The Boozy Way To Use Up Leftover Halloween Candy

With over 300,000 tons of candy sold every Halloween in the United States, it is almost a guarantee that your household will end up with some leftover treats this fall. While snacking on pure sugar can be fun at first, it can quickly lose its charm. Once that's the case, what are you to do with all of your excess candy? Before you toss the leftover stash into the trash or bury it in the back of the cupboard to sit forgotten, consider rewarding the adults in the house by using it to create tasty and unique alcoholic beverages.

While it may seem strange, many candies make for an excellent cocktail ingredient, adding flavor, color, and, of course, sweetness to a variety of delicious libations. You can pick from a handful of strategies for combining these ingredients, depending on your time constraints, available equipment, and even your candy preferences. Whether you're a fan of fruity, minty, or even chocolatey confections, there's an easy way to incorporate any of them into a drink recipe.

One method of combining alcohol with candy is infusion. Infusion is the process of steeping a candy in your spirit of choice so that the confection's flavor, and often color, transfer over to the liquor. It's extremely easy to execute as it simply involves dropping the candy into a container filled with the spirit and waiting anywhere from several hours to multiple days for the magic to happen. Once the resulting mixture has reached your desired color and taste, strain out any remaining solids (if there are any) and enjoy.

Infusion tends to work best with candies that are primarily made from sugar since it dissolves well in alcohol. Hard candies like Jolly Ranchers and Lemonheads work well, as do chewier candies like gummy worms or Red Hots — as seen in this Fireball Whiskey Cocktail. Some chocolates, like Hersey's bars and peanut butter cups can also be successful. In terms of spirit selection, a neutral option like vodka is very reliable, and the clear liquid is great for showing off bright candy colors; however, there is no limit to the pairings you can make based on your own palate. Some combinations we recommend include Starbursts with gin and Sour Patch Kids with tequila.

If you want to try a different approach than infusing, there is another option available . While it may be a little more work, you can include Halloween treats in your next cocktail by making them into a blended cocktail. This style of beverage involves using a blender to combine all of the ingredients, so it can easily incorporate any kind of candy into a smooth and luxurious mixed drink.

Confections that perform really well here are those with rich flavors that can stand up to the heaviness of a blended drink, like Peppermint Patties or Snickers. Toss them into your blender with your liquor of choice along with any other ingredients — ice or ice cream can help bring things together here, like they do in this Nutella Mudslide – and run your appliance until the desired texture is achieved. Spirits with bolder and more complex flavors tend to do well with this format, as do flavored liqueurs. We recommend trying bourbon and Milky Ways or Butterfingers and rum.