Halloween Cocktails

Halloween cocktails are a great idea to serve up at your Halloween party and you can choose from spooky and creepy Halloween cocktails, bloody and gruesome Halloween Cocktails or just some fun ones instead.    Just don't forget to offer some soft drinks or, even better, some mocktails for the designated drivers.

I love any excuse to mix up a batch of cocktails, but Halloween means they can be taken to a whole new level.   Will your Halloween cocktails be a 'trick' or a 'treat', there's only one way to find out!

Let's look at some of the great Halloween cocktails on offer.......

Think of body parts or blood or both for the first selection of Halloween cocktails ((evil laugh in the background)).   I have found some great recipe cards available through Zazzle if you're worried about forgetting the recipes - click on them for a larger image and to see the recipes on them.

Bloody Brain Shooters

These shooters are a classically gruesome looking Halloween drink that actually taste really yummy, but it's the look that gives them their Halloween status!

1 1/4 oz strawberry vodka

1/8 oz lime juice (I use Roses for this recipe, not fresh)

3/4 oz Baileys

Splash of grenadine

Put the vodka and lime juice into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well before straining into a shot glass.   Dip a straw into the Baileys, once it's submerged put your thumb over the top of the straw to hold the liquid.   Now dip the straw into the shot glass and slowly release your thumb.   The Baileys reacts to the acidity of the lime juice and forms little tentacles.   Repeat this a few times to 'build your brain' inside of the glass.   Now add your splash of grenadine carefully as this gives the illusion of blood.

It's fiddly, but the effects make it well worth your while although I'll be honest I only make these at the beginning of the evening as later on they do seem to be too much hard work!!

Vampires continue to be hot this Halloween so why not serve up some Vampire inspired cocktails for your guests?   Again I'm including some recipe cards for you to purchase which include True Bloodtini which is great for True Blood parties as well as Halloween parties and Transylvanian Halloween Martini which is where all Vampires are said to descend from...........

Jack 'O' Lantern Cocktail

1 oz apricot nectar

1 oz bourbon

1 oz apricot brandy

1 tsp lemon juice

1 black licorice stick

Add the apricot nectar, bourbon, apricot brandy and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.   Stain into an old fashioned glass and serve with the licorice stick acting as a swizzle stick.   Very Halloweenesque!

Now I'm sure you all know that when ghosts are around they leave ectoplasm......if you don't know that then you need to watch some classic movies such as the 80s hit Ghostbusters!   Anyway just for Halloween you can actually drink ectoplasm with this next Halloween cocktail.

Ectoplasm and Eyeballs Cocktail

It's the combination of the midori and the blue curacao which give this cocktail it's haunting color, similar to the Alien Autopsy cocktail.   So let's have a look at how to make it -

1 1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz midori

1/2 oz blue curacao

3 oz freshly squeezed orange juice

3 oz lemon lime soda

Mix all of the ingredients together and serve in a tall glass with some eyeball ice cubes.

To make eyeball ice cubes you simply get some plastic eyeballs pop them in an ice cube tray and fill with water.   Pop the trays into the freezer to freeze.

I make not only eyeball ice cubes, but insect ones and more as they really help to decorate your Halloween cocktails in style!

The Ghost

1 1/4 oz vanilla vodka

1/4 oz chocolate liqueur

1/4 oz half n half

1/4 oz simple syrup

Put all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake before straining into a cocktail glass to serve.

A couple of years ago I went to a place called Draculas which was basically a place that offered dinner and a show in a gothic type of setting.   An example is that you rode a ghost train from the lounge (which had posters and relics from things such as Nightmare on Elm Street) to the dining hall.

One of the things that they had on offer were spooky sounding cocktails, however when I looked at what were in some of these cocktails I realized that they had simply re-named some cocktails with names to suit the establishment.    Why not do the same at your Halloween cocktail party?

The other way in which you can really add a bit of Halloween flavor to your cocktails is in the presentation, whether you choose spooky garnishes or scary glasses there are lots of ways to add your desired effect to the drinks you serve.

Check these links out for more ideas -