The Witch King’s Cocktails of Fiction
The Witch King’s Cocktails of Fiction
By Amanda Headlee
Something intoxicating this way comes in the guise of storytelling and rum liqueur. When Witch Kings Rum was founded in 2020 by Maxi Tin-Bradbury and Brandon Bizzle, they had a dream to meld their vegan, gluten-free rum with fantastical worlds of fiction.
This year Witch Kings Rum teamed up with author Jamie Ryder, who is celebrating his debut novella At the Dead of Dusk, to concoct ready-to-drink cocktails that are based on characters from Ryder’s Tales of the Frontier universe.
Hammer of The Witches is inspired by the protagonist of At The Dead Of Dusk, Clay McNab. He’s an infamous witch hunter who is tasked with transporting a young woman across a land of darkness in the novella.
The cocktail has been made using Witch Kings Rum Fires Of The Wild and bourbon for a complex, mouth-punching drink to match McNab’s personality.
High Priestess is inspired by the antagonist of At The Dead Of Dusk and McNab’s mortal enemy, Agnus Cartwright. High Priestess uses Witch Kings Rum Bohemian Dreams and Cachaca for a tangy, fruit cocktail
On teaming up with the brand, Ryder said:
“Working with the Witch Kings Rum team felt like a great fit for bringing these characters and the horror western world of The Frontier to life.
While coming up with the story for the drinks, it was important that there was a clear juxtaposition between McNab and Cartwright. They are the opposites of each other, yet both believe themselves to be the heroes of their own stories and I needed that to be emphasized.
Maxi and Biz got the idea straight away. They’ve got an excellent knowledge of drink production and their enthusiasm about combining fantasy and alcohol together is infectious!”
Hammer of The Witches and High Priestess were created in a limited batch run, so be sure to escape to Ryder’s world of The Frontier before the chance disappears.
You can find details on both of these in the links below:
About Jamie Ryder
Jamie Ryder is a marketer, copywriter and the author of the Tales Of The Frontier series, a weird western world of monsters, gunslingers and superstition. At The Dead Of Dusk is the second story to be set in The Frontier.
When not writing horror fiction, Ryder also manages a collection of publications. They are pop culture website The Comic Vault, rum magazine The Rum Ration and Japanese culture blog Yamato Magazine.
About Witch Kings Rum
Witch Kings Rum is a Manchester-based rum liqueur brand that combines the spirit and adventure of bohemian culture with a celebration of life, music and nature. In addition to their core range, Witch Kings Rum specialises in bespoke drink creation, music events and hospitality collaborations.
- About the Author
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Born with a love of scary stories and folklore, Amanda Headlee has spent her entire life crafting works of dark fiction. She has a fascination with the emotion of fear and believes it is the first emotion humans feel at the moment they are born. Most of her work focuses on horror associated with folklore as well as writing that would fall into the category of “cosmic horror” — the fear of humanity’s insignificance in the vastness of the universe.
By day Amanda is an Information Services Program Manager; by night she is a wandering wonderer. When she isn’t writing or working, she can be found logging insane miles on her bike or running the back country of Pennsylvania. She’s one of those crazy people who competes in long distance endurance races. She is inspired by the works of Shirley Jackson, Flannery O’Connor, Margaret Atwood, H.P. Lovecraft, and Joyce Carol Oates — all who write terrifying tales of their own.
Amanda keeps a blog of her writing, wondering, and wandering experiences at www.amandaheadlee.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
