Alongside devilish tricks, sweet treats, and fun costumes, Oct. 31 is a day when our drinks can be as dressed up and out there as we please.
And since Halloween is becoming more and more popular among beverage-loving adults, the day is also becoming one of the world’s biggest drinking holidays — with seasonal beers, spirits, and more being released each October.
This Halloween, skip the drinks you enjoy the other 364 days of the year, and try out these spooky concoctions to impress your witchiest of friends.
The Halloween Daiquiri Recipe
With its orange hue and lip-puckering tartness, there’s no better cocktail to ring in spooky season than the Halloween Daiquiri. Made with rum, agave, and freshly juiced limes and mandarins, this drink is sure to be a treat.
The Pumpkin Spice Gin Sour Recipe
With a creamy mouthfeel and seasonal spices, this drink is ideal for chilly fall weather. To make one, shake up egg whites, lemon juice, gin, and pumpkin butter, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme.
The Bourbon Oreo Milkshake
For a cocktail to pair with your candy loot, look no further than the Bourbon Oreo Milkshake. This drink is a Halloween delicacy, made with vanilla ice cream, milk, Halloween Oreos, and plenty of bourbon.
The Extra Spicy Bloody Mary Recipe
If this holiday brings out your love of all things extra, this Bloody Mary may be your ideal accessory. Embrace Halloween’s big energy with a bit of extra spice, adding hot sauce to the mixture of vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, and black pepper. Enjoy it with brunch — or at any time of day.
Thyme-Infused Pumpkin Treat Recipe
For a drink to pair with pumpkin-carving afternoons, try this homemade pumpkin treat. Made with white rum, pumpkin and thyme puree, and lemonade, this drink is sweet, sour, and hauntingly delicious.
Candy Corn Martini
Candy corn is perhaps the most disputed fall treat. While some love it and others love to hate it, this tricolor drink is sure to be a hit. Made with whipped cream vodka, pineapple juice, grenadine, and topped with whipped cream, this layered cocktail is extra festive.
Witch’s Brew
Straight out of a witch’s cauldron, this drink is double double toil and trouble — made with vodka, lime juice, and raspberry liqueur. The result is a dark purple shooter, poured into a black sanding sugar-rimmed glass for an eerie appearance.
Poisoned Apple Cider Cocktail
This drink is a trick and treat, all in one glass. Apple cider, spiced rum, pomegranate juice, and Grenadine combine for a burst of flavor, while sparkling edible luster dust adds a haunting visual appeal, creating paranormal red and golden swirls.
Vampire Bite Cocktail
This simple, three-ingredient cocktail is as tasty as it is creepy. Made with lemonade, cherry vodka, and cherry soda, the beverage has a dark red hue resembling a vampire’s bite. Garnish with frozen cherries and other spooky props for added intrigue.
Blue Long Island Iced Tea
When it comes to cocktails with fear factor, there’s perhaps none more spine-chilling than the Long Island Iced Tea. This Halloween, spook up your Long Island by swapping out triple sec in favor of blue Curaçao for a vibrant, eye grabbing hue. To try your own, shake up vodka, rum, tequila, gin, blue Curaçao, and simple syrup with ice before straining into a Collins and topping with a splash of lemon-lime soda.
After-Hours Bloody Maria
Featuring chocolate-chili bitters, this twist on the Bloody Mary is your perfect Halloween drink if tequila and spice are two of your favorite flavors. To make your own, combine Bloody Mary mix, tequila, lime juice, and bitters to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a glass over ice before stirring one final time with a bar spoon. While not required, it’s recommended to rim your glass with salt or sal de gusano, the Oxacan worm salt traditionally served with mezcal.
Pumpkin Spice Flip
While you may find artificial pumpkin flavoring in a number of your seasonal beverages this fall, the Pumpkin Spice Flip uses real, organic pumpkin purée in its recipe. Add to that spiced honey simple syrup, aged rum, and egg white, and you have a Halloween cocktail for trick-or-treating and beyond. And if rum isn’t your drink of choice, almost any aged spirit will complement the drink’s earthy pumpkin and spicy honey flavors.
Starless Sky
Created by Brooklyn-based mixologist Jes Gutierrez-Switaj, a.k.a. The Sauceress, this blood-red imbibe combines four types of alcohol for the perfect boo-zy sip this Halloween. To try your own, combine tequila, rum, sour cherry liqueur, and allspice dram with orgeat, lime juice, and blackberries for a special scary treat.
Created by: Jes Gutierrez-Switaj
Ingredients
- 1 ounce El Bandido Yankee Blanco
- 1 ounce Bumbu XO Rum
- ½ ounce sour cherry liqueur
- ¼ ounce allspice dram
- ¼ ounce orgeat
- ¼ ounce lime juice
- 4 blackberries
- 1 slice of carbonized star fruit
Directions
- Muddle blackberries, rum, and orgeat. Fine strain and set aside.
- Pour sour cherry liqueur and allspice dram into the bottom of a glass before filling the glass halfway with ice.
- Pour in blackberry mixture.
- Fill the remainder of the glass with ice.
- Top with El Bandido Yankee Blanco and lime juice.
- Garnish with carbonized star fruit, or something equally as spooky.
Bloody Rita
A take on the traditional Margarita, this Halloween-inspired riff adds in fresh pomegranate juice to achieve a striking bloody hue. Developed by Marc Kelly of Renaissance Wind Creek in Aruba, the Bloody Rita is best enjoyed with a red sugar rim and garnished with pomegranate seeds.
Created by: Marc Kelly – Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces Casa Noble blanco tequila
- 1 ounce fresh pomegranate juice
- ½ ounce lime juice
- ½ ounce agave syrup
Directions
- Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake for 40 seconds until ice cold.
- Strain and serve in a Margarita glass rimmed with red sugar and garnished with pomegranate seeds.
Spooky Sour
Vibrant green and garnished with candy eyeballs and fingers, the Spooky Sour is a cocktail straight out of Dr. Frankenstein’s dreams. Though the name and the bright green hue — courtesy of Pisang Ambon, a green banana liqueur — may lead you to think this cocktail would be eye-wateringly sour, its tart flavors are balanced perfectly with the addition of Disaronno amaretto and orgeat syrup.
Created by: Marc Kelly – Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces Disaronno
- ½ ounce Pisang Ambon
- ½ lime juice
- ½ ounce Orgeat syrup
- ¾ ounces fresh pineapple juice
Directions
- Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake for 40 seconds until ice cold.
- Strain and serve into a cocktail glass with candy eyeballs and fingers for garnish.
Dark Knight
Inspired by “The Dark Knight,” this Halloween cocktail features both orange and chocolate bitters in its mixture of rum and coffee liqueur. Once all ingredients are combined in your mixing glass, be sure to smoke the cocktail with cherry wood for an elevated, Batman-approved drinking experience.
Created by: Marc Kelly – Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Diplomatico rum
- ½ ounce Kahlua
- ½ ounce simple syrup
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 2 dashes chocolate bitters
Directions
- Add a large clear cube to a rocks glass and pour all ingredients into the glass.
- Stir for 30 seconds with a bar spoon.
- Smoke the cocktail with cherry wood.
- Garnish with a dehydrated orange slice and a Luxardo cherry.
Mystic Moon
If you’re both an Espresso Martini and whiskey fanatic, the Mystic Moon may just be the perfect Halloween cocktail for you. A combination of both non-flavored and chocolate-flavored whiskies, cold brew, brown sugar simple syrup, and bitters, this cocktail is perfect for enjoying under the Hallowed moon.
Created by: Whiskeysmith Flavored Whiskey
Ingredients
- 1 ounce Whiskeysmith Chocolate
- 1 ounce Old Elk Straight Wheat Whiskey
- 1 ounce cold brew
- ½ ounce brown sugar simple syrup
- 1 dashes of Angostura bitters
Directions
- In a mixing glass, stir all ingredients for 20 seconds.
- Double strain into a chilled coupe with an ice ball.
- Express with orange oil and serve.
Black Magic
Though black in color, the Black Magic cocktail takes on a surprisingly tropical flavor. A combination of bourbon, coconut-flavored whiskey, lime cordial, honey simple syrup, and, interestingly enough, squid ink and sage, the sip is balanced with a hint of smoke from oak chips.
Created by: Whiskeysmith Flavored Whiskey
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces Old Elk Blended Straight Bourbon
- ¾ ounces Whiskeysmith Coconut
- ¼ ounce lime cordial (lime juice, lime peels, sugar, water)
- ¼ ounce honey simple syrup (1:1 ratio)
- 1 drop of squid ink
- 1 sage leaf
Directions
- Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass until squid ink is mixed in.
- Double strain over a large ice cube and garnish with orange zest.
- Smoke with oak chips.
Like It You Will
Adorably garnished with two dashes of bitters and two sage leaves mimicking a creature with horns and eyes, Like It You Will is a great sessionable sip to enjoy all autumn long. To make your own, muddle agave and sage before adding coconut- and peach-flavored whiskies, yuzu lemon juice, and one egg white before shaking vigorously. Double strain into a coupe, add your beastly garnish, and serve!
Created by: Whiskeysmith Flavored Whiskey
Ingredients
- 1 ounce Whiskeysmith Coconut
- ½ ounce Whiskeysmith Peach
- ½ ounce fresh yuzu juice
- ½ ounce agave syrup
- 2 fresh sage leaves
- 1 egg white
Directions
- In a cocktail shaker, add agave and sage and muddle together.
- Add remaining ingredients and dry shake vigorously.
- Add ice to the mixing tin and shake for 20 more seconds.
- Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with sage leaves and bitters to serve.
