A Dry Rabbit original · Halloween
Graveside Highball
Earthy beet and blood orange under bitter tonic, poured over ice with pomegranate seeds frozen in it like eyes.
Alcohol-free. Nothing in it has alcohol, unless you add the optional NA aperitif, which may carry up to 0.5% ABV; Ghia Le Apéritif says 0.0% on its own site.
Make it
You’ll need
- 1¼ oz (37.5 ml) beet–blood orange cordial
- ½ oz (15 ml) hibiscus tea, strong and cooled
- 4 oz (120 ml) light tonic water, chilled
- 1 glassful pomegranate-seed ice cubes
- 1 oz (30 ml) NA aperitif, such as Ghia Le Apéritif, in place of the hibiscus tea (optional)
Garnish: A rosemary sprig.
Method
- Fill a tall glass with the pomegranate-seed ice.
- Pour in the cordial and the hibiscus tea, top with the tonic and give it a single gentle lift with a spoon.
Swap. Blood oranges reach the stores in December. Until then, use bottled blood orange juice, or fresh orange juice: the beet keeps it dark. Soda water in place of the tonic makes it softer, with no quinine.
Allergens and caffeine
- No major allergens, and no caffeine: hibiscus has none, and Ghia says it has none.
- Tonic contains quinine; use soda water if you avoid it.
- Beets can turn urine pink for a day. It's harmless.
Every brand we name is optional. Ghia Le Apéritif says “0.0% Alcohol” and “No caffeine” on its own site. (Read Oct 17, 2026.)
Get everything for it
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The bottles
The tools
- Cocktail Kingdom Leopold Jigger
- Bar spoon
The pantry
- Dried hibiscus flowers
- Citric acid
- Beet juice
- Blood orange juice
Make ahead
- Beet–blood orange cordial. Warm 1 cup of blood orange juice, ½ cup of beet juice (bottled, or a roasted beet whizzed in a blender with a little water, then strained), ¾ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of citric acid and a strip of orange peel, stirring until the sugar is gone; don't let it boil. Off the heat, steep 15 minutes, then strain. Keeps about a week in the fridge (our estimate).
- Pomegranate-seed ice cubes. Drop 3 or 4 pomegranate seeds into each square of an ice tray, fill it with water and freeze overnight.
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How we checked it
Dry Rabbit originals are developed and checked with AI, against the 42 tested recipes in The Dry Rabbit Cocktail Guide: sweetness and acidity per ounce, sweet to sour, dilution and the drink’s size against drinks made the same way, every ingredient’s alcohol, and whether you can buy it. One that falls outside the book’s range is reworked before it’s published.
The check’s notes on Graveside Highball
Reworked. As approved (1½ oz cordial, ½ oz hibiscus, 4 oz tonic) it measured sweetness 0.29 a finished ounce, half again the book's sweetest built drink (0.20): the cordial and a regular tonic both bring sugar. Light tonic and 1¼ oz of cordial bring it to 0.21, inside the check's margin, with acidity 0.13 and sweet to sour 1.7, in the middle of the book's built drinks, and 5.9 oz over ice in a tall glass. The cordial's numbers are our estimate (¾ cup of sugar and a teaspoon of citric acid in 1½ cups of juice). Beet gives an earthy note and the near-black color; hibiscus adds tartness and more red. Blood oranges are in stores from December, so the page says what to use until then. Ghia, the optional swap, says 0.0% and no caffeine on its own site. 0.0%.
Made it? Tell us how it was: the best originals come back next season.
More to make
From our book, free on the site: The Burrow, Rabbit Punch, Harvey, Crepuscular, Winter Coat, Bog Hopper.