About Purple People Eater Cocktail
Earlier this week I mentioned that my Halloween plans this year consist of an epic movie night with all the creepy classics. Easy, low stress, no pressure for an unbelievable creative yet financially reasonable costume. What’s not to like about that, amirite?
I’ve already narrowed down some of the snack foods I’ll be serving to get me in the Halloween spirit, but with this post I’ve (finally) singled out my drink of choice:
A festive purple people eater drink!
Because being the wuss that I am, I’m going to need something to take the edge off when the scary movies start to play.
Oh, would you just look at the condensation on that glass?
And the deep purple hue?
I’m a little partial to the sugar sprinkles, but once I was done eating those off the glass (no judging!) I found that the drink was equally as good.
Of course, I’ve always been a fan of just about any drink that includes grenadine. I’m guessing that comes from my childhood, back when I thought I was A Pretty Big Deal at eight years old while I sipped on my shirley temple at dinner.
As for the rest of the ingredients: sweet and sour mix is another classic staple to most of the drinks I like and Blue Curacao is a recent must-have liqueur I only discovered this year. If you haven’t already stocked up on it, I highly recommend you add a bottle to your liqueur cabinet!
There seems to be an endless combination of drinks you can make with these 3 ingredients, and each of them taste a bit different depending on how much of each you use. Go ahead and have fun experimenting!
Truth be told, I made this cocktail by throwing together some of the alcohol we still had in the house from last July. I’m not even sure if Purple People Eater is the “real” name for this drink, since I’m sure some clever bartender or self-proclaimed drink architect has thrown a concoction like this together before – but for right now, the name fits perfectly with my monster obsession this year.
Because seriously, I’m not even kidding – everything this year seems to be monster monster monster for me.
My friends should be glad I won’t be crashing any of their parties because I would totally embarrass them by showing up in an ill-fitting Sulley costume.
Of course, after I’ve had a couple of these purple cocktails that could still happen…
Are there still rent-a-costume stores in the world? I mean, someone out there must still have a need for such a thing, right?
I’m sure Google will help me out here.
Consider yourself warned!
How to measure this cocktail
This cocktail is written like a standard drink recipe, meaning that instead of an exact measurement (ex: 1 cup) the recipe will read “1 part.”
This can sometimes be a little confusing, but I’ve found the best way to think of it as this: Recipes that measure in parts usually mean it’s written so that you can adjust the size of the drink to whatever you want and the measurements they give you (1 part, 1/2 part, etc) are so you can keep the ratio of the ingredients correct.
For example, let’s say you wanted to make one drink – this typically means you’re using 1 standard shot glass for measuring. So then when the recipe says “1 part” you would interpret that amount as “1 standard shot glass” full. If the recipe says “1/2 part” you’d fill the shot glass half way so that it’s “1/2 standard shot glass.” OR, let’s say you wanted to make enough drinks for a few friends. When making the drink you could interpret “1 part” as “1 cup” (or “1/2 part” to “1/2 cup.”)
This way the drink will taste the same no matter what size you make it.
notes & tips for this purple cocktail
- This recipe calls for cranberry juice, and if you use it, the drink may turn out a tad more maroon than purple. If you’re okay with sacrificing a bit of the intended taste for a better color, you can either substitute cranberry juice with cran-grape juice or grape juice OR double the amount of blue curacao used. Make a test drink first to be sure you still like the taste with these adjustments!
- Like the mason jar cocktail shaker used in the recipe video? You can get a near identical one here: Mason Jar and Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker Set. And if you already have a ton of mason jars and just need a cocktail shaker lid, you can pick one up here: Mason Jar Cocktail Shaker Lid.
- Or maybe you like the glasses it’s served in? You can get a similar set here: Stemmed Beer Glasses.
- And don’t forget the black and white striped straws!
- Love the color purple? Then you’re going to go crazy for Black Magic Sangria and Naked Purple Ombre Cake!
More Halloween themed recipes
More fun drinks
Watch the recipe video
Recipe Details
Purple People Eater Cocktail
A tasty (and creepy!) cocktail that gets its purple hue from blue curacao, grenadine, and cranberry juice. A perfect cocktail for any type of party!
Ingredients
Instructions
On a small plate, add purple sugar. Wet the rim of a glass with simple syrup (or cranberry juice or just water) and gently dab the top the glass in the purple sugar, coating the rim. See above video for example. Set glass aside.
Combine vodka, blue curacao, sweet and sour mix, grenadine, and cranberry juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until combined.
Fill the sugar-coated glass with ice. Pour purple people eater cocktail mix into glass until full.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
How much of each would I need to use to make a large amount for a party? Like 30-40 drinks?
Hey Brandy! Did you try changing the number of servings within the recipe card? Below the ingredients is a black bar, and if you click on the box next to “servings’, you can adjust it to how many drinks you want to make. It’ll try to calculate how much you’d need of each ingredient.
What is the sweet and sour mix? Can you buy it at the liquor store?
Looks yummy.
Hey Trina! Yes, sweet and sour mix is pretty common at liquor stores as well as grocery stores. You’ll find it near things like mudslide or bloody mary mix 😀 Typically in a large bottle and yellow in color.
Name for Anytime of the year: “purple rain”
… even more appropriate bc the condensation!
Karaoke Prince/ ’80s party… ????????it!!!!
Oh man the Purple People Eater? I gotta try it and I can only hope it tastes as good as the PPE from Pat O’Briens NOLA
love love love this! That color is fab. Also vodka. 🙌🏻
What is sweet and sour mix exactly?
Hey Karine! Sweet and Sour Mix is just a sweetener that has a slightly citrus taste 🙂 You can see an example of it here: http://amzn.to/2gQIsIs
This looks awesome for our upcoming Halloween party! Do you think it would serve well from a drink dispenser or would it likely separate? Thanks for the advice.
We just made these and they were good BUT ours came out black. I mean it looked like tar water…lol! What are we doing wrong????
Oh no, sorry to hear that Stacy! I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard that before, so not quite sure :O Did you use extra cranberry juice? Or maybe used an alternative? The cranberry juice IS very dark in color, so if a lot was used it could end up dominating the drink. Also, did you serve it with ice? The ice helps bring out the hue.
Add more vodka 😁
Mine is more black then purple too.
The color doesn’t turn out that way if you follow the recipe.
Oh, this looks amazing. Saving for later!
I was wondering how parts in the recipe for people people eaters is a part is equal to a cup? If I did the math correct then it calls for 5.5 cups of liquid plus the ice, this will not fit in a mason jar the size it looked like you were holding. So did the written story get the size of your past wrong or is the recipe wrong? Thank you for your time.
Did you even read the whole article? She explained it all already. Sheesh…
Great recipe, thanks for sharing. I have a sodastream so made some club soda and added the for some fizz. Made it even more fun. I can’t say how much I added, as I just did it to taste. Lightens the color a bit too, but still purple!
Super easy to make. Mine turned out very dark too, but once I added the ice the nice purple hue was there. I made my own purple sugar too by adding a few drops of food colouring in a plastic sandwich bag. 👍
Can you make this in advance for a large party and refrigerate it until party time?
mwahahaha, ice wedges look like bones of the ones it devoured. Creepy! Awesome!
I was thinking for more purple add Chambrode liquor..
Can you make the sweet and sour mix at home instead of buying it at the liquor store?
Could this be made and put in a punch bowl?
Loved the idea for my upcoming Halloween party. However, I made a sample glass, and this is SWEEEEET. Tastes like a melted freeze pop. Not my favorite. Also came out more dark blue than purple. I added some seltzer, helped soften the taste.
Posting 4 stars only because, though it’s YUMMY, it can be made just by mixing ¢.50 grape Kool-Aid and dumping vodka in it. Save some dallahssss….