Mocktails
Halloween Ghost Horchata-Style Rice Milk Punch for Kids
This Ghost Horchata-Style Rice Milk Punch is a chilled, completely alcohol-free Halloween drink for children. A quick cinnamon syrup flavors plain rice milk, while a little ground cinnamon sifted through a parchment stencil creates the skull on each serving. It contains no bitters, kombucha or flavoring extracts.
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WHAT YOU NEED
Ingredients
METHOD
How to make it
- An adult folds a clean piece of unwaxed parchment paper in half and cuts a simple 2-inch skull shape with two eye holes and one small nose hole. Unfold it to make a flat stencil; prepare one reusable stencil for the batch.
- Measure the water and pour it into a small saucepan. Add the measured granulated sugar and the measured cinnamon sticks.
- An adult sets the pan over medium heat and stirs until the sugar dissolves completely, about 2 minutes.
- When the syrup reaches a gentle simmer, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil hard.
- Remove the pan from the heat and leave the cinnamon sticks in the syrup while it cools for 15 minutes.
- Remove and discard the cinnamon sticks. Pour the chilled rice milk into a clear 2-quart punch bowl, then add the cooled cinnamon syrup.
- Stir slowly for 15 seconds, cover the bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes, or until the punch is thoroughly cold.
- Set out one clear 8 oz cup per serving. Stir the cold punch once, then divide it evenly among the cups, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space below each rim.
- Hold the parchment stencil about 1/2 inch above one drink. Put that serving's share of the ground cinnamon in a small fine-mesh sieve, tap lightly to form the skull, then lift the stencil straight up. Repeat over every cup.
- Serve immediately before the cinnamon absorbs liquid. An adult must handle the scissors, stove, hot syrup and full punch bowl; the parchment stencil is not edible and must not touch the drink.
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Something wrong or not matching?
Make a readable cinnamon skull
Keep the stencil simple: two large round eyes and one small triangular nose are enough. Holding it above rather than on the liquid keeps the paper dry. Tap the sieve lightly and stop as soon as the shape appears; a heavy cinnamon layer can clump and taste dusty.
This is a convenient horchata-style punch made from packaged rice milk, not traditional soaked-and-strained horchata. Choose plain unsweetened rice milk whose ingredient label contains no vanilla or other flavoring extract. Because brands vary widely, the displayed estimate uses an unsweetened-rice-milk reference of 47 kcal per 100 ml; use your carton for a brand-specific figure.
For a fruit-based green punch, see the Witch's Swamp Kiwi Chia Punch. The adult companion is the Ghost Nigori Sake Highball. Browse the Halloween drinks collection.
The estimate counts the rice milk, granulated sugar, ground cinnamon and both cinnamon sticks. The sticks are discarded after steeping, so actual consumed calories may be slightly lower. No pulp is strained or discarded. The drink is 0.0% ABV.
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