It’s not enough for Halloween drinks to be delicious. They also have to be creepy.
And that’s where we drew our inspiration for these beverages — a kid-friendly, delightfully slimy grape “eyeball” punch and a not-so-kid-friendly murky and thick “orange haze” that blends orange liqueur, chocolate liqueur and honey.
To up the creep factor of the eyeball punch, you can peel the grapes before adding them to the other ingredients. There are two ways to do this. You can freeze the grapes (wash them, then arrange them on a rimmed baking sheet keeping them apart, then freeze), then run them under warm water to loosen the skins. Alternatively, you can plunge fresh grapes first into boiling water, then into ice water to loosen the skins.
GRAPE EYEBALL PUNCH
Makes 12 servings
Start to finish: 2 hours (15 minutes active)
8 cups grape juice
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole allspice
Three 1-inch slices fresh ginger
3 cups green grapes, peeled or not
Three 12-ounce bottles ginger beer or ale, chilled
ORANGE HAZE
Makes 1 serving
Start to finish: 10 minutes
3/4 ounce orange liqueur
3/4 ounce milk chocolate cream liqueur
1/2 teaspoon honey
Orange zest, to garnish
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