Witchy Teas for Halloween: Pu-erh, Oolong, and Other Spooky Sips
Halloween is about more than one evening of kids dressed like pirates and princesses, vampire-costumed adults sipping boozy punch at parties and rubber spiders hanging over doorways. In fact, the holiday is a whole vibe.
The crisp weather, leaf-scattered neighborhoods, early evening darkness and generations of alignment between mid-autumn and spookiness come together for weeks leading up to, and following, October 31. What’s a walk in the woods at dusk in mid-November? It can conjure Halloween vibes, even though the big day happened weeks before.
Dwelling within the heart of autumn, Halloween invites culinary dreams—variations on a theme of pumpkin spice, of course, rule. It persuades some of us to curl up in front of scary movies at home, a bowl of popcorn at our sides. And what do we drink? Cider, for the apple atmosphere. Wines like Beaujolais and Chardonnay that complement fall foods.
And we turn to mug after mug of hot tea. The aromatics can come across as distillate of autumn, particularly among some herbal teas. But classic Camellia sinensis teas, like pu-erh and oolong, also land us in a Halloween frame of mind. They can be both earthy and grassy; honeyed and bold; redolent of malt as well as tobacco. They’re glorious.
To get us in the mood for the witchy, zombified day, let’s play with a selection of dark, mysterious teas to help ramp up those autumnal Halloween vibes. Before we know it, the mood pivots from pumpkins to pine cones, and from wraiths to wreaths.
Dark and Mysterious Teas for Halloween: Dark Chocolate Pu-erh
Halloween, of course, nearly marinates in chocolate. We think the union is fitting—the holiday arrives steeped in darkness and mystery, and chocolate embodies both qualities. It’s naturally dark, and its flavors come only through alchemy—without a sweetener, chocolate is extremely bitter and bold. In many ways, inedible. But a certain alchemy turns that roasted pod into ambrosia.
Our Dark Chocolate Pu-erh blend combines the pu-erh, the famous style of Chinese fermented tea, with black tea (for extra depth and deeper color), cacao nibs, rice herb (a rice-redolent herb popular in Asia) and vanilla. While we’re cloaking it in ghoulish vibes here, the tea is quite healthy. Both cacao and pu-erh have been used for thousands of years for grounding and heart happiness—if not heart vigor.
This elixir will warm your heart, while it thrills your taste buds. And with the right framing, it conveys a little spooky, too!
Dark and Mysterious Teas for Halloween: Twilight Oolong
Twilight—a signature Halloween-season time of day. When day merges with night’s first shadings the coyotes yip and the wolves howl. Cougars hunt. Bare trees look spectral in the blue-gray light. It also dwells in the heart of Halloween—most of the costumed ghosts and witches begin toward the day’s end, and continue going door to door once it’s dark. Twilight is like the festive halftime of Halloween.
So our Twilight Oolong blend serves as a perfect Halloween tea. With moody oolong, licorice root and blue butterfly pea flower, the tea soothes sore throats (licorice root) and promotes a focused mind (oolong). Meanwhile, the blue butterfly pea flower will transform into blue if just a drop of lemon gets added to the tea after it’s brewed. Magic!
Dark and Mysterious Teas for Halloween: Rhapsody of Berries
We love this one for Halloween for several reasons. For one, it tastes sublime—berry bonanza! But we also appreciate its health-forward properties. Halloween is the kick-off to more than two months of gustatory overindulgence. The trick-or-treat event delivers mountains of candy to homes, and then begins a blitzkrieg of baking: pies, crumbles, tarts, scones, cookies, cakes and so on. Thanksgiving may still be a few weeks away, but most of us just catch the baking bug once November strikes. After that, it’s the month-long holiday season. Many of us eat and drink too much between the bookends of Halloween and New Year’s Eve. And this tea bolsters health.
With so much sugar, butter, eggs and more during the fall and early winter, our bodies need a hand. And our Rhapsody of Berries blend delivers—thanks to elderberry. It’s considered a superfood, and boosts immune response while also helping the body to detox and cleanse. Fevers, cold, flu symptoms—all of them have traditionally been met with elderberry concoctions, for generations. It also contains hibiscus, which delivers a wallop of vitamin C. So drink Rhapsody of Berries while you work your way through those Halloween candies—and keep on sipping until 2026.
Dark and Mysterious Teas for Halloween: Purple Haze
Whenever we think of witches stirring a brew, we imagine smoke rising from the cauldron. The color? The classic is purple. So now is the time to drink our Purple Haze blend!
This blend is expansive. The ginger and lemon bring a familiar zing, one that always helps with throat soreness as well as digestion. Pineapple and apple deliver different styles of fruit sweetness. Basil perfumes the blend with anise flavors, and both blackberry leaf and moringa leaf contribute health advantages, as well as grassy, herbal notes. And then the butterfly pea flower turns the whole dream turn blue, as long as you add a drop or more of an acid, like lemon juice, to the brewed tea.
Get in the Halloween spirit with a proper witch’s brew tea—Purple Haze!
