With a good fancy dress costume, some spooky decorations and festive cocktails - a Halloween party is a sure fire success. Make sure your party is the one people keep talking about all year round with our excellent selection of Halloween cocktails that should keep the night rocking all the way into the witching hours!
Dragon Blood Sangria
The Pinot Noir in this cocktail gives it the deep red colour that makes it just a little bit spooky… A big bowl of anything is a great idea at a Halloween party, as you can make it ahead of time and get it out of the fridge when everyone is ready to drink! It also means you don’t have to spend the whole evening in the kitchen, shaking or stirring away as everyone else does the Monster Mash (spoiler alert: it was a graveyard smash).
This recipe serves 8 but you can double or even triple the recipe for the number of guests you’re having/rounds you’ll be serving!
Ingredients (serves 8)
750ml Pinot Noir
60ml brandy
80ml raspberry liqueur
475ml cranberry juice
2 black plums cut into wedges
1 cup halved black grapes
1 cup blackberries
icing sugar to taste
Method
Add all ingredients into a large jug (or cauldron) and stir well. Taste the sangria, if it’s not sweet enough add 1-2 tablespoons of icing sugar. Let the sangria chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours. When ready to serve, ladle or pour into festive goblets!
Witch’s Brew
Over here at The Three Drinkers, we’re mad about colour changing gin. So mad, in fact, that we wrote a whole article about them! For this reason, and for their magical colour changing properties, we’re honouring them in a ‘Witch’s Brew’.
However hard it is, don’t let anyone know that the gin is colour-changing beforehand, just say a few pseudo spells when pouring and watch as they are stunned at your mixology magic! The blue Curacao gives a beautiful ombre effect to this cocktail, one that will definitely get on some Instagram stories!
Ingredients
60ml colour changing gin
30ml lemon juice
30ml blue Curacao
raspberry hard seltzer
Method
Fill a tall glass with crushed ice and add the blue Curacao and lemon juice. Make sure to do this in front of your guests, dramatically pour in the colour changing gin. Answer all the gasps with a knowing smile and top up with raspberry hard seltzer. Good job, you’re now officially the life of the party...
Zombie
The Zombie didn’t originate as a Halloween drink, but with that name and its amazing flavour, you know we couldn’t ignore this cocktail. The Zombie has been around since 1934, and the name supposedly comes from the hungover customer who requested the drink. Ouch! To make it a little more festive, we’ve added in some edible gold lustre dust to give it a beautiful shimmery quality and dazzle your guests.
Ingredients
25ml dark rum
25ml white rum
50ml lime juice
150ml pineapple juice
1tsp grenadine
½ tsp edible gold lustre dust
orange slice/maraschino cherry/sprig of mint garnish
Method
Pour all ingredients but the grenadine into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is icy. Strain into a tall glass with ice and slowly pour over the grenadine. Stir in the gold lustre dust and watch it swirl before garnishing with mint.
Pumpkin Spice Martini
The glory of the PSL (Pumpkin Spiced Latte) is back in town, with the famous syrup hitting every coffee shop on the high street. Bring some of those Autumn vibes inside with this Pumpkin Spice Martini that is perhaps more suited to a ‘chill’ Halloween party. However, don’t let that stop you from serving these any time of year (as long as you invite us)!
Don’t worry if you can’t find pumpkin spice syrup in a supermarket, it’s readily available online and not too expensive either. As it’s not alcoholic, you can also use this syrup in your coffee to make an at home PSL!
Ingredients
60ml vanilla vodka
15ml cream liqueur
15ml Monin Pumpkin Spice Syrup
grated nutmeg
Method
Add vodka and cream liqueur into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until the shaker is icy. Grate nutmeg over the top for garnish and enjoy!
Find Monin Pumpkin Spice Syrup here: £10.25
Death in the Afternoon
The recipe for this bubbly green delight comes directly from Ernest Hemmingway himself. Yes, that’s right, in 1935 Hemmingway created this cocktail for a cocktail book with recipes from famous authors. How’s that for a fun fact! We’ve included his original instructions in our method so you can take it straight from the author!
But, why is this Halloween related…? Once you see this cocktail in action, you’ll know. The champagne bubbles mixing with the absinthe gives a wonderful, almost luminescent appearance to the cocktail that is reminiscent of an evil scientist’s lab! Spooky but also intellectual, ‘three to five’ of these sounds like a party in itself!
Ingredients
45ml green absinthe
150ml Champagne
Method
“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.” Grab an Ernest Hemmingway novel (we’re thinking Death in the Afternoon) and enjoy!
Best Halloween Cocktail Garnishes
Don’t fancy any of the above? Did you know you can turn your favourite cocktail into a fun Halloween drink by spooking up the garnish? Here are some ideas to try below…
Pumpkin Garnish
Get an orange and cut a circular slice. Get an apple, cut a slither off it and chop it into a stick shape making sure to have the green bit on top. Insert the apple into the middle of your orange and voila you’ve made yourself a pumpkin garnish!
Skewered Eyeball Garnish
The perfect garnish for a Bloody Mary! Get a radish and cut a hole in the centre of it. Stick a stuffed olive in the radish and then put a skewer through it.
Bloody Eyeball Garnish
A great Halloween garnish for a Martini, take a lychee and cut a hole in it. Then, put a blueberry into the hole you have made in the lychee. Pour cherry juice over the top, pop it in your glass and you have a nice floating bloody eyeball!
If you’re looking for more gruesome articles to read, have a look at Could You Drink Dead People? and Whisky Infused with a Severed Toe, Anyone?