Black Vodka

Up the spook level of your Halloween cocktails with homemade Black Vodka. Made with food coloring, you can use it to make eery black cocktails. It’s perfect for Halloween parties.

Homemade Black Vodka recipe

Halloween cocktails, like costumes, can be cute, creepy or somewhere in between.

Cute is a Tootsie Roll cocktail. Creepy is a martini glass ^* crawling with vodka gummy worms. But the sweet spot is that elegant yet spooky vibe — think Morticia Addams or Beetlejuice — and honestly, those are the most fun.

Take this black magic cocktail. It’s simple, classy and just a little sinister, thanks to black vodka. A splash of food coloring transforms ordinary vodka into something perfectly eerie, and it works for other spirits too.

Once you’ve got a bottle of black vodka, the options for spooky cocktails are endless.

Why you’ll love this recipe

Black vodka sets the mood for any Halloween party. Here are a few reasons you’ll love making your own:

• Black vodka is easy to make with your favorite vodka and food coloring.
• Unlike other methods, this black vodka doesn’t take long to make and doesn’t involve charcoal, so it is safe to consume.
• This black spirit ups the spook factor for all kinds of cocktails. It makes a great gag to mix into cocktails for Halloween parties or enjoy on Halloween night.
• Plus, you can make the exact amount you need, and then you’re not committed to a whole bottle of black vodka.

Methods for making black vodka

Black vodka is simply a food-colored vodka. It tastes just like vodka! It’s a great way to spruce up classic cocktails for Halloween, like a French 75 or an espresso martini.

You can make black vodka at home or you can buy it. Blavod Vodka is the leading black vodka brand that may be available at your local liquor store, but making it at home is super easy, then you can enjoy your fave, too! There are a few ways to make black vodka:

1. The easiest method adds few drops of food coloring, which is inexpensive. This method is incredibly easy to pull off and only takes a few minutes.
2. Another method involves infusing vodka with black rice, which would be more natural. Food coloring is definitely less time-consuming.
3. Adding activated charcoal powder is another method, but there is some medical risk to using charcoal in cocktails that I didn’t want to take. Food coloring is a much safer option.

Best vodka

Vodka is the perfect blank slate because it is clear and uncolored. Feel free to use a flavored vodka such as chili vodka or pineapple vodka. As I always say, use the best you can afford — my go-to advice for anything with drink mixing.

My go-to brands right now are Tito’s, Deep Eddy and Absolut. Another good idea is to use the Crystal Head vodka, which comes in a skull-shaped bottle — it would be so on-brand! Feel free to use tequila, gin or rum if your cocktail calls for it. The food coloring can easily transform a darker spirit like bourbon or spiced rum, too.

Best food coloring

The best food coloring to use for this vodka is easy to find at most grocery stores. The one you are looking for is a box of food color in “assorted colors.” Don’t get the neon colors — you will need to get a box with red, green and blue food coloring.

These three colors are sufficient for making a black pigment for the vodka. You don’t need to use any of the other colors in the box, like yellow food coloring. (Bonus: You can use them to color cookies, frosting and egg dyes.)

If you can find it, feel free to use black food color, but I think it’s great that you can use the most common brand of food coloring to make it without having to buy anything special. You won’t need very much at all — about 2-3 drops each of each color per cup of vodka will result in a rich black color.

How to make Black Vodka

Making homemade black vodka is super easy.

First, fill a container like a mixing glass ^* or measuring cup with regular vodka. Be sure the container is dishwasher-safe. (Glass isn’t likely to stain from the food color.) Then add 3 drops of red food coloring. Next, add 3 drops of green food coloring.

Finally, add 3 drops of blue food coloring. These three colors are dark and saturated, and when they come together, they turn the vodka black as the night. Then give it a shake or stir to turn it totally black. Add more food coloring if necessary to reach your desired color.

If you are using more than 1 cup of vodka (say, a whole bottle of vodka), you’ll need to use more food color. Just use equal ratios of each hue until you reach your desired color.

Store it in an airtight, food-safe container such as a bottle or jar. It is shelf-stable, so keep it around as long as you like.

Substitutions & variations

Other spirits: You can use this same method to make black gin or black rum if you like! Even black tequila will work! For spirits that have a dark color, like bourbon, you may need to add extra drops of blue or green if it has a yellow or brown tinge to it.

Flavored vodka: A flavored spirit like coconut rum, marshmallow vodka or spicy tequila will work too.

Non-alcoholic spirits: You can even make it work with zero-proof spirit for anyone who’d like a mocktail instead.

Black cocktail recipes

Now that you have black vodka, what will you make with it? Here are a few black drink ideas. Add some dry ice to make them bubble and smoke like a witch’s brew.

• Make an even darker Black Russian with black vodka and coffee liqueur.
• Love vodka sodas or vodka tonics? Make them black! Use your homemade black vodka and top it with club soda water or tonic water ^*. Or you could make a screwed-up screwdriver with orange juice and vodka.
• If you’re a martini fan, use it to make a vodka martini. (You could also add the food coloring to gin, if you prefer the classic martini!) I’m not sure what the color would do to the olives, but that’s kind of fun for Halloween, right?
• An easy Halloween cocktail would be black Moscow mules made with black vodka, lime juice and ginger beer. Or take a vodka & cranberry juice up a notch.
• The witches martini is a fruity cocktail that’s essentially a black martini recipe containing Chambord. For a crowd, this black vodka punch would be the perfect cocktail.

If you’re trying other black spirits, use black tequila to make black margaritas or black bourbon to make an old-fashioned. I’d love to hear what spooky black cocktails you come up with! Leave a comment below.

More Halloween cocktails

Here are some more delicious Halloween cocktails to try this year:

• Boozy Butterbeer
• Color-Changing Potion Cocktails
• Glow-in-the-Dark Jello Shots
• Pumpkin Spice Mule