Find out which horror icon teamed up with As Above So Below Distillery

As Above So Below teams up with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Oct 11, 2025

When it comes to special drink collaborations, this is a match made in horror.

As Above So Below Distillery co-founder and master distiller Caley Shoemaker is well known for having an affinity for naming her spirits after “witch queens,” so when the Mistress of the Dark came calling, it was only natural that theya would team up. In September, the distillery released its Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Autumnal Gin, which is described as being made “with a haunting blend of autumnal botanicals and a touch of macabre magic.” In addition to being featured at As Above So Below, the gin is currently available in liquor stores throughout New Mexico and can be purchased online.

For the uninitiated, Elvira has been a household name as a horror icon for decades. “The Queen of Halloween” was the first nationally syndicated horror host and has been attached to movies, music, books and a variety of other spooky products over the years. As it turned out, it was Elvira’s people that initially sought out the Santa Fe-based distillery — and they came away impressed by the aesthetic.

“There’s a ton of celebrity brands out there, and we’ve really spent a lot of our time focusing on creating really high-quality spirits with well-intentioned ingredient selection and thoughtful production processes rather than trying to go for the whole splashy celebrity collab,” Shoemaker said. “And I think it served us well because Elvira’s team actually visited the distillery at one point about a year ago. And while they were in Santa Fe, they stopped by and had drinks.”

Once licensing agreements were secured, the next step was to create a drink that would match Elvira’s brand. The goal was to make something different from As Above So Below’s signature gin, while also not falling in line with some of the more cliche flavor trends of the season.

“Our traditional gin, Sigil, we really worked hard to create something that captured the spirit of New Mexico and used botanicals that smelled like the New Mexico mountains,” Shoemaker said. “For Elvira, we wanted to create something that felt like it fit the autumn Halloween season. People often this time of year start to get into the whole pumpkin spice, dessert vibe. We could have gone that route, but I feel like it’s a little bit overdone. And so I wanted to pick botanicals that gave us that sort of dark autumn flavor without going too crazy pumpkin spice.

“We’ve basically selected black peppercorn, cubeb, which is one of my favorite botanicals to work with. It’s like a cross between pepper and allspice. It’s a little bit spicy and a little toasted in flavor. We also have some black cardamom in there, which provides a smoky, almost eucalyptus-type flavor. And then of course, classic gin botanicals — some juniper, some citrus, a little bit of clove, a little bit of cinnamon, things like that. So the gin itself works really well in a wide variety of cocktails, but it does have a nice, super spicy autumnal finish.”

This particular release will be available “as long as people are enjoying purchasing it,” Shoemaker says, and it isn’t the only Elvira collaboration in the works for the distillery.

“We as people like to be spooky all year round — not just around Halloween. And there’s a large group of folks that feel the same way with us,” Shoemaker said. “To be able to capitalize on the Halloween season and get folks jazzed about it now is a blast, but we’ve got some fans that’ll be wanting to drink Elvira gin all year long.”

One perk of having a famous partner is that As Above So Below has been able to connect with a larger audience, which in turn means more exposure for some of its other signature offerings. For collectors, there’s also a limited edition Elvira collector’s box that includes recipe cards, incense and a candle. Throughout the Halloween season, there will also be some specialty drinks available at the As Above So Below cocktail lounge.

“I just think it has been a great opportunity to introduce ourselves to those folks that could be big fans of ours all the time and (enjoy) the rest of our spirits line,” Shoemaker said.