Question: What’s the best use for a pumpkin? Is it to carve grisly eyes into it and stick it in a window? To put a blonde wig on it and leave it on the stoop? Is it to spice it (whatever that entails) and shove it into coffee, candles, quinoa…?

Answer: It’s none of the above. You need to hollow that bad boy out and fill it right to the brim with booze. If you can bear to tear yourself away from the impending Stranger Things binge this weekend to actually host real life people in your house (or, even better, if you’re inviting the whole gang around for some Netflix indulgence), then you’re on course to earn some gold star hosting badges if you serve up one of these creepy cocktails…

One for the Halloween Lover

Whether fire is your friend or foe, you’ll love this spicy little gingery punch. It’s stupidly easy to prepare and packed full of flavour, with the pumpkin punch bowl bringing a bright, fresh taste and the apples adding a little bit of sweetness.

What you’ll need:
200ml spice forward gin (try Opihr, Isle of Wight Mermaid’s)
800ml ginger beer
200ml apple cider
1 apple, thinly sliced into fans
1 orange
5 cinnamon sticks

Slice a lid into the pumpkin and hollow out the centre. Add the gin, ginger beer and cider, then pour in (slowly) a couple of pint glasses filled with ice. Top up with cinnamon stick, orange and apples. 

One for the Showoff

Sweet, spiced and sour (but a million miles from dour), this is a a cocktail with so many accents it’s basically metropolitan. There’s a splash of elderflower, a twist of lime and just a dash of ginger ale in there - just enough of everything to cause some sort of waterfall in your mouth.

What you’ll need:
30ml gin (we recommend Beefeater 24,  Shortcross)
20ml St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur,
15ml lime juice
90ml ginger ale
30ml blood orange juice
1 deydrated orange wheel

Combine gin, St Germain, lime juice and ginger ale in a glass with ice. Then slowly pour in the blood orange juice for dramatic effect! We quite like using crushed ice too - and then pouring in the blood orange juice as you would Creme De Mùre in a Bramble. Garnish with dehydrated orange. 

One for the Trick or Treater

Double standards are the ultimate adult trait, which is why we tell our kids not to take sweets from strangers before dressing them up as cats, devils and witches and sending them around the town to knock on any old door and beg for candy. We think the best move here is to trick everyone else into leaving the house before treating yourself to this complicated candy of a cocktail, which is all at once sweet, dry, fruity and brutish.

What you’ll need:
35ml Garden Tiger Gin
25ml apricot brandy
25ml calvados
A slice of apple to garnish

Add all ingredients to a tall glass with ice. Stir, then strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with apple slices in the shape of wings. For you cocktail fans, this one has historical pedigree - it’s a slightly adulterated Angel Face cocktail, adapted from the 1930’s Savoy Cocktail Book.

Of course, if you’re after a classic this Halloween, you could go all ghoulish and opt straight for a Corpse Reviver…

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