How to Make a Delicious Glow-in-the-Dark Punch for Halloween

Published on Monday, October 10, 2011, by Amy Wisniewski / Edit Post

Glow in the Dark Punch for Halloween

The glow in this Halloween punch isn't a photography trick. It naturally comes from the bitter alkaloid quinine, which also gives tonic water its characteristic bitterness. Because the quinine in the tonic is UV reactive, it will glow an eerie (but edible!) blue when exposed to a standard black light. But it does take a good amount of tonic to get a nice bright glow: Our test kitchen found that tonic water had to make up at least 50 percent of the volume in the recipe. To balance that bitterness, we mixed it with pineapple juice, Cointreau, pisco, and lime juice, in a riff on Pisco Punch. And in a Martha-inspired moment, we also created glowing "severed hands" by freezing tonic water in latex gloves to give the punch an extra-creepy look and keep it cold.

Go to the full recipe to make this punch for your Halloween bash.

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  • FAIL. I made lemonade with tonic water, and it didn't glow much at all. Pretty disappointing, especially considering that it tasted foul, so the kids didn't like it anyway.

  • The punch was very tasty although you have to like bitter things. I would have liked to put in more pineapple juice but I was afraid it would affect the glowyness. Our punch only glowed a little bit...but the hands glowed a ton. Unfortunately only the drunks at our party got to enjoy it because we made it in a big pot so only the people serving the punch saw the hands. :-P our bad.

  • @Glorybee Black lights are not to expensive. I bought a large one for $10 at walmart and there were cheaper ones. I think this a great idea for a halloween party or a haunted house, as it looks, I dont know how it tastes. I think it would be cooler if it had floating eye balls or brains.

  • I really can't stand quinine, but, this looks to be a really badass punch! I might try to make this one as some of my friends really like G&Ts.

  • Give 'em a shot of Cointreau.

  • havabiscotti- Doesn't every kid love deeelicious tonic water? Added bonus: Cointreau and pisco help to build strong bones.

  • Great for kids havabiscotti - especially the Cointreau.

  • I know rainforest cafe has some sort of blacklight things that float in some of their "glowy" drinks. Bet they could be found!

  • Can you drink this potion? How does it taste? Will kids like it?

  • Black Lights are easy to find in any home improvement store as well as any pet store. I have an inexpensive camp table that I may cut a hole in below the punch bowl and affix the light there. Non-Latex gloves are easy to find today as well in pharmacies as well as a lot of the big chain stores with pharmacy sections. This looks very cool to do. I may just do this without the juices and sit it out...+READ

    Black Lights are easy to find in any home improvement store as well as any pet store. I have an inexpensive camp table that I may cut a hole in below the punch bowl and affix the light there. Non-Latex gloves are easy to find today as well in pharmacies as well as a lot of the big chain stores with pharmacy sections. This looks very cool to do. I may just do this without the juices and sit it out on my porch.-COLLAPSE

  • Careful with latex gloves due to many folks being allergic to latex.

  • Hm, I wonder if there's a way to float black light in the punch, for instance: battery-powered black lights frozen in those hands. Google-fu don't fail me now!

  • It sounded delightful until I realized I'd have to find a black light.

  • ....hope the gloves were powderless...