Spooky Halloween Cocktails with our Cafe Beverage Director Steve Wildy

While all the pint-sized ghouls and goblins in our lives are gearing up to fill their pumpkins with sweets of all sorts, we’re more interested in a more grown-up treat: a Halloween-inspired cocktail. We tapped our beverage director Steve Wildy for two slightly different takes on the most wicked recipe.

Steve says, “for this supernatural sipper, we summoned the herbaceous kick of Strega liquor, one of the spookiest spirits in our arsenal. Named for the Italian word for witch, Strega is a hauntingly vibrant yellow-green herbal liqueur that boasts saffron, fennel, and mint among its approximately 70 ingredients. It derives its moniker from its place of origin, the Campanian town of Benevento, which is known for its lore of witchcraft. While it has a bracing bite when enjoyed alone, we find it melds well with gin, honey, and lemon to create a charming sweet and minty anise-scented libation. We had fun intensifying the spooky factor here with the addition of otherworldly purple butterfly pea flower tea and turmeric-soaked grapes, a touch which we humbly think is worth the toil and trouble.”

Charming Sour
1.75oz Gin
0.25oz Strega Liqueur
0.75oz Lemon Juice
0.5oz Honey Syrup (recipe below)
1 tsp Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Stir all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a coupe glass.

Charming Lemonade
1.25oz Gin
0.25oz Strega Liqueur
3oz Honey Lemonade (.5oz Honey Syrup [recipe below], .75oz Lemon, 1.75oz Water)
1 tsp Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Shake gin, Strega, and honey lemonade in a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour over ice into a highball glass. Slowly pour butterfly pea powder for that layered look, as it turns your cocktail magenta before your eyes!

Honey Syrup: Equal parts honey and water, warmed until dissolved
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea: Equal parts butterfly pea flower powder and water, warmed until dissolved
Spooky Orange Grapes: Peel grapes and soak in turmeric or carrot juice overnight

Like this post? Check out our Bee's Knees Cocktail recipe, our Mojito recipe, and our Panettone Punch recipe.