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For Halloween this year, why not try adding a more grown-up, sophisticated touch to proceedings?

And no, we don’t mean adding olives and quinoa to the trick-or-treat box! Why not try shaking things up with a suitably novel Halloween cocktail? Here are our top 5 spooky cocktails for this scary time of year.

Article contents:

• Candy Corn Cocktail
• Jack-o-lantern Cocktail
• The Witches Heart
• The Vampire Cocktail
• Poison Apple Cocktail
• Now don’t get spooked…!

Candy Corn Cocktail

First up we have a nice punchy little number – a candy corn cocktail. How on earth do you get the flavour of candy corn into a drink? The answer is simple: infusion.

You take one cup of candy corn and mix it with vodka in a jar. Then you seal the jar up tightly and leave the mixture to infuse. It should be left for a minimum of four hours so make sure you do this one ahead of party time to ensure that the flavour is good and strong.

Once the time has elapsed, you simply strain the mixture to separate the liquid from the candy corn and, hey presto – you have your base for this cocktail. Your candy corn-infused vodka can then be set aside ready for when it’s time to mix those drinks.

Also, at this point, you might like to place your glasses of choice somewhere convenient for easy access later on, when required. Martini glasses are ideal, but you can feel free to get creative here and if you have any Halloween-themed glasses then don’t hesitate to use them!

For the final step, you need to take a chilled cocktail shaker and shake up ½ a cup of your infused vodka with ¼ of a cup of pineapple juice and ice. For an amusing garnish at the end, why not try adding a piece of candy corn to each glass? (You can check out the full recipe page from Betty Crocker here.)

Jack-o-lantern Cocktail

Who doesn’t love a Jack-o-lantern at Halloween? If there’s one thing that manages to both send chills down the spine but also create a cosy, warm atmosphere it has to be the eerie flicker of a carved pumpkin, right?

Well, our next cocktail is inspired by this timeless Halloween icon and comes from The Ice Co. It uses orange flavour and ginger to create an overall sweet, citrus drink with a slight kick.

You take two measures of cognac and combine with ½ a measure of orange liqueur and one measure of orange juice. Once mixed well, you strain into a tumbler over ice, ideally over a Super Cube, which is essentially a really big ice cube that has the advantage of melting very slowly so that it chills your drink without diluting it. Finally, you top up your glass with ginger ale before garnishing with the top of an orange to give that Jack-o-lantern look.

The Witches Heart

This is a really exciting cocktail with one very poetic and horrific name! It’s a recipe from The Flavour Bender and it requires a little bit more hard work than your average cocktail. However, the results are spectacular and well worth the extra effort.

You first need to create your own flavoured shimmery liqueur, which requires mixing vodka, gin, rum, syrup, strawberries, blackberries and mint to name just a few of the ingredients. (We said it was a bit more effort than your average cocktail, but The Flavour Bender makes it all perfectly clear!)

Once you have your liqueur, you then add apple brandy or apple vodka depending on your preference. Whichever you opt for, though, make sure it’s chilled. To this is added a teaspoon of grenadine to create a bleeding effect.

If you really want to go all out with this one then you can incorporate dry ice. Pour some into the bottom of your glass (as with the Candy Corn Cocktail a martini glass works well here) before you pour in your mixture. Then add some extra on top to create the effect of a magic potion!

The Vampire Cocktail

If you really stop and think about it vampires are a terrifying concept, aren’t they? Creatures that suck your blood and swagger about in dark capes with deathly pale faces are really nothing to be sniffed at! However, like all good Halloween figures, they soon become less troubling when turned into costume characters and get cocktails named after them!

This cocktail from Self Proclaimed Foodie really stands out from the crowd as it uses syringes filled with raspberry puree to create a truly bloody effect in each drink.

To create the puree you first blitz two cups of raspberries in your blender and then use a sieve to get rid of all the seeds. From here you add the blended raspberries to ¼ of a cup of sugar and cook over medium heat until you get a thick, dark, blood-like consistency. This then gets added to plastic syringes and chilled.

For the main part of your drink, you take 4 ounces of vodka and combine with 2 ounces of amaretto in a shaker with ice. Shake until good and cold and then stir in 2 ounces of orange juice and 6 ounces of club soda.

Finally, you pour into iced glasses and add your syringes of raspberry puree. Leave your guests to squirt their own blood to taste for the ultimate vampire touch!

Poison Apple Cocktail

Finally, we have the Poison Apple Cocktail from The Seaside Baker. It’s a lurid green colour that works well if served in the right glassware. This time, rather than the martini glasses that we’ve recommended a few times throughout the article, why not try something a bit different? Why not go instead for a random mix of containers and vessels – little bottles, big glasses, small glasses, beakers and, best of all, test tubes if you happen to have any! If not you can always order some online. It’s a small investment that really completes the scary inventor / mad professor / Dr Frankenstein theme.

To make the drink, you combine 1 ½ ounces of vodka with ¾ of an ounce of Sour Apple Schnapp Liqueur and ¾ of an ounce of sour apple mixer.  This goes into your cocktail shaker with ice and gets shaken up for a good thirty seconds to ensure that everything is well mixed and chilled. Then you simply strain and serve.

Now don’t get spooked…

So there you have it, our top 5 spooky cocktails for Halloween. Remember that all the drinks we’ve mentioned here contain alcohol and are definitely not concoctions that are suitable for the kids!

Don’t think twice about converting the recipes into alcohol-free versions for children though. The gory, raspberry puree blood—in the plastic syringes from the Vampire Cocktail—goes down particularly well for children’s Halloween parties. All that remains to say is – enjoy, and don’t get spooked…!