Vanishing Ghost Halloween Gin Cocktail

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This Vanishing Ghost Purple Halloween Gin cocktail uses naturally colored indigo gin with fresh peach syrup and citrus to create a delicious, spooky cocktail.

We’re playing a little trick with vanishing cotton candy for a fun surprise to serve at your next Halloween Party.

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Ingredients
How to Make a Vanishing Ghost Halloween Gin Cocktail
Making Homemade Peach Simple Syrup
Easily Make Your Own Dried Orange Slices
FAQs and Substitutions
Looking for more Easy Halloween Cocktails?
Halloween Drinks for the Whole Family
Make a Treat to go with your Halloween Cocktails
Other Fall Cocktail Recipes You’ll Love
Print the Recipe Card

Halloween Season is here and with it every reason to make a fabulous spooky cocktail!

I’m a fan of nice Halloween - not scary Halloween. No matter how delicious, I don’t want my drinks with lychee eyeballs or fake spiders floating in them. So every drink I create for Halloween has to be delicious and on theme, but not gory or un-appetizingly creepy.

This easy recipe for a Halloween purple cocktail is the perfect drink for pulling off a little Halloween fun and doing a vanishing act with some cotton candy.

Ingredients

Indigo Gin - I use Empress 1908 Gin in this cocktail, which gives it the purple color. Choose your favorite indigo gin for this recipe.
Peach Simple Syrup - Homemade peach syrup takes 3 ingredients and 10 minutes to make.
Fresh Lemon - Use fresh lemon juice in this recipe. You’ll need half a lemon (or less) per cocktail.
Peach Bitters - I love what peach bitters adds to this drink, but if you can’t find them, just leave them out.
Cotton Candy - This is the ghost part of this cocktail! Use whatever color you can find and choose the freshest cotton candy possible.
Dehydrated Orange Slices - For the garnish! Make yours at home with an orange and an oven!
Decorating Sugar (green, purple, orange, or black) - For the garnish on the rim of your cocktail ! Choose whatever spooky season color your can find.

How to Make a Vanishing Ghost Halloween Gin Cocktail

Pour sugar onto a small, shallow dish.

A hand running a slice of lemon around the rim of a glass.

Run a lemon slice along the top of a stemmed glass (like a coupe glass or martini glass).

A hand rolling the rim of a glass into black decorating sugar.

Run the rim of the glass in the sugar.

Cotton candy stacked in a prepared glass.

Pile a heap of cotton candy into your glass.

Set aside.

In a cocktail shaker, combine lemon juice, gin, peach syrup, and peach bitters.

Indigo gin being poured into a cocktail shaker.

Lemon juice being poured into a cocktail shaker.

Add ice to make the shaker half full.

Shake well.

Strain your cocktail over the cotton candy in the glass and watch it disappear!

Halloween gin cocktail being poured over a pile of cotton candy.

Halloween gin cocktail pouring into a glass of melted cotton candy.

Garnish with a slice of dehydrated orange.

A hand placing a dried orange wheel on the top of a glass of Halloween gin cocktail.

Sip and enjoy!

Making Homemade Peach Simple Syrup

While you can buy peach syrup in many specialty stores, I highly recommend making your own at home. My recipe uses 3 ingredients, and you can make it with either fresh or frozen peaches. Get all the directions and tips you need over on my Homemade Peach Simple Syrup page.

Homemade Peach Syrup in a bottle. — Homemade Peach Simple Syrup

Easily Make Your Own Dried Orange Slices

Dehydrating orange slices in your oven is really easy, it just takes a little time. I’ve written up all the directions and tips you need for creating your own dried orange slices on my dehydrated citrus page.

A jar filled with oven dried orange slices.

FAQs and Substitutions

Where do I buy cotton candy?

I found cotton candy in several stores near me, including Party City and Home Goods. You can use any color cotton candy you’d like in this cocktail. I prefer white or purple to stay on the Halloween color theme, but your vanishing ghost could easily be pink or blue too.

Where do I get dehydrated orange slices?

Dried citrus is a popular cocktail garnish, so specialty liquor stores will often carry it, but the best place to get dehydrated orange slices is in your own kitchen. All you need to do is thin slice a fresh orange and dry it out over time in your oven. I have all the directions and tips for doing this over on my Dried Orange Slices page.

What is indigo gin?

While all gin contain juniper berries and other botanicals, indigo gin is a purple gin that gets its color from the addition of butterfly pea blossom. Empress 1908 Gin is the most popular and widely available brand of this gin in the United States.

What if I can’t find indigo gin?

Empress Gin is widely available throughout the U.S. and is my choice for the indigo gin in this cocktail. If you can’t find it in your area, use your favorite juniper-forward dry gin in this recipe. The color won’t be the same as what you see pictured here, but it will still be a tasty drink.

Where can I buy peach syrup?

Speciality grocery stores will often carry peach syrup (look for brands like Monin or Torani), but making it at home only takes 10 minutes and it’s so much more delicious than anything in the stores. Get my 3 ingredient recipes over on my Peach Simple Syrup page.

Looking for more Easy Halloween Cocktails?

I love coming up with fun, magical cocktails for Halloween. My focus is always on making them easy, flavorful, and with natural ingredients free from as many artificial colors and dyes as possible.

My Blackberry Halloween Bourbon Cocktail gets its dark red color from fresh blackberries and bourbon, while the drippy blood in this Bloody Ghost Halloween Vodka Cocktail comes from a rich raspberry syrup made from fresh raspberries.

Try a spooky spin on a classic cocktail with a Bloody Halloween Margarita. Or make another drink with indigo gin and shake up my easy, 4 ingredients Wicked Witches Brew Cocktail. Any of these will make the perfect addition to your next Halloween bash!

Blackberry Bourbon Cocktail with smoke swirling around it. — Blackberry Bourbon Halloween Cocktail

Bloody Ghost Halloween Vodka Cocktail surrounded by smoke. — Bloody Ghost Vodka Cocktail

Halloween Drinks for the Whole Family

Halloween mocktails are a fun way to make sure everyone is included in the Spooky Season festivities! Make a pitcher of Hocus Pocus Punch, or create individual drinks with these Brain Freeze! Frozen Halloween Mocktails, or an easy Halloween Mocktail with grape juice.

Make a Treat to go with your Halloween Cocktails

I’ve been making my Candy Corn Shortbread Cookies for close to two decades now. It’s a slice-and-bake cookie recipe that’s much easier to make than you might think. They also freeze really well, so you can make them whenever you have time in October, pop them in the freezer, and be ready for Halloween festivities.