Eight Halloween Cocktails Built for Home Bartenders
Recipes circulating for the holiday weekend include a blue salt-rimmed drink, a smoky margarita, and a bourbon martini rimmed with graham cracker.
By Leila Reynolds ·
A set of Halloween cocktail recipes compiled for the holiday weekend points home mixologists toward smoky agave, espresso, pumpkin puree and a butterfly pea flower syrup that turns a drink purple. The collection, published Oct. 30, runs from a salt-rimmed blue drink to a bourbon martini finished with chocolate ganache and graham cracker crumbs.
The Blue Blood calls for 1 oz Pantalones Reposado, 0.5 oz Harmony Gin, 0.5 oz Origen Vodka, 0.75 oz blue curaçao, 0.5 oz lime juice, 0.5 oz honey syrup and 2 droppers of chili tincture, topped with club soda. It is served on the rocks with a salted rim and a lime garnish. The Late Night Margarita takes a different turn: 60 ml Fluère Smoked Agave, 20 ml fresh lime juice, 10 ml simple syrup and 20 ml Bols Triple Sec, shaken and strained over a dehydrated lime wheel.
Two drinks in the lineup are built on Chrome Horse Society Blanco. The Chrome After Dark pairs 2 oz of the blanco with 0.75 oz lime juice and 0.25 oz agave syrup, shaken and poured over cubed or cracked ice in a rocks glass with a lime wheel. The Dark Horse Martini keeps the same base but shifts to coffee: 2 oz blanco, 1.5 oz fresh espresso, 0.5 oz coffee liqueur and 0.5 oz agave nectar, shaken hard and double-strained into a coupe chilled in the freezer for 10 minutes, with three espresso beans set on the froth.
Bar Mauro, named Mexico's No. 1 bar by World's Best Bars, contributed the BUENOS DÍAS. It blends ¾ oz Tequila Don Julio 70 Añejo Cristalino, ¼ oz Don Julio Añejo fat-washed with marigold butter, ½ oz papaya cordial, ⅛ oz Pedro Ximénez Sherry, ½ oz Fino Sherry and ¼ oz Italian amaro or Aperol, stirred and strained into a Nick & Nora glass. An alternative version uses ½ oz Don Julio Añejo left with diced papaya in a sealed container at room temperature for 24 hours, strained through a coffee filter, plus 1/6 oz simple syrup. The recipe's garnish is papaya leather or a marigold.
The Persephone combines 1.5 oz False River Dark Rum, 1 oz lemon juice, ¾ oz grenadine, 0.5 oz blackberry Reàl syrup and 0.5 oz ginger Reàl syrup, shaken and strained into a mule mug over crushed ice, topped with ginger beer and garnished with a skewered Luxardo cherry. The Wicked Potion mixes 1.5 oz Middle West Spirits Vim & Petal Gin with 0.5 oz crème de violette, 0.5 oz Genepy, 0.75 oz lemon juice, 0.5 oz butterfly pea flower infused simple syrup and an optional dash of lavender bitters, shaken and double-strained into a chilled coupe with an optional purple sugar rim.
The Pumpkin Pie Martini starts by rimming a martini glass with chocolate ganache and graham cracker crumbs, then chilling it. Into the shaker go 2 oz Jeptha Creed Wheated Bourbon, 2 dashes Ne Oublie Black Walnut Bitters, 1 oz egg white, ½ oz spiced simple syrup and 1 oz pumpkin puree. The ingredients are shaken without ice first, then again with ice, and double-strained into the prepared glass.
