My friends at 12BottleBar.com create some simple but excellent Halloween-themed drinks.
I’ve bought drinks for Halloween parties before. At worst, I’ve gone to Rite Aid and bought a bunch of 30 packs of Bud Light. At best, I’ve dumped an entire bottle of rum into a bowl of apple cider. Neither of those qualifies as “classy.”
I spoke with the good people at 12 Bottle Bar (who I worked with on the list 11 Classy, Classic Drinks You Can Easily Make at Home) about this issue. Quick background: 12 Bottle Bar is a website centered around the idea that with just 12 specific bottles of liquor you can make an endless number of fantastic drinks. And they really appreciate those drinks.
They sent along some of their ideas for Halloween drinks. And I matched those drinks up with different popular Halloween costumes. So let’s have at it…
1 | The Laughing Zombie
(link)
2 oz gold rum
0.5 oz dark rum
1 oz lime juice
0.5 oz passion fruit juice
1 oz Grenadine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into pre-chilled cocktail glass. Top with pineapple foam (see foam-making details here). Garnish with sprig of mint.
In my topical Halloween costumes list last week, I labored through a running joke in every point that zombies are in this year. So if you’re dressing as a zombie, might as well drink a zombie cocktail. That one’s a no-brainer. (Pause for laughs.)
2 | The Bloodbath
(link)
1.5 oz gin
0.75 oz dry vermouth
0.75 oz spiced sweet vermouth
0.75 oz orange juice
6 raspberries
2 dashes orange bitters
Muddle the raspberries with the OJ and strain. Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Shake with ice and strain into large cocktail glass.
If you’re going with anything bloody — from Sweeney Todd to Gaddafi — class things up with a drink that includes not one but TWO types of vermouth. Nothing says “I’m a complex person” like that juxtaposition.
3 | The Toxicolada
(link)
2 oz gold rum
2 oz rich coconut water syrup
3 oz canned pineapple juice (strained)
2 oz warm water
0.5 tsp psyllium husks powder
2-3 drops green food coloring
The instructions are complex enough I can’t squeeze them all in here. Suffice to say you’ll feel like a Macbeth witch cooking this up. You can read them in full here.
This one’s great if you’re going for anything slimy. Slimer… Double Dare contestant… You Can’t Do That On Television secret word slime dumper… or my personal favorite, super spooky ghost (aka a bedsheet with two eyeholes cut in it). No one ever got kicked out of bed for wearing the ol’ ghost costume.
4 | Amsterdam Hot Chocolate
(link)
0.75 oz Bols Genever
0.5 oz orange liqueur (Grand Marnier recommended)
5-6 oz rich hot chocolate
Add all ingredients to a mug. Top with whipped cream, if desired.
A good drink for the Nicki Minaj costume. Chocolate, with a bit of an edge and some kick. Add some colorful sprinkles on top to simulate her wild hair color changes if you want to take this stilted metaphor even further.
5 | The Vampire
(link)
0.75 oz Leopold’s gin
0.75 oz dry vermouth
5 drops lime juice
Add all to mixing glass. Shake with large ice and strain. Garnish with garlic clove.
The vampire phase has faded a little bit, but if you’re still clinging strong to your Twilight or True Blood costume… or you have a gift card for Hot Topic and if you don’t use it now, it ain’t getting used… go with this drink. The clove of garlic as a garnish gives it a nice ironic touch — like “Yeah, I dressed as Edward, but I’m totally ironic and detached like Bella.”
6 | Poison Apple Punch
(link)
2 parts spiced apple juice
1 part ginger beer
0.5 part raspberry syrup
Add ingredients to punch bowl and stir. Garnish with cinnamon and cloves or sliced apples.
This one is to accompany your Zombie Steve Jobs costume. Which is still somewhat in bad taste. At least with this non-alcoholic drink you won’t get all feisty and start getting into fights with guys dressed as Bill Gates or Michael Dell or Jessica Tandy.
7 | The Crow
(link)
1.5 oz Redbreast whiskey
1.5 oz lemon juice
1.5 tsp grenadine
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Shake with large ice and strain.
Someone out there is going to dress as Brandon Lee in The Crow, right? I mean, it’s like Satan said in that South Park Halloween episode: “Every costume party there’s like 14 guys come dressed like the Crow ’cause they wanna look hot and hook up.”
8 | Royal Romance
(link)
1.5 oz Leopold’s gin
0.75 oz orange liqueur
0.75 oz passion fruit juice
Dash grenadine
Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Shake with ice and strain.
If you’re going to do the royal wedding costumes (like I talked about last week), you can all drink this. It’s a better option than other British drinks like brandy-infused figgy pudding or a Jack-and-barley water.
Also, I was happy to see passion fruit juice come up again after it showed up in the first drink on this list. When I typed that I was wondering, “What the hell will people do with their leftover passion fruit juice?” THIS is what you do with your leftover passion fruit juice.
9 | Gumball Martini
(link)
0.75 oz gin
0.75 oz Red Bull
2 oz root beer
Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Stir with ice and strain. Garnish with a gumball.
There’s going to be a huge rush on Playboy Lindsay Lohan costumes. And what better drink for that than, literally, the only high-class drink in history that involves Red Bull?
10 | Bleeding Heart Martini
(link)
2.5 oz gin
0.5 oz dry vermouth
1 pickled baby beet (recipe)
Add gin and vermouth to mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain. Garnish with pickled beet.
Go with the bleeding heart martini for any bleeding heart costume — hippie, Occupier, Janeane Garofalo, Rachel Bilson from the last season of The O.C.. Also, note that the link to the beet pickling recipe goes to Martha Stewart — which definitively marks the first time in three-and-a-half years of doing this website that she and I have ever had ANY crossover.
11 | The Blackthorne
(link)
2 oz Redbreast whiskey
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash Kubler absinthe
Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Stir with large ice and strain. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The perfect drink if you’re going with the frontrunner for the most popular costume of this Halloween — Angry Birds. Not that this drink is at all relevant to the Angry Birds games. I picked it because if you’re drinking a combo of whiskey, vermouth, bitters and *absinthe*, by the end of the night, you’re GOING to be angry. (And might end up recklessly flinging yourself at someone a bit piggly.)