Halloween is one of the most exciting times of year. With creative costumes, spooky decorations, and delicious flavors, the only thing you’re missing a menu of themed coffees to delight the ghosts and ghouls that you’re entertaining. Let’s go over a few coffee creations to spice up your Halloween.
Forbidden Flavors?
Is there a Halloween taste-book? Not really. Although Halloween doesn’t have a go-to ingredient, as Christmas does with peppermint, fall and Halloween are synonymous, so you’re naturally going to want to incorporate the seasonal ingredients into your festive coffees if you’re looking for the ultimate seasonal creation.
Pumpkin, cinnamon, hazelnut, and vanilla are all good places to start. You can use either roasted coffee beans that are flavored or stock up on a few of your favorite, quality syrups. You can always elevate the spirit of your Halloween themed coffee by creating modified classics like Irish Coffee, Mexican Coffee, espresso martinis, and more.
It’s All About Presentation
Many Halloween-related coffee recipes focus on providing the proper aesthetic. You can simply order your standard pumpkin spice latte, or you can add Halloween-themed garnishes to your good old Folgers. Here are some that can work for a variety of drinks.
Ghostly Phantom
This cute ghostly character is great for adding to any Halloween coffee beverage or even a hot cocoa! Here’s how to make one:
- Push three large marshmallows onto a skewer.
- Melt white chocolate in the microwave for 60 seconds.
- Stir and heat at 15 second intervals, checking and stirring to avoid burning.
- Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
- Hold skewer over the container of melted white chocolate and spoon over the marshmallows until covered.
- Decorate each phantom with red candy for eyes and draw mouths using a black gel/food pen.
- Place skewer on cookie sheet and refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.
- Arrange phantoms upright in a container and serve.
The Graveyard Shift
Our second decorative (and edible) garnish is a tombstone. You have some options when it comes to the cookie itself. You can use pre-made white sugar cookies like Vienna Fingers, or bake your own from scratch and design the front with your spooky idea of choice. If you do decide to prepare your own, you could use food coloring to make them gray!
Note: The picture above uses pudding as the base. We substitute whipped cream on top of the coffee, with cinnamon or crumbled Oreos to give the effect of dirt. It’s delicious AND supportive enough to hold this cookie atop a coffee drink.
Devilish Toppings
If you’re short on time, the quickest way to add a dash of Halloween to your coffee drinks is with whipped cream. Choose green for something a little ghostly, or use white with red syrup for a spooky, bloody effect. Black whipped cream is another option that’s uncommon and pairs strikingly with white and orange sprinkles.
Worried about candies, cookies, and other toppings getting soggy in your hot beverage? Create a halloween iced coffee bar! Nothing is more festive than a full punch-bowl and an arrangement of festive toppings.
Visually, it’s very striking to see a variety of seasonal, -aesthetically-pleasing candies and cookies arranged together for everyone to customize their own drink. To create this, simply fill a large punch bowl with iced coffee. Next, gather some smaller bowls and fill them with an assortment of festive toppings like gummy worms, candy corn, crushed Oreos, or even orange-tinted whipped cream. You can keep this as large- or small-scale as you prefer.
There are endless ways to use coffee to elevate your Halloween celebration. Whether you make your own wild whipped cream, explore a variety of toppings, or create little creatures out of cookies, any of these are sure to infuse your party with a spirit of excitement and possibility. Happy Halloween!
