Halloween party themes to get your creative cocktail juices flowing...
Halloween is an excellent time of year for a party, especially a cocktail party. Here at Flavour Blaster HQ, we love a good cocktail and a good party, so we've put together some themed ideas to kick-start your creative process. All you need is a good theme and some willingly creative guests, and you'll have a (monster's) ball.
Down in the Deep
There are some seriously peculiar animals deep down on the ocean floor. We are talking goblin sharks, humpback angler fish, pelican eels, vampire squid and coffin fish. Think of the costume opportunities.
Your décor needs to be moody blue with glowing bioluminescent lighting. And your playlist should include submarine radar sounds, echoing clangs, whale song and perhaps some reggae, sea shanties or hula ukulele. Food could consist of treasure chest treats, sunken pirate ship chips ’n’ dips, and nautical nibbles.
For seafaring guests, it has to be a rum cocktail. So why not try a Blue Hawaii, a mixture of light rum, blue curaçao, pineapple juice and sour mix? Aloha!
This drink is visually spectacular as blue Curaçao gives it an aquatic hue. If you have hundreds of guests coming, make up batches in fishbowls instead of punch bowls and cut fish shapes out of lemon, lime and orange peels to garnish. If there is a manageable number of guests, try these awesome octopus martini glasses, and top each one with a passion fruit-filled bubble!
Blue Hawaii Cocktail Recipe
25ml White rum
25ml Vodka
15ml Blue Curacao
15ml Lemon juice
15ml Lime juice
Add all your ingredients to a cocktail shaker with plenty of cubed ice. Shake the mixture hard and double strain it into either your martini glass or punch bowl. If you are making punch, you can make larger batches. Just times the recipe by the number of guests.
Notes: If you're using individual glasses, pre-chill them in the fridge before serving them to your guests. If you're using fish bowls, put some fresh ice nearby so guests can add some to their punch cups.
The Day of the Dead
The Dia de los Muertos is a holiday originating in Mexico. It is a joyful celebration that involves families and friends gathering to pay respects and remember the past lives of loved ones. People tell stories and anecdotes about their departed and build altars where they leave offerings, like photos, candles, gifts and food for the deceased.
This holiday theme contrasts cheerful marigold blooms and the eerie sugar skulls, hand-painted and used to decorate graves and alters. Try posting up some Mexican-inspired bunting and serving Pan de Muerto (a sweet roll topped with sugar), bone-shaped pastries, and a dish called Mukbil Pollo, similar to a Tamale, made with chicken, pork, tomato, garlic, peppers and onions to a background of Latin-inspired music.
A traditional tea made from hibiscus and a beverage called pulque are both served throughout the Dia de Los Muertos. We can't usually get the latter in the UK, so we've added hibiscus to the tequila-based margarita for a pink twist on a classic. Either serve straight up, over ice or try our hand-painted Mexoskeliton decanter and shot glasses set, skilfully crafted from clay in Mexico and signed by the original artist.
Hibiscus Margarita Cocktail Recipe
60ml Reposado tequila
30ml Fresh lime juice
30ml Hibiscus syrup
Add all your ingredients to a cocktail shaker and plenty of ice before shaking the mixture hard. Strain and serve straight up or over ice, depending on your taste.
Blood Bath
We're taking inspiration for this theme from the slasher films of the seventies, eighties and nineties. You can go all out gory on this one or tongue in cheek like the Scream film series. Costumes could include knives through the brain, crazy-looking dolls, killer clowns, pin cushion heads and Kruger-style gloves.
For the decor, you'll want bloody mannequin parts, paint sheets splattered in fake blood and chains, whips, meat cleavers and saws hanging from the ceiling. You could serve jelly and strawberry jam brains, ketchup-smeared pizza fingers and lychee eyeballs. Music should include Tubular Bells, the Jaws theme tune, and some kids singing a cappella nursery rhymes.
To make your guests jump out of their skin, try a Bloody Screwdriver using our Red Flavour Blaster Mini smoking gun to add a puff of graveyard fog for effect.
Bloody Screwdriver Cocktail Recipe
60ml vodka
120ml Blood orange juice.
Add the ingredients to a tall ice-filled glass and stir. Use your Flavour Blaster Mini to create a billowing cloud of smoke as you serve it.
All Hollows Eve
For this theme, we're talking turn-of-the-century pagan rituals meet the eastern spirituality from the Edwardian era of country house parties. Mix your witch's cauldron with a fortune telling, blend a chanting woodland circle with divination spells and meld together innocent young women holding candles to a mirror with a tarot reading. Costumes could include Egyptian mummies, clairvoyants, ghosts in Victorian nightdresses, pipe-smoking detectives and wounded soldiers.
This is a period when people were rightly scared of the occult, technological advances and impending political doom. Get some scratchy ragtime and music hall 78s on the playlist and serve apple bobbing, meat pies, peach melba, cucumber sandwiches and sherry trifle.
To keep your guests guessing, we suggest a cocktail that looks like it *might* contain poison, as the first detective fiction had people hooked on the various methods of murder. Use our Flavour Blaster Mini to pump smoke into our lidded rocks glasses for that bonfire scent.
Bump in the Night Cocktail Recipe
50ml London dry gin
Half a fresh lime, cut into three segments, squeeze and then add into the glass.
120ml Ginger Ale
Add the gin and lime to the rocks glass. Add one large ice cube or sphere, and top with ginger ale. Stir and then add the smoke using the Flavour Blaster Mini. Close the glass lid to trap the smoke and serve to your unsuspecting guest.
