Festive Cocktails to Pour This Weekend

As a Culinary Adventurist, getting her hands into food before…

Happy Friday! In preparation for Halloween and to celebrate the cooler weather, here are some seasonal cocktails to pour for your guests in costume over the weekend. Just add a few creative touches for a spooky festive feel. Cheers!

Spooky Screwdriver

Halloween spooky screwdriver is a fun adult cocktail for everyone’s favorite scary holiday with a mocktail option so no one is left out of the frightening fun.

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons corn syrup
Black food coloring
4 ounces grenadine
8 ounces orange juice
4 ounces vodka (substitute soda water for non-alcoholic)

Method:
Add the corn shallow bowl and mix in a few drops of black food coloring and mix well.
Dip the rim of 2 martini glasses into coat the rim.
Add a few drops of black food coloring to the vodka and mix well.
Pour the grenadine into the bottom of each glass.
Add the orange juice, very slowly pouring over the back of a spoon.
Top each with the black vodka, pouring slowly over a spoon.

Pom Cooler

Bill’s Bar and Burger in NYC has launched their new fall cocktail menu. Seasonal sips such as a cinnamon infused jack apple cocktail, thyme and lemon cocktail, and a pomegranate cooler will make you want to jump into a pile of crunchy leaves.

Ingredients:
2 oz. Tanqueray Gin
1 oz Pomegranate Juice
12 Drops of Burlesque Bitters
A Sprig of Dill
½ oz. Simple Syrup (50/50)
¾ oz. Lemon Juice

Method:
In a mixing glass muddle the dill. Add the remaining ingredients and ice. Shake hard 30x. Strain over fresh ice in a double rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Vampire’s Weakness (Boulevardier)

Inspired by the 1897 horror novel written by Irish author Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the Transylvanian Vampire Count Dracula.

Ingredients:
1 ¼ parts Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey
1 part Campari
1 part Sweet Vermouth

Method: Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice.
Stir to chill and dilute cocktail, then strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with 1 Bloodied Eyeball.

The Blood in Hand (Blood in Sand)

As you drink this rich red, ice-smokey cocktail, you’ll want to say, “I want to suck your blood! Muahahahaha!”

Queen’s Park Swizzle Recipe Cocktail

Ingredients:
1 part Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey
1 part Cherry Liqueur (preferably Cherry Heering)
1 part Sweet Vermouth
1 part Orange juice, freshly squeezed

Method:
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice.
Shake, and strain into a rocks glass

Pumpkin Fright (Old Fashioned)

A festive take on the classic Old Fashioned, how fun is carving a Halloween face on an orange peel?

Ingredients:
2 parts Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey
¾ parts Bénédictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Orange bitters

Method:
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir to chill and dilute cocktail, then strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange slice.

Reena Retuta

As a Culinary Adventurist, getting her hands into food before it gets onto the plate comes naturally to Reena. She spit-roasted her first whole pig at the age of eight, harvested hazelnuts in Italy, butchered a lamb at a ranch in Australia, spent a summer splitting open live lobsters at a traveling pop-up kitchen in Holland, and visits a small vineyard along the central California coast to make wine and olive oil each year. She’s determined to find the elusive white truffle in her lifetime. A graduate from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, Reena holds a deep appreciation for cultural traditions in food, and her favorite simple pleasure is sharing a meal al fresco.