake eyeballs, jello brain or any other item you’d never want to see in your drink!
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Phase 4: Relax and Have Fun! (Required)
The way we see it, the Dry Ice Halloween Punch not only is delicious, but it appears to contain “fruit”, so we’ll go ahead and consider it scary and nutritious – that’s hard to beat!
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Have any other favorite Halloween recipes to share?
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