With the dark night of Halloween coming on, you can have some fun with drinks that are an equally dark hue. Cocktail recipes use ingredients ranging from activated charcoal to plain old food coloring to get an inky appearance, or if you prefer something a little more classic then you can always opt for the traditional dark spirits as a base.
These three cocktails all come in varying flavors of darkness, and you can add some flair and fun to Halloween themed drinks with accessories like skull skewers of toasted marshmallows, pre-smoking a cocktail glass to add a rich smoky note to the flavors, or keeping it simple with the addition of dark flavors like walnut bitters to add some moodiness to your drinks that even the most traditional cocktail fan will enjoy.
You’ll also find some fun and lesser seen ingredients here like butterfly pea flower vodka, which uses a plant species that can impart beautiful blue or purple shades, as well as toasted marshmallow liqueur for you smores lovers out there. And there are the obligatory uses of seasonal flavors too, like incorporating pumpkin puree to work in those pumpkin spice flavors — but do look for the unsweetened version of the puree, as this will be easier to balance in cocktails than the dessert-ready style of puree you often find.
Lydia Deets
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Sugarfield Spirits Butterfly Pea Flower Vodka
- 0.5 oz Orange Liqueur
- 0.5 oz Toasted Marshmallow Liqueur
- 0.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
- 1 drop Black Food Coloring
Method:
Add all ingredients except the food coloring to a cocktail shaker with cubed ice and shake well. Strain into a stemmed cocktail glass and add one drop of black food coloring. Gently swirl with a toothpick. Garnish with a toasted marshmallow, and make sure you don’t say Beetlejuice!
Guardians of the Underworld
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Triple Dog Irish Whiskey
- 1 oz Pumpkin puree (unsweetened)
- ½ oz Black vanilla syrup
- ½ oz Fresh lemon juice
- 4 Dashes of Cinnamon or Aromatic Bitters
- 1 Pinch of cinnamon
Method: Smoke an Old Fashioned glass while you are building your cocktail. Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with cubed ice and shake well. Strain into a smoked Old Fashioned glass over cracked or pebbled ice. Garnish with blackberries or spray lemon slices with black food coloring before dehydrating. Dust the top with cinnamon.
Black Vanilla Syrup: Add 1 split vanilla bean or 2 tbsp of vanilla extract to 2 cups of water and heat covered for about ten minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and stir. Add 3-4 drops of black food color, stir well, and allow the syrup to cool. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
Port Rye Manhattan
Ingredients:
- 2 oz. Milam & Greene Port Finished Rye
- ½ oz. sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1 dash black walnut bitters
- 1 cocktail cherry for garnish
Method:
Combine all ingredients in a tall mixing glass with ice and stir for 20 seconds while ice dilutes the spirits. Strain liquid into serving glass, preferably a coupe or Nick & Nora style glassware that has a stem, and garnish with a cherry.
