These Cocktails Are All Dressed Up For Halloween

Whether you’re throwing a costume party or keeping it low-key this year, a festive cocktail is the perfect way to get into the spirit.

First, choose your drink: Are you in the mood for something whiskey-based or maybe a tequila tipple? Either way, there’s something for everyone. In addition to warming fall flavors like apple, pumpkin, sage, and cardamom, some of these drinks have a pop of spooky color—think blood red or jet black—from ingredients like blackberry, blood orange, black lava salt, red wine, and amaro, making them all the more appropriate for the holiday.

Poison Apple

Joann Spiegel, director of operations at Cocktail Kingdom, created for The Haunting pop-up bar

• 1 oz. rye whiskey
• 1 oz. apple brandy
• 1/2 oz. fino sherry
• 1/2 oz. bitter apple syrup (recipe below)
• Dehydrated apple slice, for garnish

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with a dehydrated apple slice.

Bitter Apple Syrup

• ½ cup turbinado sugar
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 2 ½ tsps. white miso
• 1 Tbsp. Angostura bitters
• 1 Tbsp. Bittermens Elemakule Tiki bitters

Combine sugar and apple cider in a small saucepan over low-medium heat. Warm until sugar is dissolved, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and whisk in miso until fully incorporated. Allow to cool completely, then stir in both bitters. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean jar or bottle. Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Shake before each use.

Hallowed Be Thy Grove

Cole Johnson, beverage manager at The Edison at Disney Springs in Orlando

• 1 oz. Dos Hombres blanco tequila
• 1/2 oz. Dos Hombres mezcal
• 1/2 oz. crème de mûre
• 1/2 oz. bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/4 oz. lime juice
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Cardamom bitters
• Blackberry, for garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake vigorously. Double strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a skewered blackberry.

The Severed Sun

Joann Spiegel, director of operations at Cocktail Kingdom, created for The Haunting pop-up bar

• 1 1⁄4 oz. Kentucky straight bourbon
• 1⁄2 oz. artichoke amaro
• 1⁄4 oz. elderflower liqueur
• 1 1⁄2 oz. acidified grapefruit juice (recipe below)
• 1 oz. ginger and sage syrup (recipe below)
• 1 oz. Lambrusco

Add all ingredients except Lambrusco to a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Float Lambrusco on top.

Acidified Grapefruit Juice

• 2 cups grapefruit juice
• 2 tsps. citric acid

In a non-reactive container, combine grapefruit juice and citric acid, and whisk until the acid dissolves. Bottle and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

Ginger and Sage Syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup water
• ¼ cup ginger juice
• 25-30 fresh sage leaves

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water, ginger juice, and sage leaves, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let the mixture infuse for at least 30 minutes, up to 1 hour. Strain through a bouillon strainer into a bottle and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

The Doctor

Salt Wood Kitchen & Oysterette in Monterey, California

• 2 oz. bourbon
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. Demerara syrup
• Dash Angostura bitters
• 1/4 oz. Averna amaro (preferably kept in a vial until serving)

Shake all ingredients except Averna and strain into a coupe. Slowly pour in the Averna.

Black Widow

Nicholas Miller, executive chef at Tropicado at La Concha Key West, Autograph Collection hotel in Key West

• 11/2 oz. Milagro reposado tequila
• 3/4 oz. Solerno blood orange liqueur
• 3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
• 3/4 oz. blackberry-jalapeño simple syrup (recipe below)
• 2 blackberries, plus 1 more for garnish
• 1 thin jalapeño slice, plus 1 more for garnish
• Black lava salt, for rim

Half-rim a double rocks glass with black lava salt and fill with fresh ice. In a shaker, gently muddle 2 blackberries and 1 jalapeño slice with the blackberry-jalapeño syrup. Add tequila, Solerno, and fresh lime juice. Fill with ice and shake vigorously for about 10-12 seconds. Double-strain into the ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with one fresh blackberry and one jalapeño wheel.

Blackberry- Jalapeño Simple Syrup

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup granulated or Demerara sugar
• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 1 cup deseeded and sliced jalapeños
• ½ Tbsp. fresh lime juice

Combine water, sugar, blackberries, and jalapeños in a medium saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil. Lightly muddle blackberries and simmer gently for 8–10 minutes. Remove from heat and steep for 5-10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer, then strain again through cheesecloth. Stir in lime juice. Cool, bottle, and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

Bone Temple

Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage, co-founders of Black Lagoon pop-up bar

• 2 oz. Teremana blanco tequila
• 1/4 oz. Lustau amontillado sherry
• 1 oz. spiced oat orgeat (recipe below)
• 3/4 oz. tart cherry juice
• 1/4 oz. lime juice
• 1 dash absinthe
• 2 dashes Bitter Queens tobacco bitters
• Lime wheel and cinnamon stick, for garnish

Whip shake all ingredients with crushed ice and pour into a tiki glass. Top with more crushed ice, lime wheel, cinnamon stick, and drink umbrella (optional).

Spiced Oat Orgeat

• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken up
• 4 ½ tsps. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 cups oat milk
• 2 ½ cups caster (superfine) sugar
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 3 drops vanilla extract

Add cinnamon sticks and pumpkin pie spice to a pot. Toast over medium heat until fragrant. Add oat milk and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and strain through a coffee filter. Add caster sugar, salt, and vanilla extract, and whisk to dissolve. Bottle and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.