The secret Poison Appletini Halloween cocktail at Disneyland is fit for an Evil Queen - SF Gate

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When the Evil Queen offered Snow White an apple, the unwitting girl had no idea it was poisonous — but when I saw a server carry a glowing purple drink past me at Carthay Circle Lounge in Disney California Adventure, even though I suspected something was amiss, I still asked what it was.

I had to have it. And reader, I did.

Enter the Poison Appletini, made of Crown Royal Apple, Apple Pucker, cranberry juice and angostura bitters. Sweet and a little sour, the drink is served with a glowing “poison apple” floating on its deep purple surface. It’s only offered at Halloween, and only at Carthay Circle, the restaurant modeled after the now-defunct Carthay Circle Theatre where “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiered in Dec. 1937 (it was released to the public in Feb. 1938).

This villainous cocktail is made with apple-flavored whiskey and sour apple schnapps.
Julie Tremaine

At Carthay, my go-tos are the sidecar, the old fashioned or the mix-it-yourself variations on aromatic gin and tonics. While I liked the Poison Appletini — all four of us who tried it liked it — I’m not sure I could drink more than one of them. I wouldn’t describe the cocktail as overly sweet, but it did feel like I was consuming a lot of sugar, which I normally try to reserve for seasonal churros.

Secret menu items are so prevalent at Disneyland these days that they almost aren’t a secret anymore — they’re everywhere from Trader Sam’s to the snack carts — but unless you remember to ask whether there’s anything off-menu to try, you likely won’t get offered one. The Poison Appletini, though, is a cocktail so popular that it’s in a gray area between public and private. When I went to ask the bartender about the ingredients, I saw that the Carthay Circle bar had one on display, and even had a little collector’s box for the poison apple souvenir lights that are offered in a different color each year.

If you can’t make it to Anaheim to try the original, here’s a similar Poison Appletini recipe from a past year, courtesy of Sunset and Disney.