Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku - Day #30 - TOXIC TIPPLE THURSDAY (Fifth Of A Gallon)

Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...

... to 'Day Thirty' of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku"  and to the fifth & final instalment of "Toxic Tipple Thursday" for 2014 where, each week, I have been recommending a mix of "batty brews", "creepy cocktails" and "spooky spirits"(all very much suited to Hallowe'en) as part of a special month-long blogathon with each post counting down the days to October 31st !!

So, if you're planning to host your own spooky soirée tomorrow, you should make a point of looking back through my blog posts for EVERY THURSDAY, since the start of the month, for inspiration on how to keep those ghastly goblets full to the brim throughout your fiendish festivities on Hallowe'en !!

Anyway... having kicked things off with the "Unofficial Beer of Hallowe'en", aka "Hobgoblin", and followed that up with a dark & mysterious porter (or, "stout", if you prefer) called "Black Wych", both from the same 'Wychwood Brewery', I then mixed things up a bit by bringing you a spooktacular spirit, in the shape of 'The Kraken' black spiced rum, before inviting you to "experience the sinister side..." by taking on your very own "Beast Of Bourbon", better known as "The Devil's Cut" by way of a lavishly licentious libation that would be guaranteed to leave you licking your lips for more on Oct 31st. So, with only one more opportunity to make suggestions as to liquid refreshments this side of Hallowe'en, I thought I'd better bring you a bucket-load of drinks recipes so you can pick 'n' mix as it pleases you !!

Luckily for all of us, help is at hand in the shape of a Roku channel dedicated to the art of mixology, the details for which are outlined below, and that can be identified by the following channel icon:-

DRINKS [by iFood.tv]...................................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

If you haven't already added it to your own channel selection, you'll find "Drinks by iFood.TV" listed among the "Food" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and it can easily be added to your Roku player(s) by navigating to the built-in 'Channel Store' from the home screen and scrolling through the options until you see the (above) channel icon. It's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, it's simply a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigating the on-screen menu to access the "Home: Popular Halloween Drinks" section. TIP: From the main menu screen, visible once you have launched & accessed the channel, just two or three short presses of the directional arrow marked "DOWN" (on your Roku remote) should be enough to reveal the sub-menu for the "Home: Popular Halloween Drinks" section at the bottom of your television screen. From there, it's a simple case of using the "LEFT" and/or "RIGHT" directional arrows on your Roku remote to scroll through the video recipes until you see one which catches your eye. Again, use your Roku remote to select the video recipe, which has tempted your taste buds, then click "OK"to play the video(s) and watch the recipe(s) to see how they are made.

A QUICK TIP: When watching the Hallowe'en cocktail recipes on "Drinks by iFood.TV", it's worth keeping the Roku remote handy to pause and rewind, if necessary, as well as a pen and paper to make your own notes about the procedure as you go along. Having said that, there's usually plenty of detail to be found within each video just by navigating the on-screen menu to bring up details such as lists of ingredients and mixing instructions which you can call-up on screen while you watch each video.

Generally speaking, 'Drinks [by iFood.tv]' provides a collection of over 4,000 instructional videos containing recipes for all kinds of drinks from Cocktails to Smoothies, Party Shots, Teas, Ethnic Drinks, Holiday Specials & more. These "How-To" style videos can be used to improve your mixing and shaking skills to such a frighteningly good level, it could leave your Hallowe'en party guests in complete shock and awe, as they marvel at your new-found bartending talents !!

Aside from the aforementioned "Home: Popular Halloween Drinks" sub-category, there are multiple other genres to choose from (shown as "Categories"in the main menu) as part of the 'Drinks [by iFood.tv]' Roku channel. Obviously... not all of the included content is relevant to this post, however, the inclusion of a 'Search' function (found under "Categories" in the main menu) means that it is very easy to whittle down the list, by sticking to our general theme, and enter the word "Halloween" as a search term, to obtain a set of results that are specific to your requirements.

Now, ordinarily, you'd use an original Roku remote to enter text via the on-screen keyboard shown:- 

HINT: Click on the above image to ENLARGE IT for easier viewing !!

Although, if you've tried that method previously, you'll know that it can be a bit fiddly (not to mention overly-cumbersome) to "type" your search term  into the required field. For this reason, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you enter the required text USING THE FREE ROKU REMOTE APP for either iOS (if you have an Apple mobile device) or Android, since the keyboard for touch-screen mobile devices are (generally) far easier to use than the directional buttons on a remote control when it comes to typing. If you have yet to install the Roku app on your mobile device, you can download them easily by using the relevant link(s) below:- 

If you have an Apple mobile device (running iOS 4.3 or later)...

DOWNLOAD FREE: Roku App (from iTunes App Store)

Or, for those of you with Android mobile devices (running Android 2.1 and up)...

DOWNLOAD FREE: Android App (from Google Play Store)

Even if you don't intend using the app(s) with this particular channel, I would urge you to go ahead and download them anyway because of the increased functionality they offer over the original Roku remote(s). You could also find that the app makes using your Roku streaming media player a far easier (yes, that is possible) and, not to mention, all together more enjoyable experience, too !!

Anyway once you've entered the search term, "Halloween", and then hit the on-screen 'Search' button to perform the task, you should then see an extra line appear at the top of the main menu (above where the "Categories" are listed) which says, "Searched Results For. Halloween". Beneath this will be a list of instructional videos for drinks recipes that will be suitable for serving at any Hallowe'en party (assuming your guests meet the minimum legal requirements for consuming alcohol, of course!). As of the date of this post, a combination of looking through the "Home: Popular Halloween Drinks" section and searching for drinks recipes via the built-in "Search" function of the 'Drinks [by iFood.tv]' channel using the search term, "Halloween", gave a total of nineteen Hallowe'en Cocktail videos to choose from, as follows:-

• Raspberry Eyeball Fizz
• Hallowe'en Cocktail - The Vampire Bite
• Pirates of the Caribbean Hallowe'en Cocktail
• Hallowe'en Cocktail - Black Widow Martini
• Devil In Disguise Cocktail
• Hallowe'en Cocktail - Dram"BOO"ie
• Hallowe'en Special Black Cherry Cooler
• Ghoul Drool Hallowe'en Drink
• Klingon Disrupter Shooter
• Apple Cider Cocktail - Appletini
• Classic Bloody Mary Cocktail
• Cherry Bomb Cocktail
• Graveyard Cocktail
• Harvest Hot White Chocolate
• The Nordic Death Cocktail
• Pumpkin Punch Cocktail
• The Zombie Cocktail
• Pumpkin Spice Skinny Chai Latte
• Spinach Banana Green Monster Smoothie (NON-ALCOHOLIC)

To boost your choice still further, there are a bunch more "creepy cocktail" recipes to be found within the "Home: Halloween" sub-category of the "iFood.TV" channel which I chose not to publish as part of my last "Fiendish Food Friday" post on 'Day Twenty-Four' when I featured all of the "food" recipes for Hallowe'en that were included on that channel. So, if you refer back to the channel details provided in "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku - Day #24 - Fiendish Food Friday" and use those to add and/or access the "iFood.TV" Roku channel, you will find the following "drinks" recipes:-

iFOOD.tv HALLOWE'EN DRINK RECIPES

001. Raspberry Eyeball Fizz

002. Hallowe'en Cocktail Black Widow Martini

003. Devil In Disguise Cocktail

004. How To Make Scary Hallowe'en Punch

005. Hallowe'en Ghost Hand Punch

006. Ghoul Drool Hallowe'en Drink

007. Hallowe'en Cocktail Zombie Bite with Lucid Absinthe

008. Hallowe'en Cocktail - Glow In The Dark Cocktail

009. Betty's Husband Rick Makes A Zombie Drink

010. Hallowe'en Cocktail - The Thing Cocktail

011. Hallowe'en Cocktail - The Kinky Vampire, with Kinky Liqueur

012. Apple Cider Cocktail Appletini

013. Classic Bloody Mary Cocktail

014. Cherry Bomb Cocktail

015. Hot Vampire's Blood - Hallowe'en "Cocktail" [aka Red Hot Chocolate]

016. How To Make The Blood and Sand Cocktail

017. Harvest Hot White Chocolate

018. Feeling Spooky Hallowe'en Special - Pumpkin Milkshakes

019. How To Make A Great Cocktail - The Vodka Spell Caster

020. Pirates of the Caribbean - Hallowe'en Cocktail

021. Pumpkin Punch Cocktail

022. Hallowe'en Cocktail - The Vampire Bite

023. Hallowe'en Cocktail - DramBOOie

024. Hallowe'en Cocktail - The Heart's Blood

025. The Nordic Death Cocktail

026. The Zombie Cocktail

027. Hallowe'en Green Sludge Spider

028. Hallowe'en Spooktacular Punch

029. Hallowe'en Green Eyes Cocktail

030. Obituary Gin Cocktail

031. Flaming Jack-O-Lantern Cocktail

032. Dracula's Libation Cocktail

033. Hallowe'en Special Black Cherry Cooler

034. Klingon Disrupter Shooter - Hallowe'en Cocktail in a Shot Glass

035. Graveyard Cocktail

Now, admittedly, there is a certain amount of crossover between the "drinks" recipes featured across the two channels BUT, if you pick through both lists carefully, you'll find you have over thirty unique recipes to offer your ghoulish guests. They could even try any, or all, of these creepy cocktails between them over the course of the evening tomorrow. With that many to choose from, they're sure to find the perfect poison to make the most of your fiendish festivities... and, at the same time, it'll help improve your mixing and shaking skills as you host your humdinger of a Hallowe'en (H)extravaganza (sic) !! Who knows? You might even want to sample a few to liven up your own evening?! Having said that... AS ALWAYS, when consuming alcohol, PLEASE REMEMBER TO DRINK RESPONSIBLY... and to pass on the same sound advice to your guests, too !!

Meanwhile, according to the channel description for the 'Drinks [by iFood.tv]' channel, taken from the Official Roku Website, the channel was developed for Roku by Future Today Inc. (which happens to be the company behind iFood.tv). Should you need to contact Future Today Inc., you can easily do so via the iFood.tv Twitter Feed: @ifoodtv or else, get social through: iFood.tv (Facebook). Of course, you can always find out more by visiting the Official iFood.tv Website VIA THIS LINK, where you will find the full contact info for 'Future Today Inc.' PLUS details of their other associated websites. 

Those of you who wish to add this channel to the Hallowe'en-themed entertainment on your Roku player(s) are going to have to do so by navigating to the "Food" genre (i.e. category) from within the Roku Channel Store on your streaming player(s). The reason for this is that the ACCESS CODE for this channel REMAINS UNKNOWN, having yet to be made public via any of the usual sources. Sadly this means that, if you are unable to access the Channel Store on your device at this precise moment, you will not be able to add the channel by simply LOGGING-IN to your Online Roku Account, scrolling down to the 'Manage Account' section, and using the "Add a Private Channel" option to take care of things using an ACCESS / VANITY / INVITATION CODE. Sorry about that !!

Anyway, that's pretty much all there is to it, except to point out that  the 'Drinks [by iFood.tv]' channel has been given an average score of "3.5 out of 5" from 319 ratings (so far) in the channel store description from the Official Roku Website. That statistic alone should be reason enough to give this a try, never mind the fact that ALL VIDEOS ARE FREE-TO-WATCH too !!

Still, that's all for today... but remember to come back in 24-hours for 'Day Thirty-One' and the last instalment of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku" for this year, when I will provide your final dose of Hallowe'en / Horror-themed content for streaming via Roku player, as we finally reach the conclusion of our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2014... but, when you're done with this blog, don't forget to visit the other contributors to the 2014 Countdown To Hallowe'en and see what Hallowe'en treats they have in store for you as you "trick 'r treat" their (virtual) homes !!

Fangs again, for stopping by !!