The best Halloween party drinks are the ones that don't compete with the candy. By the end of the night everyone at the table has had a fistful of sugar, and the usual answer is orange punch, which is simply more sugar on top. A tart drink works better, because acidity resets the palate where sweetness keeps piling on. The practical build for a Halloween table is three things: something dark and tart, something bright and orange so the drinks do some of the decorating for you, and enough ice that nothing is warm and syrupy by eight o'clock. Reckon Cherry is deep ruby and Apricot is golden orange, which happens to be the entire Halloween palette, and neither uses an artificial color: the Cherry gets its red from black carrot, the Apricot gets its orange from beta-carotene. Both are caffeine-free, so one cooler covers the kid in the dinosaur costume and the adults working the front door.
Why tart wins on a candy night
Halloween is the sweetest night of the year by a wide margin. Candy, caramel apples, frosted cookies, cider doughnuts. Add a sugary drink and every flavor on the table collapses into the same note.
Tartness cuts in the other direction. The same way a squeeze of lemon wakes up a rich dish, an acidic drink gives your palate somewhere to land between bites. Reckon runs about 1/3 the sugar of a typical cola, so it reads as a drink rather than a dessert.
The colors do the decorating
Orange and blood red are the two colors Halloween actually runs on, and they are exactly what is already in the can.
| Flavor | Color | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Cherry | Deep ruby red | Black carrot |
| Apricot | Golden orange | Beta-carotene |
No artificial color is doing that work, which matters if you have ever watched a punch bowl stain a white tablecloth or a costume. If you want the longer version of how soda gets its color, we wrote about where soda color comes from.
Building the drinks table
You do not need a recipe. You need a plan that survives two hours of traffic.
- Pour over lots of ice, in clear cups. The ruby and orange read much better through glass or clear plastic than through a can.
- Set out both flavors. The Cherry and Apricot variety pack is 6 and 6, which is the easiest way to cover a mixed crowd.
- Keep it caffeine-free. Both flavors are caffeine-free, so one cooler covers the whole table.
- Chill hard and early. A tub of ice and water cools cans faster and more evenly than loose ice.
- Garnish if you want. A skewered cherry or a thin orange slice does more than food coloring ever will.
What to serve alongside
If you are putting out real food and not just candy, tart soda behaves the way you would expect. Deep ruby Cherry goes with anything rich or smoky, so chili, sliders, and a cheese board. Golden Apricot is lighter and works with roasted squash, pretzels, and anything with a bit of salt. The same logic we used for pairing soda with grilled food applies indoors.
Order in time
Standard shipping runs 3 to 5 business days and is free over $60, so the last comfortable order date for Halloween is roughly a week out. In Cleveland you can skip shipping and pick it up at one of our stores. Browse the lineup at Shop All Fizz, or see the full product fact sheet.
Not too sweet. On purpose.
Frequently asked questions
What drinks should I serve at a Halloween party?
Serve something tart rather than something sweet. Halloween food is already heavy on sugar, from candy to caramel apples to frosted cookies, so a syrupy drink flattens the whole table into one note. An acidic drink does the opposite and gives the palate somewhere to land between bites. Practically, put out two colors so the drinks contribute to the decorating, pour over plenty of ice in clear cups so the color shows, and keep the options caffeine-free so one cooler covers the whole table. Tart cherry soda is the darker, richer choice and pairs with chili, sliders, or a cheese board. An apricot or other stone-fruit soda is lighter and suits roasted vegetables and salty snacks. Chill everything well before guests arrive, since a warm drink always reads sweeter than a cold one.
What color are Reckon's sodas, and where does the color come from?
Cherry is a deep ruby red and Apricot is a golden orange. Neither uses an artificial color. The Cherry uses black carrot, a deep purple-black variety rich in the same class of pigment that makes blueberries blue. The Apricot uses beta-carotene, the pigment that makes an ordinary carrot orange. That is convenient for Halloween, since red and orange are the two colors the night runs on anyway.