Vampire Blues (Death & Co. Recipe)

This is it! This is just about as Halloween as a cocktail can get, at least at Death & Co., and about as sweet and fall spiced as I want to go. This is thanks to the addition of pumpkin butter and East India Solera Sherry--two very rich and yummy ingredients that make this drink taste like pumpkin pie. I love how bourbon adds the vanilla notes and cinnamon grated on top has that fresh spice scent you expect at this time of year. Everything about this drink, including its color, is perfect for fall.

• 1 1/2 oz. bourbon 
• 1/2 oz. East India Solera Sherry
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 1 tsp. pumpkin butter
• 2 dashes Angostura
• 1 cinnamon stick garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass full of ice cubes. Grate cinnamon stick over the glass and garnish the drink with the cinnamon stick. 

 

Bobbing for Apples (MurLarkey Edition)

Spiking some soft cider is a Halloween tradition. I'm getting ready by spiking, and thereby spicing, a glass of cider while decorating. This easy recipe makes your drink taste better and hit a lot stronger. While the proportions are entirely up to you (and you can go as hard as you want) I will caution that the more cinnamon whiskey you use, the more you feel the burn. 

An ounce of cinnamon whiskey makes a glass of cider taste like apples and cinnamon. Three ounces gives you a cinnamon jawbreaker effect, a little hot and tingly and definitely hard!

• 1-3 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• 6 oz. unfiltered cider
• apple slice garnish

Build cocktail in a Collins glass full of ice by adding whiskey and cider and stirring. Float apple slice on top or stick it into the ice as a garnish.

 

Golden Frog

I love the combination of Galliano and Strega. Both are Italian herb liqueurs. Strega is very minty and citrus forward, while Galliano tastes like vanilla and anise and so much more. They are strong, rich, and very golden.

So I was looking forward to enjoying this cocktail very dry with vodka. Instead, the recipe calls for blending with ice. So it is a slushy drink that uses the liqueurs to add the fruity essences. And it's not bad for all that. For one thing, it tames the really potent flavors and alcohols of the two liqueurs. So it may just be appealing to ordinary drinkers, and not those accustomed to Italian liqueurs.

The name? Well it certainly is a golden drink, but I think the addition of Strega--or the witch, in Italian--is an indication of the thinking of this cocktail. It's a bumpy, slushy golden thing like some kind of witchy magic.

• 1 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. Galliano
• 1 oz. Strega
• 1 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Tequila Ghost

Just in time for Halloween, the Tequila Ghost swoops in to elevate the season with herbal and licorice flavors that you won't find in your trick-or-treat bag. This is a relatively simple cocktail that is strong on flavor, so something to sip slowly at a Halloween party. The Pernod is a translucent green that becomes eerily whitish when shaken with lemon juice. You have to love the creepy look of this cocktail if not the strong anise flavor.

(Ghosts dance in the background of this photo.)

• 2 oz. silver tequila
• 1 oz Pernod
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

Shake all ingredients on ice in a shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.