Halloween is undoubtedly a season for the spirits, with Vodka, Tequila, Bourbon, and Rum all seeing a substantial sales uplift over Halloween. With cocktails performing strongly with the late night consumers that the occasion attracts, themed serves should be on everyone's drinks list!
We've had a good look around for some creepy cocktails that we think could be easy enough to make within the fast-paced On-Trade environment. As we say in our Halloween guide, from putting a twist on a classic serve and giving it a creepy name to adding garish garnishes such as gummy eyeballs and dripping grenadine blood - plenty could be done to add some horror and humour to your serves.
The Smoking Sage Margarita
Blackberries and sage combine perfectly in this drink from Wicked Spatula. The use of dry ice gives this drink it's impressive appearance, but if you choose to use it be careful! You should never touch, drink or eat dry ice and guests should always wait for it to dissolve fully. Sales of Tequila grow by over 11 % during the week of Halloween, so a good margarita should go down a storm.
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Ingredients
- 50ml blanco tequila
- 25ml fresh lemon juice
- 8 blackberries
- 5 sage leaves
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
Method
Muddle the blackberries and sage together in the bottom of your shaker. Pour over the tequila, lemon juice and maple syrup. Shake and strain into a rocks glass over ice or a single cube of dried ice. Garnish with blackberries and a sage leaf, burnt to create smokey aromas.
The Last Breath
This cocktail, from London's Old Bengal Bar, brings together the classic Halloween flavour of pumpkin with honey and tea. This drink is topped by a charcoal foam, for which you will need a cream whipper, egg, activated charcoal (advice on using activated charcoal), sugar syrup, lemon juice and nitrous oxide.
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Ingredients
- 50ml honey bourbon
- 25ml pumpkin syrup
- 12.5ml lapsang souchong tea syrup
- 12.5ml fresh lemon juice
- Charcoal foam
Method
Using a cocktail shaker filled with ice, pour over the bourbon, pumpkin syrup, tea syrup and lemon. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the foam.
The Witch's Heart
Our final cocktail comes from The Flavor Blender and brings together blackberry with vodka, the spirit that gets the biggest boost over Halloween. The occasion represents vodka’s principal rate of sale increase before the Christmas season arrives and is a key time for super-premium vodka sales.
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Ingredients
- 25ml apple vodka
- 50ml blackberry liqueur
- 25ml apple juice
- 5ml grenadine
- 1/2 tsp shimmer powder
Method
If using dry ice, place a small amount in the bottom of a martini glass. Shake together all ingredients, excluding the grenadine, with ice and strain into the glass. Pour over the grenadine and garnish with a blackberry and a strawberry.
About the author
Luke Siddall (alumni)
I'm Matthew Clark's resident content creator, looking after our social media, website and customer communications. I was a cocktail bartender for while before joining but I now spend most of my time on the other side of the bar.
