dragon’s milk halloween cocktail;

Of course, everything is Best With Chocolate—even alcohol! So this Halloween cocktail is simple, delicious, and fun. Especially when served in a potion bottle. This recipe has only two required ingredients: hot chocolate and your liqueur of choice.

This couldn’t be a simpler recipe. Make hot chocolate, pour in Baileys or Kahlua. There I just saved you scrolling to the bottom of the page for the recipe. I’m a Baileys girl myself because I don’t drink a lot of coffee. But I can attest first hand, no matter which you choose, it’s delicious. It’s actually a little addicting, so watch out. There are pros and cons to a milk-based Halloween cocktail though. I find that if I drink a milk based cocktail, it’s hard to switch back to soda or juice. So if you’re like me, you might want to just make a big batch and settle in for a cozy night.

You can serve this Halloween cocktail hot or cold, which makes the recipe versatile. Sometimes Halloween is cold and cool and spooky, but I know some years (and some places) don’t cool down enough to want a hot drink. So just serve cool hot chocolate! Basically just make it before you want it and allow it to cool to room temperature or put in the fridge to serve cold.

It’s delicious no matter which option you go with. You could even heat it up later, although I caution you from microwaving your potion bottle. If the bottle you’re using explicitly states that it’s microwave safe go for it. But otherwise I would be careful. I’d heat the liquid up and make sure it’s not too hot before transferring the mixture to the bottle.

The chocolate sauce and mini marshmallows are optional. If you’re serving the cocktail in a clear glass instead of a potion bottle, you can be more generous with the syrup. Try making fun designs on the glass with the syrup before pouring in the drink. Maybe just swirling it around or dripping from the top down the inside of the glass. With such a skinny neck on the potion bottle, I didn’t really have that option. But I like the little strip of extra chocolate on the bottom of the bottle.

Speaking of potion bottle, I got this one at Michael’s. Here’s the link to the specific bottle if you’re interested. This particular bottle holds about 7oz of liquid, or 225ml by my measurement. So the recipe is enough to make a small glass if you’re not bothering with the fancy bottle.

It’s up to you on whether you go for the dehydrated mini marshmallows or not. My recommendation for the potion bottle is only to include them if you’re serving it hot. The heat will help break them down, but you won’t want them to clog the little spout while you’re trying to drink. If you’re serving in a full sized glass, you can use regular mini marshmallows. But I discourage you from shoving regular marshmallows into the bottle. They would absolutely clog the spout and make it hard to drink. And we wouldn’t want anything to keep us from our Halloween cocktail. Especially not some marshmallows!

For a non-alcoholic version, just leave out the alcohol! Simple as that. Who doesn’t love hot chocolate anyway? Or cold chocolate. Or really, chocolate any way. Oh, sorry, could you tell that I’m a chocoholic? =P

Secrets for Success:

• I use these dehydrated mini marshmallows. I don’t suggest using the non-dehydrated kind for a potion bottle to make sure you don’t block the spout. Regular marshmallows would be fine in a glass or mug.
• To make a whole batch, just scale the hot chocolate packets and liquor. Pretty straightforward, and easy to make a big batch!

Check out these other Halloween cocktails in the series! (Check back, recipes and links are coming soon!)

• Elixer of the Night
• Liquid Luck
• Phoenix Breath
• Witches’ Brew