13 Great Halloween Cocktails for the Spooky Season
It’s spooky season and if you want to get festive but costumes aren’t your thing, consider dressing up your next cocktail for the occasion. There are plenty of safe ways to make your Halloween cocktails spooky but be sure to steer clear of things like dry ice and activated charcoal. Cocktail Safe from Alcohol Professor contributor Camper English maintains a list of cocktail ingredients and the precautions that should be taken with them, so please refer to that resource if you are unsure of a cocktail ingredient’s safety.
Watch Hill Proper The Crypt Keeper I & II
Crypt Keeper I & II are the same recipe, except Crypt Keeper II is topped with Cava. This addition changes the color of the cocktail.
.5 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
.5 oz. hibiscus simple syrup
1 oz. no-sugar added, not-from-concentrate black cherry juice
.25 oz. Crème de Violette
.5 oz. Kleiner Feigling fig liqueur
1.25 oz. 90 proof bourbon
Add all ingredients to cocktail tin and shake until the tin is cold. Double strain into a spooky vessel and toast to mortality. Top with Cava to summon your nemesis.
Watch Hill Proper “A Mind in Ruin”
This cocktail is a whiskey sour with super foam and all-natural red dye drizzled for effect.
.25 oz. fresh lime juice
.75 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. semi-rich simple syrup (1 1⁄2 cups white sugar dissolved in 1 cup hot water)
2 oz. of 100-proof bourbon
1 egg white from one large egg
Add all ingredients except egg whiteinto one half of a cocktail tin. In the other tin, crack the egg and separate the yolk from the white. Discard the yolk or save for later. Combine the tins and dry shake (no ice.) You should feel some pressure build in the tin. Next, add a generous amount of ice to the tin and shake again for roughly 10 seconds. Strain the liquid into the empty half of the tin, discard the ice, and give another strong dry shake. Alternatively, use an electric frother or whisk to increase the foam. Pack the skull glass with as much ice as possible. Pour the cocktail over the ice and top the dome with foam. Drizzle red dye for a gruesome, bloody effect.
Breckenridge Distilling Stranger Things – “The Upside Down”
2 oz Breckenridge Rum Cask Finish
3⁄4 oz Coke/ghost pepper salt syrup*
3/4 oz lime juice
Top with ginger ale
Mini Eggo waffle
Coke/ghost pepper salt syrup
Shake top 3 ingredients with ice. Strain and serve over pebble ice. Top with ginger ale. Garnish with Mini Eggo waffle/drizzle of Coke/ghost pepper salt syrup.
*Coke/ghost pepper salt syrup. In a saucepan add 1 can (12 oz Coca-Cola), 6 oz brown sugar
and 1 tbsp ghost pepper salt. Stir until dissolved. Let cool, bottle, and refrigerate.
Breckenridge Distilling “You’ll Float Too”
1 oz Breckenridge Chili Chile Vodka
3 oz fresh lemonade
1 scoop lemon sherbet
Splash of soda
Rim glass with red honey. Build ingredients in glass over ice. Top with soda. Stir to incorporate.
Catoctin Creek Black Devil Martini
2 oz. Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin
½ oz. dry vermouth
Dash of orange bitters
Garnish with black olive
Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, stir, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a black olive.
Catoctin Creek Skeleton Key
1 ¼ oz. Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Whisky
¾ oz. maraschino juice
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
Topped with ginger beer and aromatic bitters
Garnish with cherry
Combine ingredients and top with ginger beer, bitters, and a cherry.
The Mixer Baby Yoda Cocktail
1.5 Oz SKYY Vodka
1 Teaspoon simple syrup
2 Ripe kiwi fruits
2 Black olives to garnish
Small cocktail sticks
Ice
Cut a kiwi fruit in half. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh and add it to a cocktail shaker. Add a dash of simple syrup and muddle it together. Add the vodka and the ice. Shake until icy cold (about 30 seconds should do the trick). Strain into a dressed-up coupe glass. Serve immediately.
How to make your Baby Yoda Cocktail look like Baby Yoda
Now for the fun part! To dress your cocktail glass to look like Baby Yoda, you will need hessian or brown paper, another kiwi fruit, a small cocktail stick, and some grapes or olives.
Cut the kiwi fruit in half, lengthwise, and then cut it into wedges. These will be the ears.
Wrap the hessian or brown paper around the stem of the glass—that’s his outfit.
Finally, skewer a grape or olive into the middle of a small cocktail stick and balance it on the rim of the glass—these will be his eyes.
And that is it! So, come on baby! Do the magic hand thing, and whip up this cute drink. After a couple of these, your friends will think you’re a Jedi Knight.
Mocktail alternative
We’d never be forgiven if we didn’t give you a kid-friendly version of this trendy drink. Turning the Baby Yoda cocktail recipe into a mocktail is simple. To make Baby Yoda Juice, mix together lime cordial, ginger beer, and lemonade. Dress up some plastic glasses and add the ‘juice’. If it’s not as green as you’d like it to be, go ahead and add some green food coloring.
The Cocktail Contessa’s BOOlevardier
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce Campari
2-3 ounces blood orange soda
Garnish: mint sprigs or pepper horns
Add bourbon, Campari, and sweet vermouth to the mixing glass and add ice. Stir for 30 seconds, until well-chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and top with blood orange soda. Garnish with pepper horns or mint sprigs.
Skrewball Whiskey’s Vampire’s Punch
1.5 oz. Skrewball Whiskey
2.5 oz. POM Cherry Juice (pomegranate cherry juice)
0.25 oz. Lemon Juice
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into a coupe glass, rimmed with black lava sea salt.
The #RoamBar: HIRSCH Apple Cider Whiskey Sour
3 parts HIRSCH whiskey (chilled)
3 parts apple cider (chilled)
1-part simple syrup (chilled)
1 part lemon juice
Ice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with apple slices.
Barceló Dark-Mellow
1.5 oz Barceló Dark Series or Barceló Organic
3 oz cacao liquor
½ oz coffee syrup
Marshmallows (optional)
Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes. Shake and strain into your glass. Garnish with marshmallows on top.
Broken Barrel Broken Record
1.5 oz Broken Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon
0.5 oz Mezcal
0.5 oz Amaretto
3 muddled blackberries
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Bonus recipe! Off Hours Bourbon Apple Cider Whiskey Smash
1 oz Off Hours Bourbon
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
4 oz Apple Cider
Ice
Add ice to a cocktail shaker. Add Off Hours Bourbon, lemon juice and apple cider to the cocktail shaker. Shake until chilled. Pour over ice and enjoy.