Halloween and Bonfire Night coffee recipes to make at home

Bonfire Night in Yorkshire means parkin, treacle toffee wrapped in greaseproof paper, and standing in a cold field waiting for the first rocket to go up. Halloween arrives a week earlier with its own excuse for something dark and indulgent in a mug. These five recipes take the flavours of both and build each one around a coffee we roast here in York, so every drink comes with a bag we'd actually reach for when making it.

The gentler autumn classics, pumpkin spice and maple pecan included, are already in our cosy autumn coffee recipes, so everything below is new.

Most of these call for a double espresso. If you don't have a machine, 80ml of strong cafetière or AeroPress coffee works in every recipe, and our guide to getting the best out of your beans covers the ratios.

1. Yorkshire parkin latte

Parkin is the sticky oat and ginger cake that turns up all over Yorkshire in November and is traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night. This latte borrows its black treacle, golden syrup and ginger as a quick syrup, which keeps in the fridge for about a week and gets used again in the espresso martini further down.

The coffee: The Excelso. Its chocolate, honey and spice notes sit alongside the ginger without getting buried under the treacle.

For the parkin syrup (enough for about six drinks):

• 2 tbsp black treacle
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 4 tbsp water

For one latte:

• A double espresso (about 40ml) or 80ml strong brewed coffee
• 1 to 2 tbsp parkin syrup
• 200ml milk, dairy or oat
• Crumbled parkin or toasted oats to finish

Method:

1. Warm the syrup ingredients in a small pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2 minutes and leave to cool slightly.
2. Brew the coffee into a mug and stir in the syrup.
3. Steam or froth the milk and pour it over.
4. Scatter a little crumbled parkin or toasted oats on top.

2. Bonfire toffee latte

Bonfire toffee, or treacle toffee depending on where you grew up, is dark, brittle and slightly bitter from the black treacle. The sauce here is a softer version of it that stirs straight into hot coffee, with a shard of the real thing on the side if you can get hold of some.

The coffee: Rwanda Kirunga. It already tastes of molasses, raisin and cola, so the toffee draws those notes out rather than covering them, and it's a good way to try a speciality coffee in a milk drink.

For the toffee sauce (enough for about four drinks):

• 30g butter
• 2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 4 tbsp double cream
• A pinch of sea salt

For one latte:

• A double espresso or 80ml strong brewed coffee
• 1 to 2 tbsp toffee sauce
• 200ml milk
• A shard of bonfire toffee to serve (optional)

Method:

1. Melt the butter, sugar and treacle together over a low heat, stirring until smooth.
2. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the cream and salt, then return it for a minute until it bubbles gently. Hot sugar burns badly, so keep children well back from the pan.
3. Stir a spoonful of sauce into the coffee in your mug.
4. Top with steamed milk and serve with a shard of toffee on the saucer.

3. Toasted marshmallow s'mores mocha

A s'mores mocha belongs at the end of the night after the fireworks have finished, which is why we make ours with decaf. Crushed digestives stand in for the American graham crackers and, in my opinion, do the job better.

The coffee: The Dame, our Swiss Water house decaf. Hazelnut, milk chocolate and caramel suit a chocolate drink that's going to be topped with toasted sugar.

For one mocha:

• A double decaf espresso or 80ml strong brewed decaf
• 25g milk or dark chocolate, chopped
• 200ml milk
• 1 digestive biscuit, crushed
• A little melted chocolate or honey for the rim
• A handful of marshmallows

Method:

1. Dip the rim of a heatproof mug in melted chocolate or honey, then into the crushed digestive.
2. Warm the milk with the chopped chocolate, whisking until smooth.
3. Brew the coffee into the mug and pour the chocolate milk over.
4. Pile marshmallows on top and toast them with a kitchen blowtorch, or put the mug under a hot grill for 30 to 60 seconds and watch it closely. Only use the grill with a mug that's ovenproof.

4. Chocolate orange witches' brew mocha

Dark chocolate and orange is a pairing most of us first met through a foil-wrapped ball at Christmas. A spoonful of black cocoa turns it into the darkest drink on this list, which is where the name comes from.

The coffee: Kenya Orange Co-Ferment, which is fermented alongside orange and tastes of orange, dark chocolate, caramel and pecan before anything else goes in the cup. If you're curious how that works, we've explained what co-fermented coffee is.

For one mocha:

• A double espresso or 80ml strong brewed coffee
• 25g dark chocolate (around 70%), chopped
• 200ml milk
• 2 wide strips of orange zest
• 1 tsp black cocoa powder (optional, for colour)
• A pinch of sea salt
• A twist of orange peel to serve

Method:

1. Warm the milk with the orange zest until it's just steaming, then take it off the heat, leave it to infuse for 5 minutes and lift the zest out.
2. Return the milk to a low heat and whisk in the chocolate, black cocoa and salt until smooth.
3. Brew the coffee into a mug, pour the chocolate milk over and finish with a twist of orange peel.

5. Halloween espresso martini

An espresso martini depends on fresh coffee, because the foam on top comes from a shot that's just been pulled. Leftover coffee from the morning pot will give you a flat drink.

The coffee: House Espresso, which won two Great Taste Awards in 2025. Its chocolate, cherry and fudge notes hold their own against vodka and coffee liqueur. If you're serving these late, The Dame works here too.

For one martini:

• 50ml vodka
• 25ml coffee liqueur
• 30ml freshly brewed espresso
• 10ml parkin syrup from the first recipe, or plain sugar syrup
• Plenty of ice
• 3 coffee beans, or a little chocolate sauce for the web

Method:

1. Chill a coupe or martini glass in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Shake the vodka, liqueur, espresso and syrup hard with ice for 15 to 20 seconds.
3. Double strain into the chilled glass and let the foam settle.
4. Float three coffee beans on top, or for a Halloween finish dot a spiral of chocolate sauce onto the foam and drag a cocktail stick through it from the centre outwards to draw a spider's web.

The five coffees

All five are small-batch roasted and hand packed at our roastery in York. If you'd like to try something beyond these, the rest of our single origins are in the speciality coffee collection.