Our kind of cauldron: darkly delicious Halloween cocktail recipes

Green and chocolatey, this from Grey Goose Vodka is definitely festive. Let’s call it grown-up trick or treating.

40ml melted premium vanilla ice cream
25ml Grey Goose
25ml Crème de Cacao
25ml Crème de Menthe

Method: Shake all ingredients with cubed ice until liquid is cold. Double strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with a single mint leaf and grated white chocolate.

London’s Dirty Martini has come up with this wonderfully seasonal mix using gingerbread and cinnamon flavours.

25ml Goslings Dark Seal Rum
20ml apple juice
10ml gingerbread syrup
10ml cinnamon syrup
10ml Pimento Dram
15ml orange juice
10ml egg white
10ml lemon juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Method: Pour all ingredients into a Boston tin cocktail shaker and dry shake to emulsify the egg whites. Add cubed ice and shake vigorously. Double strain into a chilled viitta coupette glass and garnish with a dusting of espelette pepper.

A fruity, sweet crowd-pleaser from Grey Goose. Do try to remember this is for sharing.

350ml Grey Goose
200ml peach purée or blended peaches
200ml Earl Grey tea
100ml lemon juice
100ml Chambord or Crème de Mure
100ml water

Method: Measure out all ingredients into a punch bowl. Add lots of cubed ice until the bowl is full. Spread sprigs of mint, lemon wedges and redcurrants on top of the ice to create the colour differentiation.

This from Las Iguanas restaurants uses rum. Lots and lots of rum. And a skull. And fire. One needs very little else for Halloween…

150ml pineapple juice
150ml orange juice
45ml lime juice
30ml Havana Blanco (use 3 Years if you can’t get hold of this)
25ml Havana Club Añejo Especial
25ml Havana Club 7 Years
25ml Taylor’s Velvet Falernum
4 dashes Angostura bitters
Grenadine

Method: Add all ingredients to a bowl or large glass (such as the pictured skull) and stir. Crown the glass with crushed ice and drizzle over two bar spoons of grenadine. Garnish with three slices of lime dusted with sugar and three pineapple leaves. For the extra wow factor, pour 15ml Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum over one lime slice and 15ml Chartreuse over another, and (extremely carefully) set fire to them with a lighter.

The Pogues Irish Whiskey provides this recipe, utilising chilli for a devilish kick.

25ml The Pogues Irish Whiskey
25ml Navy rum
25ml freshly squeezed orange juice
15ml fresh lemon juice
15ml fresh lime juice
15ml agave syrup
Quarter red bird’s eye chilli

Method: Shake all ingredients together and pour over ice in a pewter tankard. Garnish with orange, mint sprig and as much chilli as you can handle.

This from Sailor Jerry rum is a fantastically dark sip, perfect for a horrifying eve.

50ml Sailor Jerry
20ml coffee or dark chocolate liqueur (Patrón XO Cafe or Mozart Dark)
2 red chillis
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Method: Make chilli syrup by combining one cup of water and one cup of caster sugar in a saucepan. Gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, then split one chilli in half down the middle and add it to the warm syrup. Leave to infuse for an hour or until the desired heat is achieved. Add all the ingredients to a rocks glass plus 10ml of chilli syrup, fill to the brim with ice and stir. Garnish with a fresh red chilli.

This maple-tinged Sour was inspired by Netflix hit Stranger Things, and created by head bartender of the Mothership Group (Queen of Hoxton, Patterns) Chris McGovern. 

50ml Four Roses Bourbon
35ml red wine
15ml lemon juice
15ml orange juice
15ml maple syrup
1 egg white
Mini caramel waffle

Add all the ingredients to a Boston tin except the red wine and shake well with cubed ice. Pour into a rocks glass over cubed ice and use the back of a spoon to ‘float’ the red wine on top of the drink so it trickles through. Garnish with a caramel waffle on the side of the glass.

Using pear-flavoured Grey Goose vodka, this is a playful take on a Moscow Mule.

150ml premium ginger beer
40ml Grey Goose La Poire
25ml lime juice
10ml simple syrup
10ml Chambord or Crème de Mure
2 dash Angostura bitters

Method: Measure out all ingredients except the Chambord into a copper mug. Add lots of cubed ice until full. Garnish the glass with a mint sprig and three blackberries, then sprinkle icing sugar on top of the garnish. Pour the Chambord over the ice so it drizzles through.

Mothership Group head bartender Chris McGovern came up with this mix, inspired by The Mighty Boosh and as green as a Halloween cocktail should be.

35ml pineapple juice
25ml Midori
25ml Chase Marmalade Vodka
15ml lemon
5ml sugar

Method: Add all ingredients to a Boston cocktail shaker. Add rocked ice and shake hard 10-12 times. Fill a highball glass with fresh rocked ice and single-strain the drink into it. Garnish with a giant plastic syringe and lime wedge.

This, from Suffolk’s The Unruly Pig, has all the vital components of a Negroni – mixing bitter aperitif Campari with vermouth and gin – sweetened up with a hit of damson.

50ml damson cordial
25ml Bombay Sapphire gin
25ml Campari
12.5ml Martini Extra Dry
12.5ml Martini Rosso

Method: Shake all ingredients together well and serve in a short tumbler over ice with a slice of lime.