In Oklahoma City, tricks and treats come in many forms and flavors. For some, it’s family-friendly activities like Pumpkinville and ScaryTale Park. For others, it’s all about Fright Fest at Frontier City or even a Shrek Rave. Then there are those who prefer their treats in potable form. Be it a pumpkin-spiced latte, a bloody good cocktail or a pie-inspired beer, these are some of the tastiest drinks to sip this Halloween season in Oklahoma City.
Lattes
This time of year, you can either carve pumpkins or drink them. And when it comes to liquid pumpkin, it doesn’t get more ubiquitous than pumpkin spice lattes. Rather than stick with the standard Starbucks order, though, venture off and try something more creative and artisanal, like the Houjicha Pumpkin Lattes at Sincerely Coffee Roasters, made with green tea powder, housemade pumpkin spice syrup and oat milk. Along with other sippable seasonal treats, like butterscotch lattes and thyme-infused cold-brew, it’s a festive standout on the always-inventive cafe’s menu.
At Elemental Coffee, the city’s O.G. coffee roaster, the fall specials include an impressive lineup of spicy originals. A highlight is the pumpkin-butternut syrup, a housemade syrup that sings of harvest season. It can be added to any drink on the menu, from straight-up coffee to another seasonal special, like the Sugar & Spice, a sweet Thai tea latte with Chinese five-spice, or the Cozy Up, a maple spice latte.
Over at EÔTÉ Coffee, the new fall menu is basically sweater weather in a cup. New additions include a pumpkin cold-brew with pumpkin and cinnamon cold foam, a pecan pie latte with spiced brown sugar and butter pecan, pumpkin chai and the aptly dubbed Sweater Weather latte, wafting with white mocha and toasted marshmallow.
Cocktails
When it comes to cocktails, there are certain bars across the city that specialize in immersive environments and equally immersive mixed drinks, made with seasonal ingredients and an occasionally spooky surprise.
The buzzy new JK by Chef King has a Halloween cocktail special on deck called Dark Night, a drink that looks like a tempting potion. Made with pineapple juice, orange vodka, Empress gin, desert pear syrup, violet creme and yuzu bitters, the multi-colored libation is as pretty as it is potent.
Stag Lounge, in Deep Deuce, is known for its Halloween-themed menus, which have included boozy potions like the Hocus Pocus and the Witch’s Brew. Palo Santo, always a reliable source for some of the best seasonally driven cocktails in town, has featured crafty iterations like a Pumpkin Smash and Black Magic Margarita.
Then there are those places that just fit the holiday vibe to a tee — the kinds of dark, subterranean haunts and hidden speakeasies where it feels like perpetual Halloween. The Library of Distilled Spirits is a perfect example, a swanky cocktail bar located in a literal underground bank vault beneath The National hotel, where intricate mixed drinks have included Halloween-inspired creations like the Ghost of the Library and the Haunted Mansion. Another apt haunt is Lunar Lounge, a clandestine speakeasy accessed by pressing a moon-clad wall panel in a nondescript Midtown hallway, revealing a world of mystical mixology and quirky sippers. The bar is constantly whipping up fun innovations, so follow them on Instagram to see what they whip up for Halloween.
If you prefer your Halloween cocktails in bag form, head to Up-Down OKC for the holiday. The arcade bar in the Plaza District has made it a tradition with their “blood bag cocktails,” which are blood-red drinks served in pouches that look like actual blood bags.
Beers
For beer connoisseurs out there, some of the Halloween-season beers being poured at local breweries are better treats than actual candy -- especially since some of said beers are brewed with literal candy. Like the candy-infused brews at Prairie Artisan Ales, the Rhinestone Rancher is made with Jolly green apple hard candy and Tiny Esses with Skittles. That same brewery also gets decadent with some of its other festive offerings, like the Pumpkin Pie Treat, a sour ale made with pumpkin pie spices and toasted marshmallows, and the Espresso Marty, basically the beer equivalent of an espresso martini, with Mexican espresso beans, vanilla, and espresso in a bourbon barrel-aged double imperial stout.
For spooky-good beers in a full-blown holiday setting, Coop Ale Works is throwing a Halloween party at its taproom on the southwest side — fittingly on Friday the 13th. Guests are encouraged to come in costume and enjoy Halloween-inspired beers.
