Caludron of colorful cocktails: Halloween drinks

Halloween is the perfect time to concoct a creepy cocktail with ghoulish garnishes.

You can whip up a couple eyeballs easily -- whether they're pimento-stuffed green olives and radishes or lychees with blueberries.

Spirit makers have outdone themselves, with colorful recipes ranging from green to orange to glow-in-the-dark.

Take a walk on the wild side with these bewitching beverages.

Hpnotiq is a French blend of vodka, fruit juices and Cognac. The makers of the electric-blue beverage share their recipe for the Mad Eye. Canned lychees are available locally at the First Oriental Grocery, 801 E. First St. in Duluth. A 20-ounce can of lychees in syrup costs $2.49. This edible eyeball garnish is particularly disgusting.

1/2 ounce Hpnotiq

1 ounce super premium vodka

2 ounce lychee juice

1 canned grade AA lychee in syrup, drained

1/4 teaspoon cherry, strawberry or raspberry preserves

1 blueberry

To make the drink, combine the first three ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lychee fruit eyeball on a skewer.

To make the eyeball: Dry lychee and fill with preserves. Place blueberry, blossom end facing out, into cavity and skewer.

This recipe comes from the Spanish spirit maker Osborne and features the company's Fino Sherry, which Wine Enthusiast calls a pale, dry sherry with a crisp and solid finish. The real attraction, however, is the "bloody" eyeball. See the specifics below and you'll entertain your friends with this spooky spectacular.

1 ounce Osborne Fino sherry

4 ounces gin or vodka

Radishes

Green olives filled with pimentos

Shake sherry and gin or vodka with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with bloody eyeballs and revel in the grotesqueness. To make the "bloody" eyeballs: With a small knife, peel radishes, leaving thin streaks of red skin on to represent blood vessels. Scoop out a small hole in each radish and stuff in a green olive, pimento side out. An icy option: Place one radish eyeball in each section of an empty ice cube tray, fill the tray with water and freeze overnight, then drop in drinks the next day.

This cocktail glows under the black light from the quinine in the tonic water! It uses Midori, which is a melon liqueur that is a distinct green color. For more recipes and details on Midori, go to www.midori-world.com .

1 ounce Midori

2 ounces gin

Tonic water

Pour the first two ingredients in a tall glass, preferably frosted, over ice. Top off with tonic water

1-1/2 ounce Midori

Milk

Cherry

In a tall glass, pour Midori and milk over ice. Garnish with a cherry.

3/4 ounces Midori

2 ounces Skyy Citrus

Splash of white cranberry juice

Combine all ingredients into a shaker, shake and strain into a chilled glass.

Garnishes like melon balls and blood oranges add a festive charm to these potent potions.

55 ounces Skyy Orange

33 ounces Midori

44 ounces sweet and sour mix

15 squeezed orange wedges

Pour ingredients in order listed into a pitcher filled halfway with cubed ice. Shake or stir for five seconds. Strain from pitcher into punch bowl. Garnish with melon balls, red oranges and kiwi.

25 ounces (1 750ml bottle) Midori

63 ounces orange juice

12 ounces Skyy vodka

32 ounces club soda

Mix all ingredients into a punch bowl or cauldron. Stir and serve with a spoon or ladle. Serves 20.

2 ounces Martin Miller's gin

1/2 ounce. fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon of honey

1/4-1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger (depending on desired spiciness)

Ginger ale

Add gin, lemon juice, ginger and honey (without ice) in a shaker. Stir through honey. Add grated ginger and ice, Shake. Single strain into ice filled glass and top with ginger ale.

This recipe comes from Leblon, the Brazilian maker of a rum-like spirit. Leblon Cachaca is made from fresh pressed Brazilian sugar cane, which is then rested in Cognac casks and blended. For details, go to www.liveloveLEBLON.com .

8 ounces pineapple juice

8 ounces raspberry liquor

8 ounces Leblon Cacha

Mix all ingredients in large punch bowl with ice and serve.

Special garnish: For a ghoulish effect, the night before fill latex glove with water and red food dye and tie off tightly with elastic. Make sure to hang, fingers down, in your freezer. Before your party, run water over glove briefly, which loosens glove enough to pull glove off of the ice. Float iced hand in punch bowl.