The Ultimate Cocktail for Game of Thrones’ Legendary Corpse Reviver

When it comes to Game of Thrones, no character is safe. In this series, writer and bartender Chris Vola crafts a cocktail and then pours one out for the major deaths in every episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones.

“Beyond the Wall” was undoubtedly one of Game of Thrones’ most epic, intense and heart-wrenching episodes. As such, it featured a smattering of emotionally resonant deaths, including a White Walker, Uncle Benjen (even though he was already kind of dead), and, perhaps most horrifically for fans, one of Daenerys’s beloved children-slash-WMDs. But this week, if we’re talking cocktails, it’s only fair that we pay proper tribute to the World of Ice and Fire’s most unabashed booze-swiller.

Thoros of Myr was originally sent from Essos by the High Priest of R’hllor to try to convince the newly crowned Robert Baratheon to follow the Lord of Light. Upon arriving in King’s Landing, however, he quickly forgot about his mission and jovially dedicated himself and his liver to the many less pious pursuits that the city had to offer. Constantly drinking and whoring (usually with Robert), he also proved to be a formidable warrior in the king’s service. During the Greyjoy Rebellion, he singlehandedly breached the siege of Pyke, a reckless act of bravery that he was too soused to remember having committed. Later, he joined the Brotherhood Without Banners, wandering the countryside and protecting the common folk with his famous flaming sword in one hand, his seemingly bottomless skin of rum in the other.

Ironically, Thoros’s most impressive feat was indeed a religious one. Using prayers he learned as a young man at the Temple of the Lord of Light, he was able to resurrect the Brotherhood’s leader Beric Dondarrion on six separate occasions, a challenging feat of magic that Melisandre might not have even attempted on Jon Snow if a self-proclaimed “failed drunk priest” hadn’t already pulled it off first.

Though it can’t reanimate the recently deceased, the Corpse Reviver #1 definitely can metaphorically bring you back to life. Originally listed as a hangover cure in Harvey Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, this boozier sibling of the more popular Corpse Reviver #2 features a blend of Cognac, apple brandy and sweet vermouth that’s simple yet potent enough to appease the most fanatical imbibers. Its silky smooth, slightly sweet finish calls to mind any number of earthly pleasures to tempt even the godliest of zealots.

Whatever your spiritual inclinations, this no-frills cocktail is guaranteed to restore your peaceful disposition after an overindulgent weekend, or after being gruesomely mauled and fatally wounded by a giant zombie bear.

1.5 oz Cognac
.75 oz Calvados or Laird’s Applejack
.75 oz sweet vermouth

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass.
Stir and strain into a stemmed cocktail glass.