Help with Halloween cocktails!

September 27, 2010 12:40 PM

Help me expand a small menu of Halloween themed cocktails, with a bent toward the classics.

Ms. Kaseijin and I are planning on throwing an intimate Halloween soiree featuring a small selection of thematically appropriate, classy, (classic) cocktails.

I have seen this old AskMe thread, but a good many of the drinks in there look like the sort of 1980's sugar-bombs that include things like Midori and Malibu. Ick. Super ick.

We tend to be fans of older, stiffer cocktails. The sorts that actually taste like liquor rather than candy. Our goal is to keep this a small affair, with a limited drinks menu, and each couple attending brings a bottle of spirits used in the cocktails (and leaves with any unused portion of such).

Thus far, here is our drinks menu:

• Corpse Reviver No. 2 (gin, lillet blanc, lemon, absinthe)
• Monkey Gland (orange, gin, grenadine, absinthe)
• Widow's Kiss (yellow chartreuse, calvados, benedictine)
• Blue Moon (parfait amour, gin, lemon)
• Satan's Whiskers (dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, cointreau, OJ, gin, orange bitters)
• Obituary (gin, dry vermouth, absinthe)
• Absinthe (self-explanatory)

For beer drinkers, we intend to have a pumpkin ale, Rogue Dead Guy ale, and Stone IPA. But this is mostly about the cocktails.

What other classic or classics-inspired cocktails could we have?

(NB: Two that I have already considered are the zombie and the bloody mary. I think we've ruled the zombie out, on account of us not wanting tiki-themed drinks so much. And I am on the fence with regards to the bloody mary...just on account of all the crap that has to go into one.)

posted by kaseijin to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

We used to do a thing called a Monkey Brain. It was a shot glass with peach schnapps, some Bailey's Irish Cream drizzled into the schapps. The Bailey's will "coagulate" and form into a brain-like ball. Then add a drop of grenadine for bloody effect.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:49 PM on September 27, 2010

The Bloody Brain is more of a dare than a fine cocktail, but I've made them to great success many Halloweens. Here's a video:

http://www.ehow.com/video_2297786_making-_bloody-brain_-mixed-drink.html

I should say that I use peppermint schnapps rather than vodka, and drip the grenadine down last so it looks bloodier.
posted by lumpenprole at 12:51 PM on September 27, 2010

Any classic cocktail becomes "Halloween-y" when served with a small chunk of dry ice. Gin and tonics with dry ice was a favorite back when we had a ready supply of it. (Bonus: G&Ts glow under blacklight.)
posted by JoanArkham at 12:56 PM on September 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've never had one of these but the first thing that comes to mind, because of the name is the Dark and Stormy. It's rum and ginger beer.
posted by dnash at 1:06 PM on September 27, 2010

Rusty nail?
posted by John Cohen at 1:10 PM on September 27, 2010

Best answer: This Midnight Manhattan looks quite a bit like blood, to me.
posted by muddgirl at 1:17 PM on September 27, 2010

Sometimes during halloween I like when people play with the "good and evil" themes and decorations so maybe you could try a drink like an Angel's Kiss or and Angel's Wing.

And of course Martha Stewart does love Halloween, here are a whole bunch of cocktails on her site. I haven't looked through all of them but many seem to use more classic liquors.
posted by dahliachewswell at 1:53 PM on September 27, 2010

Best answer: I noticed you don't have any vodka drinks on the menu. This is a very good thing in my opinion, but you might want to check out Black Vodka, which is the same flavorless tasteless vodka you load into Sandra-Lee-Style "juice + vodka = hey, at least I'm not drinking straight from the bottle!" cocktail, but this time they'll be black and eerie looking!

Red Absinth (not the cinnamon flavored kind, just red instead of green) can also add eerie visual appeal to a classic cocktail. A local absinthe bar makes a "Tru Blood" (owner is a fan of that TV show) which is red absinthe, a touch of sugar/ss, and dripped in champagne.

Martha Stewart's halloween book/magazine has a few pages of cocktails. One suggestion is to peel radishes into a ball, while leaving a bit of red for veins. Use a small mellon baller to scoop out a hole, and stuff a pimento olive inside. Then freeze it in a larger ice cube tray, and you've got a floating eyeball for your drinks.
posted by fontophilic at 1:57 PM on September 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Blood and Sand is an old classic, and would introduce a scotch cocktail into the mix.
posted by Skot at 1:57 PM on September 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

You can also make eyeballs by inserting whole cloves into cocktail onions. If you thread two onto a stirrer/swizzler stick, it looks really cool - and it goes very well with your classic cocktails theme.
posted by widdershins at 2:05 PM on September 27, 2010

Response by poster: Local absinthe bar, you say? You wouldn't be speaking of Péché, would you? I have actually thought about making my own version of their True Blood cocktail. It's basically a Death in the Afternoon (also an appropriately named cocktail, now that I think about it) using hibiscus-infused absinthe that they infuse in-house.
posted by kaseijin at 2:05 PM on September 27, 2010

Best answer: as a bartender, when i make up our special Halloween cocktail menu, i usually just take classic cocktails and rename them something, erm, "spooky." no one knows the difference and they are usually delighted with my creativity.

now to actually help you out a bit, i suggest making a cocktail with Fernet-Branca. it is a wonderfully herby and bitter liqueur, and is colored almost black to help with spookiness, and has a certain, say, sophistication to it. pairs well with ginger (ale, beer, or cognac), creme de menthe, and St. Germain. if you would like me to give you actual recipes instead of just suggestions, let me know and i'll be happy to oblige.
posted by photoboothsupermodel at 2:21 PM on September 27, 2010

Riga Black Balsam mixed with Pellegrino Aranciata tastes like a grown-up version of an orange Tootsie Roll Pop. Trick or Treat!
posted by hermitosis at 2:31 PM on September 27, 2010

Honestly, that's a good sized list to manage if you're planning on attending - in addition to tending - your own party. If you must offer something else, I suggest that it replace another option on your list, to keep it relatively simple.
posted by mumkin at 3:05 PM on September 27, 2010

Best answer: Though the names are great (and the drinks are great too), if you really want to punch up the theme, think more about the look of the drinks than the name (which you can change, after all). The Blood and Sand, for instance, is opaque and orange due to the OJ in it (and is a fantastic beverage, for that matter). An Aviation may not have a ghostly name, but the dash of creme de violette makes it a strange purple/gray that would be appropriately spooky. One could easily bring into play names about dead aviators or something. Anything with Campari (negronis, for instance) will get a great hit of red, and the bitterness contributes to the right flavors for the event. Fernet would also be lovely, as photoboothsupermodel said.

Also, you know, the Corpse Reviver Number 1 (brandy, applejack, and sweet vermouth) is a plenty good drink, and nice for fall!
posted by Schismatic at 3:19 PM on September 27, 2010

The thing about a Bloody Mary is that it's a morning brunch/hair-of-the-dog beverage. I can't imagine wanting one at a nighttime Halloween party, and you already have a pretty extensive list of cocktails. I think your impulse to avoid it is correct.
posted by Sara C. at 3:39 PM on September 27, 2010

Based on the style of drink you like, I'll recommend the Blue Ridge Manhattan. If you can't get the peach bitters, it's still a great drink (if a different one). Mrs. Methods and I refer to it as a "Brimstone Manhattan". It's like you're standing in a peat bog, drinking a Manhattan, and you're on fire. Seems suitable for Halloween. Try to get the ingredients, shaker, and glass cold beforehand -- it definitely has a tendency to get watery if you're not careful. And don't skip the lemon garnish.
posted by madmethods at 4:27 PM on September 27, 2010

Jack Rose---not a Halloween name, but apple is appropriate for the season.
posted by brujita at 10:34 PM on September 27, 2010

Bloody Mary.

Zombie.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:00 AM on September 28, 2010

Oh hell, I see you ruled them out. I guess I need more coffee this morning. :-/
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:01 AM on September 28, 2010

The only thing I could think to add here is vampire fang ice trays. Might look good in Blavod-based drinks.

And I'm with lumpenprole. The Bloody Brain is a dare drink - cloyingly sweet!!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:36 AM on September 28, 2010

Ha! I thought you were an Austinite, but couldn't put username to face. Yeah I was talking about Péché. I think the guys there recommend the Spec's at 183 for the harder to find liquors. I don't know how well stocked your bar is currently, but finding everything at the last minute might be difficult.
posted by fontophilic at 11:57 AM on September 28, 2010

Response by poster: That Spec's on 183 is just a quick jaunt north on MoPac for me, and I confess to having dropped some serious dime there over the last year or so.

Currently, the home bar has the following:

Rye
Bourbon
Old Tom gin
Plymouth gin
London dry gin
Scotch (Islay)
Cherry Heering
Cognac
Calvados
Yellow Chartreuse
Maraschino
Creme de Violette
Pimm's No. 1
Campari
Cointreau
Vya sweet
Dolin dry
Perucchi dry
Lillet blanc
Dubonnet rouge
Jamaican rum
Kirschwasser
St. Germain
Peychaud's bitters
Absinthe (good lord, I have too much absinthe. seriously. I need to offload some.)
Angostura bitters
Fee Bros. orange bitters
orange flower water

-house made cocktail cherries
-real pomegranate grenadine
-lavender simple syrup
-black currant simple syrup
-plenty of citrus fruit to squeeze
-sugar (superfine and cubed)
-fresh soda water


I've been working on it for a while, now, but am still looking for some harder to find things. I can't find Cocci Americano or Carpano Antica in Austin, for example. If you know of any other good places in town to look, let me know! I've thought about getting Punt e Mes as a substitute for the Carpano Antica, but I'd rather have the latter.

This party, though, is going to rely mostly upon guests to bring a bottle. Kind of like a cocktail potluck. We'll end up voting for the top 5 cocktails before the party, making a sign-up sheet with ingredients for those five, and people leave with the remains of the bottle they bring. Kinda helps to defray the cost of such an undertaking, and still a lot cheaper than cocktails in a bar!

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I like the idea of renaming some classics like the aviation, and I'll definitely pick up a bottle of Fernet Branca - I've been meaning to anyway, and this is just about the perfect excuse! If anybody has any recipe ideas for new cocktails using some common ingredients, that would also be great!



Aside to fontophilic: We should set up a MeFi meetup sometime at a good cocktail bar.

(also also: Péché is a pretty good bar. I have some differences of opinion with the owner around the subject of absinthe specifically (a subject near and dear to my heart), but when it comes to other cocktails, they are hard to beat. Some of the most competent bartenders in town, and Ms. Kaseijin and I love going there now and again for a drink when we're feeling spendy.)
posted by kaseijin at 12:43 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

You might attempt a restart over at the current IRL thread. I'd love to hear your suggestions for bars.

I think I will slowly and reverently bow my way out of this thread, having been humbled.
posted by fontophilic at 7:13 PM on September 28, 2010