Last year, we celebrated National Rum Day with a spiced rum and coffee cocktail called the Dark Moon. We’re giving tea lovers something to toast with this year: a twist on the traditional dark and stormy cocktail made with our Lemon Ginger Green Tea. For ours, we chose Fever Tree ginger beer, which packs a giant wallop of ginger flavor and compliments the tea nicely without tasting watered-down.

Ingredients (per drink)

4 oz ginger beer
2 oz cold Lemon Ginger Green Tea
3 oz black strap rum
Splash of simple syrup or to taste

Instructions

Allow the tea to cool, or brew it right before serving by replacing half the brewing water with ice. Combine the tea and ginger beer over ice and sweeten with simple syrup to taste. To float the rum on top, pour slowly over the back of a spoon. Garnish with a slice of lemon and some candied ginger if you want to get fancy. Stir and enjoy!

In case you need an excuse to have a cocktail on a Tuesday, National Rum Day is August 16th. In honor of rum, we’re mixing up a batch of this coffee cocktail. This recipe makes a pitcher and can be made in advance. Just combine the liqueur and rum (we used Kahlua and Sailor Jerry) with cold brewed coffee and store in a covered container in the fridge. When you’re ready to serve, add the cola, pour over ice, and spoon a little heavy cream over the top of each glass.

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 1 1/2 cups strong iced coffee.
• 1/2 cup coffee liqueur
• 1/2 cup spiced rum
• 1 12-ounce bottle Coca-Cola
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (divide among glasses)

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Remember last New Year’s Eve when you nodded off on the couch at 10 o’clock, one hand in a bag of chips? This recipe is dedicated to you. Hopefully you resolved to party. Chilling the espresso is an important step in this recipe (nobody likes a watery drink) and while the drink is sweet enough without it, simple syrup adds a nice froth on top.

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz vodka
3/4 oz coffee liqueur, homemade or store bought
1/4 oz elderflower liqueur
2 shots espresso, chilled
Generous splash simple syrup

Instructions
Add all ingredients to a shaker with plenty of ice. Shake it hard for a good 10 seconds and strain into a cocktail glass.

Adapted from Food & Wine.

Tea parties a are a little creepy, don’t you think? Halloween is a great occasion to host one, Mad Hatter style. Even without the tea party, this is the perfect cocktail to creep your guests out in a big way. We started with the basic recipe for a hibiscus tea cocktail called The Procession and upped the goulish factor a little with some hibiscus syrup and dry ice.

Ingredients (for the drink)
½ oz silver tequila
¾ oz crème de cacao (white)
½ oz ruby port
¾ oz hibiscus tea, chilled (make 1 cup more for the syrup, if using, below)
2 dashes of orange bitters

For the hibiscus syrup:
Bring 1 cup of brewed and strained hibiscus tea to a boil (2 teaspoons brewed for 5 minutes made a nice strong cup). While the tea is boiling, add a cup of sugar and stir constantly for about two minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Shake the cocktail ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a small chunk of dry ice (check out these instructions on handling dry ice) to the glass, and drizzle a little hibiscus “blood” along the rim. Serve immediately. The bubbling lasts for about five minutes.

Created by Daniel Hyatt, The Alembic, San Francisco. Original recipe here.

Hibiscus is a beautiful thing, but a little hard to drink straight up as a tea. Steep the dried flowers and the you get a purply-red infusion that is almost painfully tart. On the lookout for new ways to tame the flavor, we were excited to discover this recipe from Bon Appetit for a sweet, spicy, hibiscus-rose syrup. Try it in cocktails (thousand-flavor gin and tonic anyone?) and over fruit or ice cream.

What you’ll need

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups water

Seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1 vanilla pod

3 wide strips lemon zest

3 lightly crushed green cardamom pods

1 star anise pod

5 juniper berries

1/4 cup dried rose petals

2 tablespoons dried hibiscus

1 teaspoon pink peppercorns

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns

For the full instructions, check out the recipe for Fruit Salad with Thousand-Flavor Syrup.