<em>This story originally appeared in the Wednesday, October 26, 2005 edition of The Kansas City Star</em></p><p>Sheri Parr loves Halloween. So in midsummer Parr begins planning the frightfully spooky cocktails she'll serve at her bar - the Brick at 1727 McGee - during Halloween weekend.</p><p>This year she'll serve up ahoy-matey rum drinks for Friday night's Pirate Night. On Saturday, Poison Apple shots (apple-flavored vodka), Zombies (fruit juices, rum and apricot brandy) and Vampire Kisses (black cherry vodka and grenadine) will quench the thirsts of guests rocking to the Haunted Creepies, a local band that plays only on Halloween and Friday the 13th.</p><p>"The cocktails are like cooking," she says. "It's fun to have an excuse to make something up, and there's so much to play with - the blacks, the reds, the oranges, the Vampires, the Monsters, the Zombies."</p><p>Halloween isn't just about candy for kids anymore. More than ever, adults are playing dress-up, throwing at-home parties and concocting tricks and treats of their own. According to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend about $3.3 billion during what is now a monthlong celebration of ghouls, goblins and ghosts. "People have always decorated as much for Halloween as for Christmas," says James Mellgren, Berkeley, Calif.-based author of The Bar (Ten Speed, 2005), a primer for folks who want to learn the art and craft of cocktails. "Gradually the interest moved to food - to spider cupcakes, that kind of thing."</p><p>An interest in Halloween food coincides with the resurgence in cocktail culture. The Zombie, around since the 1930s, is a classic Halloween cocktail. The Bloody Brain, on the other hand, is a relatively new but especially gruesome-looking cocktail based on Bailey's Irish Cream.</p><p>"When Halloween rolled around, people said, `Let's entertain with spooky-looking cocktails, with funky names,'" Mellgren says.</p><p>Mellgren credits Martha Stewart for spurring the Halloween craze, which has, in turn, led to cocktails designed for the holiday.</p><p>"Her Halloween shows were unbelievable - so over the top," he says. "She did a great punch, with frozen hands and a face floating in it that was very clever and very spooky. The overall sense is that people are really more and more interested in cocktails, and more of them are making them at home at party time."</p><p>Laura O'Rourke, owner of the Culinary Center of Kansas City, saw interest increase in learning how to craft cocktails at home several years ago when the center offered "Easy Bartending for Home Bars."</p><p>"Baby boomers don't just want a rum and Coke or gin and tonic anymore. They want something a little more grown-up. They want a Manhattan. They want a well-made martini. And they're entertaining at home," says O'Rourke.</p><p>For a Halloween party she is catering, O'Rourke is serving blood orange martinis. Last year's cocktail of choice? A black martini, made with black vodka.</p><p>Serving a couple of cocktails or a punch is much simpler than stocking a full bar, Mellgren says. He suggests people design their cocktail menu just like they would their party food. Using a recipe they can practice beforehand or make them in batches. They can also enhance the color or float creepy things in the drinks for added effect.</p><p>Vodka started the trend toward flavoring and coloring, with different flavored vodkas. Others followed suit and now consumers will find all sorts of flavored and/or colored spirits, from vanilla cognac to black tequila. Today, flavored vodkas make up 12 percent of total vodka sales, and the number is growing.