The year has zoomed past and it’s already October. Outside things are pretty chilly, in fact where I live it is freezing cold outside and raining.

If that’s not bad enough, the clocks also change on the last Sunday of the month (26th) plunging us into darkness as well as being freezing cold and wet. Yet it’s not all doom and gloom, Halloween means I get to nick lots of cardboard boxes from the warehouse and make costumes for the kids. There are four of us and after a quick surf on Pinterest for Minecraft, we picked these costumes to make (I’m Steve):

Now I know you are probably wondering where all this is going. Well, last year we used coffee flavouring syrups to make jelly hands and creepy looking cold drinks (complete with eyeballs) for the kids. The sour green apple syrup looked especially awesome in a big glass cauldron bowl.

After a while, we went out into the street with a bunch of local kids. I remember wishing I had a mug of something hot or a pair of gloves as we trawled the kids around the neighbours’ houses. Thankfully being a complete nerd coupled with OCD I set a reminder for the 1st October to remind me to buy gloves and find a hot drink recipe.

A few days later my gloves have arrived and I have pinned the following recipe to make on Halloween night. Give it a go, it will be yummy (and warm).

Hot pumpkin spiced cider

Ingredients: 

• 1 oz. Pumpkin Spice Syrup
• 14 oz. hot apple cider

Preparation 

• 1. Combine ingredients in serving cup.
• 2. Stir and garnish.

Want to make it even more awesome? Serve your spooky guests from a cauldron:

Not fancy getting cold ?

If it is looking especially cold outside on the night, and you don’t fancy going out all is not lost. Whack the fire up full blast and get your bikini on (ladies, you can also wear a bikini if you like). Put the lights on full so it is as bright as possible. Pretend it is still summer and make this cocktail called ‘My Green Summer’ – it won Greta Grönholm the 2013 World cocktail championships.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 oz. (2cl) 1883 Sour Green Apple syrup.
• 2/3 oz. (2cl) Grey Goose La Poire
• 3 1/3 oz. (10cl) Martini Prosecco DOC
• 3 Barspoon 1883 Passion Fruit syrup
• 1 Barspoon Finest Call Lime juice
• 1 Barspoon Cucumber syrup

Instruction:

Mix everything together then pour into a cocktail glass. Enjoy.

Product Links: Buy Pumpkin syrup: Buy Pumpkin Syrup Online UK