We're Just Here for the Boos 🧪👻

Author Clair McLafferty shows you how to host a haunted happy hour.

Oct 16, 2025

Break out your potions and pick your poison as the ghostess with the mostest shares how to throw a haunted happy hour.

This spooky szn, we’ve tapped Charlotte-based bartender turned data scientist and cocktail author Clair McLafferty to help us creep it real with the spookiest Halloween cocktails.

McLafferty’s just released book, Spooky Cocktails: 100+ Spirited and Wickedly Delicious Drinks, is packed with recipes like Satan’s Whiskers, Corpse Reviver No. 2 and Fog Cutter. “My favorite party trick is making craft cocktails with whatever’s on hand,” she says. “As long as you’ve got lemons or limes, sugar or honey, hot water, liquor and a measuring cup, you’re set.”

Inserting image..., Picture — Photo credit: Alejandra and Jamison Diaz-Imlah

No hocus pocus here, just easy, spooky-szn hosting.

Here’s how to brew up the perfect eerie elixirs:

1. Start with the Basics

Photo credit: Alejandra and Jamison Diaz-Imlah

Grab a measuring cup and mix equal parts sugar and hot water. Stir until the sugar disappears and, boom, simple syrup. Want extra flair? Drop in a little vanilla extract. From there, it’s half a cup of syrup, half a cup of citrus juice, one full cup of liquor, plus a mountain of ice and a splash of water. Stir it down until it’s chilling harder than Dracula at sunrise.

2. Punch Bowls = Party Magic

Forget playing bartender all night. McLafferty swears by a big punch bowl for cold beverages. Bonus points if it’s thrifted (thrift stores often have a great selection of punch bowls and matching punch cups) or looks like a cauldron. Freeze gummy worms or candy spiders into one giant ice block and drop it in for maximum spook factor. For an Insta-worthy moment, set up dry ice in a shallow container that hugs the base of the punch bowl to create a rolling fog. And a few scary-good Halloween punch recipes for inspo.

3. DIY Potion Station

Want to really bewitch your crew? Set up a “make your own potion” bar with syrups, juices and spirits. McLafferty suggests fun extras like butterfly pea tea extract (turns drinks from blue to purple), edible glitter or tonic syrups. Serve them in little potion bottles and let the witchcraft unfold.

Don’t forget your booze-free boos. “If you’re making signature drinks, be sure to include one non-alcoholic offering,” she notes. Try a hot mulled cider station with cinnamon sticks and cloves. Guests can spike it if they want with their liquor of choice or keep it cozy and booze-free.

4. Fright Night Decor on a Budget

No need to blow your budget at the Halloween store. In the fall, McLafferty loves decorating with natural or low-cost touches, such as natural wreaths with evergreen branches, pine cones and fall leaves, brown paper bag lanterns cut into jack-o’-lantern shapes, a roaring fire and, of course, a carved pumpkin or two. Low effort, high ambiance.

5. Drink with Your Eyes First

“Bartenders like to say you drink with your eyes first,” she explains. Black smoked glasses for blood-red Negronis, chunky mugs for spiked cocoa, an elegant wine glass for a good red and coupes for ghostly gimlets. Pick the glassware as you would a costume, commit to the bit. Drinks taste better when they look the part.