The Cauldron Edinburgh: A Fascinating Harry Potter Cocktail Bar

The Cauldron Edinburgh is an immersive cocktail experience that’s an absolute must for fans of wizardry and witchcraft. If you love Harry Potter, you’ll adore mixing your own potions while donning a wizard cape and a magic wand. This is one of the best things to do in Edinburgh as a couple or with your friends.

Grab your besties and your sense of wonderment and get ready to experience pure magic at The Cauldron in Edinburgh. Justin and I got married in Edinburgh and spent a week in the city with our closest friends and family members. I decided to host part of my bachelorette party (otherwise known as a Hen do or Hen party) at The Cauldron and it was so much fun!

The Cauldron Edinburgh is a potions pub with a few different experiences. They mostly offer potion making cocktail classes, though sometimes these are themed depending on the time of year.

For instance, ours was Halloween themed as we visited in October, though I don’t think this differs too much from the regular potion making. The cocktail recipes may differ slightly depending on when you visit.

From time to time, The Cauldron Edinburgh offers a potions afternoon tea experience. I was going to book this, but unfortunately it wasn’t offered at the time. I love that the potions cocktail experience and the potions afternoon tea experience both offer vegan and gluten-free options. There’s a drop-down menu at the time of booking to specify if you’re vegan or gluten-free.

The Cauldron Edinburgh: Potion Making Experience

First, when I write that The Cauldron Edinburgh is a “Harry Potter cocktail bar”, I must mention that it isn’t officially licensed as such. This potion making experience is inspired by Harry Potter, wizards, and all things witchy. It’s a fantasy cocktail class where you’ll feel a bit like you stepped into the world of Harry Potter to brew up some potions.

From their official website, there is a disclaimer that states that they are total geeks, but The Cauldron is not affiliated with Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Rivers of London, The Magicians, Dune, The Name of the Wind, Star Wars or the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I should also mention that if you don’t drink alcohol, don’t fret! There is a mocktail version at The Cauldron that you can book in place of the cocktail class. You’ll still experience 100% of the magic through this immersive experience, sans the alcohol.

The alcohol-free mocktail potions class is also perfect for children. Yes, The Cauldron Edinburgh one of the best things to do in Edinburgh for kids, too. The potions class is great for wizards and witches of all ages!

What’s Included in This Cocktail Class

Here’s exactly what to expect at The Cauldron Edinburgh. We each borrowed a wizard’s robe to wear throughout the potion making class, and our group received one magic wand to share between us. It’ll have you exclaiming, Leviosa!

I visited with my two longtime best friends from home in Canada, Sarah and Shannon, as well as my travel blogging buddy from the UK, Claire. Go and check out her travel blog at Curious Claire!

The wand is used to help pour your first drink, whip up some magic at your table, and to summon the potion’s master if you need assistance. It’s also just fun to wave around while you’re there, especially after you’ve had a beverage or two.

As we were a small group of four, we had our own table to make our cocktails. Each pair will receive the ingredients to create a cocktail, which serves 2. For instance, Sarah and I worked on a cocktail together, and Shannon and Claire created a cocktail.

There are only a few tables at each experience, and we were guided by a potion’s master. The potion’s master helped us pour our welcome drink, of which we had the choice between two alcoholic beverages and one mocktail. Using our wands, we poured our welcome drink out of a unicorn’s head on the wall.

Then, it was up to our group to choose two cocktails (or mocktails) to brew up. There’s a potions recipe book that provides some basic ideas around the kinds of drinks you can make, including whether or not they are vegan and gluten-free. Pick your poison and the potion’s master will bring you a box with the ingredients and glassware to create your drinks.

Which Potions Can You Make?

There are a number of molecular cocktails to mix at The Cauldron in Edinburgh. For our magical cocktail class around Halloween time, we could choose from four different autumn-themed potions.

As the Forager’s Cauldron and Monster Mash were the vegan options, we chose to create those ones. Regardless of which ones you decide to do, I highly recommend making the cocktail that’s mixed inside the cauldron. It uses dry ice to create a smoking cauldron effect, which is super magical!

I won’t go too much into the details about mixing your potions as I don’t want to ruin any surprises for you. We had such a fun time mixing up some magical beverages and then of course, drinking them.

How to Plan Your Visit to The Cauldron Edinburgh

Here’s everything you need to know to plan for your trip to The Cauldron in Edinburgh. First, I highly recommend booking your tickets in advance on their website. While it may be possible to show up in person and participate in the potions class, this experience does tend to sell out ahead of time.

The tickets are only available two months in advance. If you’re planning a trip months down the line, they do have a feature where you can be notified when the next batch of tickets goes on sale. Once they go on sale, don’t delay booking your tickets. While there are multiple potion making classes throughout each day, the classes are quite intimate (only 4 tables per instructor, aka potion’s master).

When you book, there is a section where you can note whether or not anyone in your party has allergies, follows a vegan diet or requires a gluten-free diet. The cocktail recipes mention whether or not they’re vegan or gluten-free right on them, which is really fantastic.

As I follow a vegan diet, I wasn’t able to consume one of the extra shots that came with our Halloween experience. However, they substituted a bubbling shot for me in place of the one that wasn’t vegan, so it was a great tradeoff.

This immersive experience is around two hours in length (1 hour 45 minutes on the website), so make sure you allow enough time in your schedule. Then, if you didn’t get enough Harry Potter-inspired cocktails, you can wander down the street to The Alchemist cocktail bar for some more creative concoctions!