Infused Vodka

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Last year I made homemade limoncello and different flavored Portuguese milk liqueurs with great results. I have been seeing a lot of recipes for infused vodkas and I decided to give it a try. It is a pretty fast and simple process. There are a lot of online resource and recipes available to help you out. I decided to make some fruit flavors-Greeen Apple, Pomegranate, Lemon, and Pineapple. Here is what I did:

The Start: Wash and chop the ingredients you are going to use- I left the skin on the apples and the rind on the lemons. Choose a clean, air-tight jar: quart sized mason jars work well. Place your ingredients inside the jar and fill it with vodka. Cover tightly with the lid and shake a few times.

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The Infusion: Store your jars in a cool, dark place and shake it 2-3 times a day for the duration of the infusion. I left all of my jars for 2 weeks (14 days). You can leave different ingredients for a longer or shorter amount of time depending on what you are using and how strong of an infusion you are looking for.

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This is what they looked like after one week: The green apple looked really disgusting ick!

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The Finish: Once you are all done infusing you will need to take the ingredients out of the jar. Use a fine strainer or paper coffee filter to strain the vodka into another clean jar. I stored mine in similar jars and popped them in the freezer.

Taste Testing Results:

The pomegranate vodka was the clear winner of the bunch. It is super great as a mixer or added to some club soda.

The green apple was super awful. It was everything gross and disgusting about an apple put into a liquid. If I had to do this one over I would probably remove the skins first, not sure if this would help but I don’t think it could make it any worse. Total fail.

The lemon has a really nice lemon flavor with a little sweetness. I used Meyer Lemons which probably made all of the difference, any other type of lemon might give too harsh of a flavor.

The pineapple was my second favorite. It has a very subtle pineapple flavor, but is nice addition to a mixed drink.

It was a fun experiment and I would like to try it with some other ingredients-Watermelon, lavender, coconut, bubble gum…lots of options out there. I might even start moving into flavor combos!

DIY infused vodka is pretty great. Your move.

 

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