Infused Vodka: 2 Weeks

The tastes have changed a bit, and we are making a few more changes again... 

The sour apple is pretty good. I felt it was a bit less smooth (found a lemon seed in there, which could be the culprit of a little bitterness). M agreed it could be more tart and also would like some more apple flavor. We are also starting to collect a bit of sediment in the jar (at least partly from segmenting tiny citrus, but the amount has increased). We are draining it and adding in new green apple. Just one this time to give it a little extra boost. I am also juicing 1 lime to add some sour/tart (no segmenting or zesting this time).

The cucumber melon is coming along. The melon flavor is stronger, and the taste smoother. It has definitely picked up some sweetness, but the cucumber flavor is still pretty strong. I am draining this one as well (mostly because there is no room for anything else, but also to tame down the cucumber flavor) and putting in a new half melon along with the juice of 1 lime and about 1 tablespoon of honey. I'm getting a little closer to my smoothie recipe now, but these flavors highlight the melon. You will notice no mint (I don't want to risk adverse bitterness from leaves).

The FINAL test will be at Saturday night's party. I am going to let the flavors sit as long as possible before giving both jars a good straining, probably a couple of them actually. I want to get them rebottled early enough to chill them, which causes a few complications but I am thinking Saturday morning or afternoon will give me the time I need. 

Check back next Monday for the final verdict and what my starting points will be for these flavors when we try them again.

Infused Vodka: 1 Week

Ok, it's update time. I let our two vodkas sit for one week, giving them a good shake each night, and last night I gave them a try.

The sour apple is so good! It was very smooth and had a good, strong flavor. My only critique would be that it could possibly be a bot more tart. However, I am reluctant to add more sugar to interact with the citric acid from more limes and lemons as I think it will make it like a cordial. As it is, the sour apple is pretty drinkable solo. I want M to give it a try and see if he wants to up the sourness or leave it as is. After all, this was his flavor choice. As of now, I would call it a success.

The cucumber melon is ok, but definitely needs some work. I originally planned to use a whole honeydew, but after cutting up half and seeing how much there was in relation to the cucumber, I stopped there. That was a mistake as the melon flavor is barely there, so today I picked up another honeydew and added half of it in.

See how much more volume the melon takes up now: it barely fits!

The cucumber flavor however is very strong. I am quite happy it is so noticeable. I was honestly afraid it would get lost and that 2 cucumbers were not enough. This vodka also has a lot more bite (you still really notice the kick from drinking straight hard liquor). I think the sugar in the sour apple smoothed it out, but I am not adding any sugar just yet. I want to see if the additional melon not only brings out more of that flavor but adds more sweetness and smoothness. I will go another week, and move on from there. IF I think sweetener is needed, I am leaning towards honey over sugar as that is what I use in my smoothies and it works well. I am also considering adding some lime if the flavor doesn't pop enough for me.

Since I want M to give his flavor a taste, and my flavor needs some work, these babies are going to infuse for another week, getting a good shake up once per day. Come back next Monday to see if my results have improved!

Infused Vodka: The Set-up

My boyfriend and I decided to try our hand at some infused vodka. His brother comes home in 3 weeks and we wanted to have it ready for that, so I got it all ready to go last night. We each picked a flavor and will see how it turns out. Technically it only needs to sit for 1 week, but this gives us some extra time to not only pack in extra flavor but get some taste testing done in case we need to make adjustments.

The basic set-up cost me around $20. For this I got 2 half gallon mason jars (they were $4.99 each, but a 6 or 8 pack was only $11 something...I currently have no need for that many jars, no do I have room to store them, but if you do I would recommend the pack as it is much more cost effective), a three piece straining funnel, and a pack of cheese cloth (as the funnel will be great for infusions with just fruit, but something finer will be needed for the finer particles like zest or spices). The vodka cost is up to you. You don't want to use anything too cheap, but any decent vodka that you like the taste of will work (you should be able to get something for $10-15).

M wanted to go with apple, so he did some digging around and found this sour apple recipe. I recently moved and have 2 roommates, so I haven't quite bothered to get a decent kitchen set-up which also means no scale. I used the scales at the grocery store while shopping and conversions to come up with the following:

• 3 granny smith apples (peeled, cored, and diced fine)
• 2 lemons (zested, segmented, and seeded)
• 4 limes (zested, segmented, and seeded)
• 1 cup sugar (the actual conversion should have been 1.5-1.75, but my jar was full...)
• 750 ml vodka (I used Belvedere because I'm snobby about liquor, also it was on sale)

The recipe I linked used citrus slices, but the white pith and seeds can be bitter (as I have learned making flavored waters) so I did a little extra work. The zesting took a while and the segmenting got messy, especially with the limes which were honestly a pain to segment. I thought it was worth the effort, but you do not have to go this far.

I had a hard time picking a flavor. Peach and pear sounded lovely, but I have friends that make peach and pear moonshine (similar to apple pie shots actually, just changing the juice flavors and using pieces of fruit as well). My next thought was cucumber melon. I could find cucumber vodka or watermelon vodka, but not cucumber melon. As you may recall, I make a cucumber melon smoothie, so I used that as a base. I ran out of lime, am weary of putting mint leaves in (I don't want to risk bitterness), and I don't think the extra sugar from the honey is necessary. So my base is as follows:

• 2 cucumbers (skinned, and peeled down to core)
• 1/2 honeydew (skinned, seeded, and diced fine)
• 750 ml vodka (again, Belvedere)

You can tell the sour apple has a lot more "stuff" in it.

For both flavors, you can see I put a lot of work into the fruit prep. Zesting citrus with a grater takes a ling time, and peeling a cucumber down to the seeds or segmenting a small citrus can be annoying. The point is to maximize surface area though as the vodka is going to soak up the flavors. That is also why the apples and melon were diced finely (think 1 cm pieces).

The next step is to wait 1 whole week before taste-testing. During this time I need to keep the jars in a cool, dark place and give them a good shake once a day to make sure the ingredients get mixed around and the vodka soaks up all the flavor. After that I will see how they taste and decide if any adjustments need to be made (e.g. should I add in that remaining 0.5-0.75 cup sugar to the sour apple? is the cucumber melon too mellow/should I add some of the flavors I use in the smoothie?)

Stay tuned the next couple weeks as I track this progress. I'll let you know if I made any adjustments during this time, what the end results were, and the final recipes n_n