With Halloween only a few days away, we are seriously getting into the spooky spirit! The house is decorated, pumpkins are carved and the candy is waiting for the trick-or-treaters (not sure if there will be any this year but it’s best to be prepared;). Of course like any other holiday celebration, it’s so fun to have a themed cocktail of the night – so here are two classic ones that you can turn into spooky, Halloween cocktail treats! All you need are a few simple ingredients and some fun drinking glasses!
Black Magic:
We took your standard “vodka, soda with a splash of cranberry” and turned it into the Black Magic cocktail. All you have to do is add a few drops of black food coloring and voilá, you have a very mysterious-looking beverage.
Bloody Mary:
We also took your classic brunch cocktail, the Bloody Mary, and had some fun with the garnish. We made a super cute, creature-looking celery stalk out of mozzarella cheese and olives that is perfect for a Halloween cocktail.
These additions to the classic cocktails are great, but really the key ingredient is the dry ice! It adds that super cool, smokey effect as if the drinks just came out of your evil lab. Just be sure to let the dry ice melt before you drink it!!
The best part of making your own Halloween cocktails is that you get to control the quality of ingredients that go into them. Standard store-bought mixers are usually filled with sugar and not only is that bad for our health, but it is also can lead to a terrible hangover the next day (no one has time for that!).
When buying any type of fruit or vegetable juice you want to make sure that you are buying pure, 100% juice that has no added sugar. If you can get fresh pressed or squeezed, even better! It’s always best to read the nutrition label rather than rely on the actual label since those can be misleading.
Now let’s talk about the type of alcohol you are using in your Halloween Cocktail because not all are made equal. We used vodka in both recipes and our favorite, go-to vodka is Tito’s! I think we all can remember our college days when your vodka of choice was whatever was cheapest. And then waking up the next morning feeling like you had been run over by a freight train. Now that we are all grown up, we go for the good stuff because we are finally knowledgeable about what goes into our bodies directly affects how we feel.
The key to good alcohol is the distillation process. When companies try to mass-produce their products, shortcuts are normally taken to make that process go faster. That may mean they add unnecessary ingredients, which ultimately brings the quality down. Tito’s handcrafted technique offers more control over the distillation process, resulting in a clean product that doesn’t leave you with a headache the next day. It’s also Gluten-free since it’s made from 100% corn. One of the best things about Tito’s is that it isn’t overpriced!
We hope you all have a fantastic Halloween weekend (even though it looks different this year) and have fun making these spooky cocktails! And remember, it is always best to do everything in moderation, so drink responsibly.
Black Magic
Ingredients:
Makes 1 cocktail
2 oz. 100% Cranberry juice, no added sugar
1 oz. of good quality Vodka, we like Tito’s
a wedge of a lime
4 oz. cold sparkling water
black food coloring
black sugar
ice
**Dry Ice (optional) Be sure to let the dry ice melt before you drink the cocktail or you can burn your lips!
Instructions:
1.) In a martini shaker, add ice then vodka, cranberry juice, a squeeze of lime, and a little of the black food coloring- give it a shake. Then add your sparkling water.
2.) Pour the black sugar on a plate. Wet the rim of the glass with water and dip it into the black sugar.
3.) Carefully pour your vodka mixture into your glass and enjoy!
Bloody Mary
Ingredients:
3/4 cup chilled tomato/vegetable juice, low sodium and low or no added sugar
1 oz. good quality vodka, we like Tito’s
1/2 of lemon
several shakes of Worcestershire sauce
a few shakes of hot sauce (optional but super yummy)
celery stalk
An assortment of beakers – we found these at Michaels
**Dry Ice (optional)
For the eyeballs: small mozzarella balls and 2 slices of black olives, 2 toothpicks to hold the olives onto the cheese. Insert the toothpick into the celery.
Instructions:
1.) Combine all the ingredients in a glass and stir, add the celery stalk, and enjoy!
**Dry Ice is super fun and adds an added effect to your Halloween decor but please be careful when working with it. DO NOT touch it with your hands, wear gloves and use tongs to pick it up. A little goes a long way, so start using small chunks of ice first and add more if needed. You want to tell your guest not to drink the dry ice which usually isn’t a problem as it should sink to the bottom of the glass. Click here for a detailed explanation of working with dry ice.
