Spooky Halloween Blackberry Grape Punch

A spooky, dark fruit punch made with juicy blackberries and black grapes, perfect for the little goblins on Halloween Day!!

We had our first namesake cold front over the weekend and I was caught unawares while at a family night event at the kiddo’s school. But it was a nice respite from the heat and made the hundreds of pumpkins strewed in the make-shift pumpkin patch down our street almost legit. It’s fall y’all!

Whether the weather agrees or not, it most definitely is October and Halloween is right around the corner. Now I don’t dress up for it myself but I let the little one have some fun or candy, err… both, actually! He is such a fearless little monster when it comes to Halloween. Blood, guts, spiders and ghosts do not spook him one bit. If I let him, he might even try keeping a spider as a pet. He did try to domesticate a couple of roly poly bugs once, but that’s another story!

So we took out our stash of toy spiders and skull straws and had ourselves a little Halloween fun with this super easy spooky punch. Look at that color on that juice concentrate. It’s a hundred percent natural, I can assure you. Let’s call it our secret potion or witch’s brew or whatever, ok?

To make it, you do not need packets of chemical-laden juice powders, but let’s go au naturale with black fruits, shall we? Black grapes and blackberries will do nicely. They were so fresh and so beautiful, I went overboard with the pics, but I shan’t bore you too much 🙂

The berries and grapes are broken down into a simple syrup which forms the basis of our punch. You can mix it with ice and cold water or club soda for a fizzy drink. Pour cold soda over ice cubes, hear the ice crackle and sizzle, and let that “potion” do its magic!

This is such a simple but delicious drink and a great alternative to anything vile that gets marketed as “grape juice” in the market. Trust me, once you have tasted real grape juice, you will never buy the purple stuff again. And making it not such a big deal either.

You can dress up the drinks with skewered blackberries. Tell the Halloween fiends that it is brain-matter!! This is the most Gothic I will ever go, because unlike my son, such stuff makes me terribly squeamish. So I do the cutesy Halloween stuff. But hey, if it’s delicious and fun, I’ll take it!

Oh hey, another fruit shot. I told you, I had a lot of those!!

And, by the way, it doesn’t have to be Halloween for you to enjoy this delicious beverage. This will work equally well for a lazy weekend shindig or a Holiday party (let’s not pretend that we’re not already thinking about it, okay?). But bring out your toy ghosts and spiders this time, and spook the little ones with this fun Halloween beverage!

Spooky Halloween Blackberry Grape Punch

 

Save Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

A spooky, dark fruit punch made with juicy blackberries and black grapes, perfect for the little goblins on Halloween Day!!

Author: Anjana Devasahayam

Recipe type: Beverages

Cuisine: American

Serves: 8

You will need:

• Blackberries - 4 oz
• Black grapes - 4 cups
• Sugar - ¼ cup (or more, depending on the sweetness of the fruits)
• Water - ½ cup
• Lemon juice - 2 tbsp, freshly squeezed
• Cold water or club soda - 8 cups
• Ice cubes - as needed
• Blackberries and black grapes - to garnish

How to:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the berries, grapes, sugar, water and lemon juice to a boil. Cook the fruit till they are broken down, around 10 minutes.
2. Simmer for 5 more minutes, mashing the fruits well with a ladle to release all their juices.
3. Strain the mixture using a fine mesh sieve, pressing down to get as mush juice as possible from the grapes and berries. Store this concentrate in a glass bottle or jar. Once cooled completely, close tightly with a lid and refrigerate till needed. This punch concentrate can be stored up to a week at least.
4. To serve, mix the chilled concentrate with cold water or club soda, lots of ice and muddled blackberries and black grapes in a large pitcher or punch bowl. Alternately, make individual drinks in glasses by combining one part syrup and 4 parts water or soda and top with ice and muddled blackberries/grapes.

Notes:

1. Though this recipe can be made with any sort of berries and grapes, select blackberries and black grapes to give the dark, spooky color to the concentrate.
2. The grapes I used were very sweet and I had to use only ¼ cup sugar for all this fruit. Adjust the sweetness as per your taste.

3.5.3208

Check out this Healthy Green Monster Shake that I made last year.

Do you do Halloween? How do you include the little ones? Do try this Blackberry Grape Punch recipe and let me know how you and your guests liked it!

If you like this post, please follow this blog via Email to get post updates (find subscription box on the right side of this page, or scroll down in mobile version).

Stay connected on social media, PIN and SHARE this post.

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | Google+

I am sharing this over at Fiesta Friday, FoodieFriDIY & Saucy Saturday.