Up Your Halloween Game With These Perfect Halloween Treats and Cocktail Pairings

If you’ve got kids or you just want to be fully prepared for Trick or Treaters, chances are you’ll be stocked with Halloween Treats this October. Or perhaps you just want to get involved, celebrate the spooky season and have a bit of a party. Whatever your justification (not that you need one!), Halloween sweets can make a wonderful pairing with some of our favourite cocktails. Because Halloween isn’t just about costumes, it’s about indulgence. So, for a grown-up celebration, we’ve taken some of the country’s most beloved chocolates and sweets, and paired them up with the perfect cocktail. Let’s dive into boo-zy bliss!

White Russian + Snickers

This Big Lebowski favourite is the indulgent combination of vodka, coffee liqueur and cream, but for even more indulgence, Snickers is the perfect pairing. The richness of the cocktail enhances the sweetness and texture from the caramel and nut-filled Snickers. Vodka, coffee, chocolate, nuts and cream – this is a proper dessert cocktail. Find your White Russian recipe here.

Espresso Martini + Dark Chocolate

Of course, dark chocolate is perfect alongside an Espresso Martini – so much so that you can even get chocolate riffs of the original. Coffee and chocolate embrace the Mocha style, but to avoid too much sweetness stick with rich dark chocolate. This way, the intense espresso notes complement the bittersweet cocoa, and the structure of the hearty vodka keeps everything in place. Find your Espresso Martini recipe here.

Rum Punch + Starburst

If you’re into intense flavours and have people round for Halloween, then a big Rum Punch is perfect. To complete the match made in tropical heaven, playful, juicy Starburst brings some sweetness to the punch. Both offer vibrant, bold fruity, tangy flavours so it works well to liven up any party. If you’re into subtle, nuanced flavours then swerve this, but since when has Halloween been about subtlety!? Find your Rum Punch recipe here.

Dark ‘n’ Stormy + Bounty

And you thought things couldn’t get any more tropical! The rum and ginger of a Dark 'n' Stormy perfectly complement the coconutty sweetness of a Bounty. The spicy notes of the cocktail cut through the creamy coconut, creating a balance that’s indulgent yet refreshing - ideal for an exotic twist on your Halloween feast. Find your Dark ‘N Stormy recipe here.

Irish Coffee + Milky Way

This comforting combination blends the warm, boozy kick of an Irish Coffee with the soft, chocolatey sweetness of a Milky Way. The coffee's bitterness cuts through the caramel and nougat, making it a cosy, comforting duo to enjoy on a crisp Halloween evening. Find your Irish Coffee recipe here.

Margarita + Gummy Bears

A classic Margarita’s sharp lime zing pairs wonderfully with the tangy sweetness of Gummy Bears. The salt rim brings out the fruity flavours of the sweets, while the tequila adds a bold kick, turning this playful pairing into a fiesta in your mouth - perfect for Halloween mischief. With the chewiness, touch of salt and vibrant zing of citrus, it’s a very interesting pairing. Find your Margarita recipe here.

Gold Rush + Twix

If you’re not familiar with the Gold Rush, it’s essentially a Whiskey Sour with honey; so, bourbon, lemon and floral honey for the sweetness. This complements the sweet caramel crunch of Twix brilliantly, adding to the rich biscuit flavour. It’s so satisfying and surprisingly sophisticated, and that residual citrus and bourbon punch is enough to cut through and refresh somewhat. To make your Gold Rush, follow this recipe:

Ingredients:
60ml bourbon
20ml lemon juice
20ml honey syrup
Garnish (lemon twist)

Method:
Shake everything well with ice until it feels chilled to the touch. Strain into a rocks glass over just one large ice cube, and finish with a wonderful lemon twist.

Clover Club + Skittles

The fruity, raspberry notes of a Clover Club cocktail make a perfect pairing for the rainbow of flavours in Skittles. This combo bursts with juicy, tangy fun, balancing the cocktail's delicate sweetness with the zingy, chewy texture of the sweets. A thing of beauty. Find your Clover Club recipe here.

Martini + Liquorice

If you want a slight break from fruity or chocolatey sweetness, then try this. For something bold and adventurous, pair the bracing botanicals of a Martini with the dark, intense flavour of liquorice. The sharpness of gin and vermouth plays off the earthy, slightly bitter notes of liquorice, creating a surprisingly harmonious combo for those with a taste for the unexpected. It’s a well-known combo, especially if you use a gin with liquorice as a botanical, like Hayman’s or Beefeater. Find your Martini recipe here.

French 75 + Lemon Sherbet

Lemon lovers, this is the motherload. The sparkling, citrusy kick of a French 75 is made for a playful pairing with lemon sherbets. The champagne bubbles and the gin’s sharpness highlight the zesty tang of the sweets, creating a fresh, fizzy sensation that’ll have you reaching for more. A refreshing and cheeky pairing for Halloween celebrations. Find your French 75 recipe here.

If you want to stylise your cocktails for the season, then these easy-to-make garnishes are surprisingly effective!

How To Make The Zombie Brain Shot for Halloween

It’s not often that you’ll find us recommending a drink that looks as revolting as this, but Halloween is a worthy exception. This fun concoction looks like anything but delicious, so it’s perfect for a gruesome gathering.

The secret here is in the peach schnapps and Baileys, the latter of which curdles when mixed with something slightly acidic. The grenadine syrup intensifies this effect by going in last and pulling the Baileys to the bottom, like a kind of lava lamp. When completed by the Crème de Menthe providing a mad scientist green hue, you’re left with a glass of zombie experiment gone wrong… and also something very tasty (but maybe keep your eyes shut).

Method
1.    Fill a double shot glass halfway with the schnapps.
2.    Add a splash of Creme de Menthe to get that green colouring going.
3.    Place a small spoon upside down over the shot glass and gently pour Baileys Irish Cream over the back. creating floating ‘brain’ clumps and adding texture.
4.    Add a few dashes of grenadine syrup from a few inches above the shot glass, aiming for bigger clumps of Baileys. Watch the magic happen as your "zombie brain" comes to life… back from the dead.

6 Easy Halloween Drinks Recipes

No Halloween party is complete without drinks, and it’s not as much effort to make them a central part of the night as you might expect. With a few simple ingredients and ghoulish garnishes, you can make Halloween Drinks that look horrifying whilst tasting delicious.

Dark abyss’, evil lab potions, blended bodies, swamp juice and brain gloop are all to come, but first take a look at our easy-to-make Halloween Garnishes, and remember that extra special effects like LED ice cubes and dry ice will blow guests away too! Onto the elixirs...

THE BLACK WIDOW

Black cocktails are a must for Halloween, making an instant, creepy yet alluring impact on the eye. There are a few options, most involving Cola, but we think The Black Widow is the best. This sinister elixir is devilishly sweet, with blackcurrant liqueur, a sturdy vodka spine and the fizzing spice of ginger beer. The eerie black hue is courtesy of activated charcoal, creating a wickedly tempting abyss to stare into and sip!

Ingredients
30ml Crème de cassis
40ml vodka (black if you have it)
25ml ginger beer
0.5tsp activated charcoal (optional)
Black food colouring (optional)
Blackberries (garnish)

Method
For extra darkness, use black vodka if you have it, The same goes for black food colouring, but make sure you use the activate charcoal because that creates the darkest black. Ideally use all three! Shake everything, top up with ginger beer and skewer a blackberry to finish.

Jelly Brain

All the effort with this one is in buying the mould. You can find loads of brain moulds for Halloween in the shops, and all you’ve gotta do is fill it with your jelly mix (a pink/red colour mix) and mix in the vodka before setting. Once it’s done you’ve got a wobbling vodka jelly brain that you can plate up or drop into another horror cocktail.

Ingredients
Vodka (amount depends on volume)
Jelly mix
Brain mould

Method
Pour your vodka into your mix and stir thoroughly before leaving it to set. You might need to leave it more time than usual because of the vodka remember! For extra decoration, feel free to add some red syrup for extra brain gloop and extra horror points.

DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON

If you can get your hands on some green absinthe, then this is a super easy cocktail to pull together at the last minute. Mixed with the champagne, you get a sparkly, green evil lab vibe that looks incredible with dry ice if you have it.

Ingredients
40ml green absinthe
90ml Champagne
Dry ice (optional)

Method
Add your absinthe and then top up with Champagne for a luxurious experiment gone wrong. Complete the look with an eyeball garnish which you can find at the link above!

SWAMP JUICE SOUR

Any other time of year and the hue of Swamp Juice wouldn’t be one we’d recommend, but of course it’s perfect for Halloween. Whiskey and cider combined for not only gorgeous Autumnal richness, but also the perfect murky colour, while lemon juice jolts you to life. The perfect touch for that silky sliminess is the egg white and bam, you’ve made the best tasting swamp around.

Ingredients
45ml bourbon
45ml apple cider
Juice of 1 lemon
15ml syrup
1 tbsp egg white
0.5tsp of green food colouring (optional)

Method
This is a swamp so there’s no need to be delicate – just throw the lot into a cocktail shaker with some ice. Strain over the glass with more ice to finish and drink up! Each cider and whiskey have different colouring so if you want more a pungent green, use food colouring too.

BLOODY MARY

You’ve gotta have a Bloody Mary at a Halloween party. The shocking blood red is perfect, and you can go wild with garnishes from gouged out eyeballs, to severed finger celery sticks, to dripping blood. Also, if you like you can up the spice with extra Tabasco and spices for more fiery concoction.

Ingredients
35ml vodka
100ml tomato juice
1tsp Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco (to taste)
Juice of half a lime
Pinch of salt and pepper

Method
Shake everything with ice and pour into a glass and then comes to the fun bit – the gruesome garnishes for that blended body effect. Lychee eyeballs, dripping blood, fake fingers... go all out!

Pumpkin Martini

This one might not be as spooky, but no one can deny that any pumpkin drink deserves a place at the Halloween table. With robust vodka at the heart of it, this Martini is pumpkin pied up with sweet syrup, vanilla, cream, pumpkin spice and of course the crunch of biscuit. Bewitching!

Ingredients
50ml vodka
15ml cream
10ml syrup
2tbsp pumpkin puree
¼ tsp of pumpkin pie spice (optional)
¼ tsp of vanilla extract
Crushed biscuit (garnish)

Method
Grab a load of ice and shake everything until it feels cold to the touch. Before pouring, rub the rim with a light coating of maple syrup and add crushed biscuit around it. Finally, strain into your chilled Martini glass and enjoy the taste of Halloween’s most famous symbol.

A gruesome garnish really takes a Halloween cocktail to the next level, and we’ve got 8 here that work perfectly for the above drinks.

8 Halloween Garnish Ideas

As the nights close in, Halloween looms, and that gives you the perfect opportunity to make some of the best themed cocktails of the year. Hosting a haunted gathering? Want to get into the spirit at home? Or maybe you just want an excuse to knock up a cocktail? These Halloween garnish ideas are pretty easy to make but add the perfect chilling touch to your boo-zy potions.

Orange Peel Jack-o’-lanterns

Start your Halloween celebration with a burst of pumpkin-themed flair. Cut a small piece of orange peel, shape it into a classic wicked grin or a sinister face with a small, sharp knife, and clip it to the rim of your glass, or skewer it, or simply drop it in. Now, your beverage looks like it's sipping from its very own jack-o'-lantern.

Lychee Eyeballs

This is a classic because they look so good. Take a lychee and after removing the pit, insert a blueberry into its hollow centre. Add a few drops of red food colouring to give it that bloodshot look. Now, let your eerie eyeball float in your drink, watching your every sip. Or, if you want a more gruesome look, skewer the eyeball!

Strawberry Bloody Hearts

Add a dash of romance (or something much gorier) to your horror-themed drink with strawberry hearts. Simply slice strawberries into heart shapes and skewer them on toothpicks. You could also add some edible blood/dyed red syrup for extra special effects. Attach these crimson hearts to the rim of your glass, giving your drink a touch of macabre love.

Kiwi Frankenstein

Channel your inner mad scientist with a Kiwi Frankenstein. Slice a kiwi into thirds, preserving one part for its helmet-like-hair. Using cake decorations for eyes and a dash of black food colouring for a mouth, bring Frankenstein to life. Now for the bolts, which you can recreate by piercing with a cocktail stick.

Pineapple Bat Wings

Give your drink an eerie ambiance with pineapple bat wings. Carve out bat wing shapes from pineapple slices and perch them on your glass. It can be added to make tropical beverages adhere to the Halloween theme, but this sorts that right out.

Apple Witch Hats

Stir some witchy charm into your potion with apple witch hats. Grab a cookie cutter, ideally star shaped, and slice your apple in half. Attach these apple hat shapes to your glass, and you'll be spellbound.

Bloody Rim

This is another idea that’s so simple but effective. Dip the edge of your glass into a syrupy mixture dyed red with food colouring. Let it ooze and drip down the glass and for an extra touch of wickedness, add red or black sugar crystals to complete the look.

Spooky Spider Web

For an intricate and spooky garnish, use a spider web stencil to decorate your drink with ingredients such as cocoa powder, cinnamon, or powdered sugar. You could even try to make an Espresso Martini with cocoa powder web dusting and decorate the coffee bean garnish as a trapped fly!

But it’s not just garnishes where you can have spooktacular fun – pop these on our Easy Halloween Cocktails and you’ll blow guests away.