15 Halloween Cocktail Ideas (Recipes to Die For!)

There’s something in the air, and we don’t just mean fall leaves blowing off the trees. Spirits seem to swirl around us in October. Or maybe it’s the spirits we’re concocting in this roundup of Halloween cocktail ideas. No matter which of these fall cocktails you choose, you’re sure to give your Halloween season a memorable autumnal twist. Replicate these fall drinks at your next Halloween party or shake them up for a spooky season night in watching a horror movie, if you dare!

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1. One-Eyed Willy

At Borracha in Nevada’s Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa, mixologist Mike Monrreal channels the famous pirate in his Day of the Dead-themed bar.

Recipe

• 2 ounces Botran Reserva Rum
• 1 ounce Cruzan Aged 151 Rum
• 1 ounce Pineapple Juice
• 1 ounce Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 ounce Funkin Passion Fruit Puree
• ¾ ounce Monin Hibiscus Syrup
• ½ ounce Giffard Orgeat Liqueur (almond flavored liqueur)

Add all ingredients to cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a skull-shaped glass over crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple top and a hollowed out lime half filled with 151 rum. Light the rum on fire for spectacular effect.

2. The Spiked Tootsie Cocktail

Coyote Café in Santa Fe, New Mexico builds on its city’s history for its Halloween cocktail. Santa Fe was the first place Mexico exported its tequila, up the old El Camino Real trail to the Spanish Colonial seat of power. Coyote Cafe Owner John Quinn created the Spiked Tootsie cocktail, which looks and tastes like Halloween in a glass.

Recipe

• 2 ounces Patron XO Cafe Coffee-flavored Liqueur
• 3 ounces Fresh Orange Juice

Pour the coffee liqueur in a glass. Pour the orange juice carefully over an upside down spoon to create a layer over the liqueur. Garnish with an orange twist.

3. Booberry Sidecar Mimosa

FireFlies Restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia offers the Booberry Sidecar Mimosa – a spin on the classic sidecar cocktail. Daniel Barrios, general manager and craft bartender, says this sidecar is special because the citrus liqueur is made in-house. (But you can substitute Cointreau in its place.) This mimosa also features a blueberry juice ice cube that flavors the drink as it dissolves.

Recipe

• 1 ounce Courvoisier VSOP
• 1 ounce House-made Citrus Rujero Liqueur or Cointreau
• ½ ounce Fresh Lemon Juice
• ¼ ounce Fresh Orange Juice
• Blueberry Juice
• Rim Sugar

Add blueberry juice to an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, mix together Courvoisier VSOP, Cointreau, lemon juice, and orange juice. Pour the mixture over one blueberry juice ice cube and top with Muscanti Brut sparkling wine. Finish with a lemon twist. Coat rim of the glass with sugar.

4. Candy Corn Martini

Located in the Santa Fe Sage Inn in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Social Kitchen + Bar serves up this Candy Corn Martini as the ultimate adult Halloween treat.

Recipe

• 1 ½ ounce Skyy Vanilla Vodka
• 3 ounce Sweet & Sour Mix
• 2 ounces Pineapple Juice
• ½ ounce Grenadine
• Whipped Cream

First, pour grenadine into the bottom of the martini glass. Next, shake the vodka, sour mix and pineapple juice together over ice and strain. Pour the mixture over an upside down spoon to create the yellow layer. Top with whipped cream.

5. The Sleepy Hollow

Head Bartender Marti Cassinerio from Local Chop and Grill House in Harrisonburg, Virginia created the Sleepy Hollow to evoke the spirits of the season. The restaurant prides itself on its use of local and seasonal ingredients.

Recipe

• 1 ounce Rhum Barbancourt
• 3/4 ounce Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 3/4 ounce Housemade Spiced Pumpkin Shrub (Make your own or use this alternative)
• 1 egg White
• Angustura Bitters

Shake all ingredients (besides bitters) to allow egg to create a foam. Add ice and shake again. Pour into a glass. Add soda water and two dashes of Angostura Bitters. Pour bitters into a spray bottle Place a leaf-shaped stencil over the glass and spray the bitters through the stencil onto the foam.

6. Midori Lemon Gin Fizz

According to Dell Cove Spice Co. from Chicago, Illinois this spooky cocktail not only looks elegantly spooky, but also it tastes great. This is the perfect choice to impress guests at your next Halloween bash.

Recipe

• 2 ounces Gin
• 2 ounces Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 ounce Midori Melon Liqueur
• 2 egg Whites
• Honey or Simple Syrup for Moistening the Rim
• Black salt, Such as Dell Cove’s Black Lava Sea Salt, for the Rim

Rim chilled glasses with honey or simple syrup, then dip in black salt. Fill glasses with ice and set aside. Pour gin, lemon juice, melon liqueur and egg white into a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Cover and shake vigorously for one to two minutes. Strain into salt rimmed glasses and serve. Want to add a playful touch? Clip on a plastic Halloween spider ring or other toy to the glass rim. (Please don’t eat this, though!)

7. Autumn’s Ambrosia

“Autumn is fall and ambrosia translates to nectar, the elixir of life, the drink of the gods, and immortality!” says bartender Mason Salicetti of New York City’s Crimson & Rye. His enthusiasm is catching.

Recipe

• 1½ ounce Blue Nectar Reposado Extra Blend
• ¾ ounce Lemon juice
• ½ ounce Black Peppercorn-Honey syrup
• ¼ ounce Fresh apple juice
• ¼ ounce Sherry
• Top with apple cider
• 2 dashes of whiskey barrel-aged bitters
• Garnish with a cinnamon stick + 3 black peppercorns

Add all the ingredients into the shaker except for the Apple Cider and Bitters. Fill the shaker with as much ice as you can and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice (leave enough room for cider), top with Apple Cider and the 2 dashes of Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters and finally top it with a cinnamon stick and three black peppercorns.

8. Cider Sangria

Adams County, Pennsylvania – which surrounds historic Gettysburg – is one of the largest apple growing regions in the U.S. There, hard cider is the drink of choice. At One Lincoln, the bar inside the iconic Gettysburg Hotel, they use a local hard cider as a base for their Cider Sangria.

Recipe

• ¼ Diced Adams County red Delicious apple
• 2 ounces Local hard cider, like Big Hill Cider or Jack’s Hard Cider
• 1 ounce 10-Span California pinot noir
• ½ ounce Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
• 2 ounces Cranberry juice

This will make a single cider sangria cocktail, but you may want to multiply the original recipe and make a pitcher full.

9. Rye Bar Smoked Coffee

Washington DC’s Rye Bar in the Rosewood hotel, offers a smoky coffee cocktail to warm you up as you sit in leather chairs looking over the C&O Canal in Georgetown.

Recipe

• 3/4 ounce Mezcal
• 1 1/4 ounces Redemption rye
• 1 shot of espresso
• 1/2 ounce Pedro Ximenez sherry
• 1 cube of brown sugar

Mix together, then top with hot water and a fresh cream float. Finish with shavings of dark, spicy chili chocolate.

10. Fall in the 305

“Fall is one of my favorite seasons,” says Spencer Taliaferro, Lead Bartender at LILT Lounge at Kimpton’s EPIC Hotel in Downtown Miami, Florida. “Being from the suburbs of New Jersey and living in South Florida, I miss the fall: the changing leaves, the spices, pumpkins, the aromas and the overall feel of fall. I wanted to pay tribute to the season that I love by creating Fall in the 305, a fall-inspired cocktail, and still maintaining the spirit of Miami and South Florida.”

Recipe

• 2 oz. Mount Gay rum (Taliaferro’s blend)
• 1 oz. Banyuls dessert wine and apple cider vinegar shrub syrup
• 1 oz. Carpano Antica
• 2 Dashes apple spice bitters
• Spiced apple chip

Add all ingredients into mixing beaker, add ice and stir well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass garnished with spiced apple chip garnish.

11. Leone Sour

Of course, Austin is going to do things a little differently. L’Oca d’Oro, a contemporary Italian restaurant, offers the unique Leone Sour cocktail. It’s named after Sergio Leone, a famous Spaghetti Western director.

Recipe

• 1 1/2 ounces Medley Bros Bourbon
• 1/2 ounce Amaro Campanella (a housemade infused spirit with cocoa and cinnamon notes)
• 3/4 ounce lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce honey syrup

Shake. Strain over rocks. Top with Club Soda. Garnish with lemon and pickled blueberry.

12. Gingerbread Spice Margarita

The Dell Cove Spice Company in Chicago provides an autumn cocktail recipe that mixes the flavors of a summer classic drink, but with a twist: the fall spice of gingerbread with the sweetness of Midwestern apples. Parents can enjoy a Gingerbread Spice Margarita after apple picking with the kids.

Recipe

• 4 ounces Reposado tequila (or any good, aged tequila)
• 4 ounces organic apple cider
• 2 fresh limes, juiced
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of agave nectar or simple syrup
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon Dell Cove Spice Co.’s gingerbread-flavored cocktail rim sugar plus a bit more to garnish
• Ice
• Whole star anise for garnish

Rim your chilled glasses with the gingerbread-flavored cocktail sugar or edible glitter. Fill glasses with ice and set aside. Combine tequila, apple cider, lime juice, agave nectar, cinnamon and one tablespoon of the gingerbread sugar to a cocktail shaker full of ice. Cover shaker and shake vigorously until shaker is chilled. Strain into glasses. Add a star of anise for garnish and serve.

13. Maple Trea

Michigan isn’t known for its maple syrup, but it should be! Locals have been tapping their maples for years, and this drink is a fabulous way to utilize the nectar of these trees with leaves ablaze.

Bartender Amos Arinda at Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor created the Maple Trea using the best, full-flavored ingredients available. Maple syrup from Snow’s Sugarbush in nearby Mason, Michigan is the highlighted flavor. The base liquor is Scotch, which provides a smokiness reminiscent of burning leaves.

Recipe

• 1 1/2 ounces Scotch
• 3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce maple syrup
• 3/4 ounce freshly brewed iced tea (use Earl Grey or add a drop of bergamot oil if possible)
• 1 Dash Angostura bitters

Shake and strain over ice, garnish with a lemon tongue.

14. Pumpkin Spice Latte Cocktail

Over Easy in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Greg Janacek of Colorado Springs eatery, Over Easy, offers his solution to the fall doldrums with a latte-inspired cocktail. You’ll wish the Pumpkin Spice Latte were served at your local coffee house.

Recipe

• 2 ounces pumpkin pie vodka
• 2 ounces coffee liqueur
• Dash of ground ginger
• Dash of cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• Graham crackers and a cinnamon stick for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with crushed graham crackers and serve with cinnamon stick to garnish.

15. PNW Old Fashioned

In Seattle, fall intensifies the damp chill in the air. Eden Hill’s Chef/Owner Maximillian Petty offers the flavors of fall, with a hint of smoke to evoke the warming fires of the season.

Recipe

• 2 ounces apple brandy
• 1/2 ounce Cinnamon Demerara syrup (Mix equal parts brown sugar and hot water. Steep cinnamon sticks for 2 days)
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

If you’re feeling very fancy, torch a cedar plank and set a rocks glass upside down on it (to capture smoke). Then combine all ingredients in glass over ice. Stir. Serve in smoked rocks glass over fresh ice and garnish with dehydrated apple.

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Which of these Halloween cocktail ideas would you dare try? Let us know in the comments below!

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