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.