I know a few people graduating from college later this month and one of them needed an adult party beverage. Instead of a giant alcoholic bowl of punch, which seems the easy way out, I got to thinking about infused vodkas and edible booze. My first step was to call up my friend Chad.
Chad Richards serves an infused vodka he calls a Pine Fin at his great summer parties. He said that the term originated as a Finlandia Vodka marketing campaign in the mid- to late-‘90s where Finlandia would drop off giant glass canisters with a spigot at the bottom urging bars to fill it with their vodka, add a chopped-up pineapple and let the concoction sit for a week to marry the flavors. A quick shake with ice to chill it down and you were off to the races. Chad said that after a proper time soaking, the vodka tasted like pineapple juice and the pineapple chunks tasted like pure vodka shots.
Infusing your own vodka is easy. You need a large glass canister with a spigot, some good, unflavored vodka that has been filtered at least three times, and some fruit or herbs. Pour the vodka in the canister and add the cleaned, chopped fruit. The longer you wait the more flavor the vodka takes on. If you need it faster, sprinkle a little sugar on top and stir.
Pick fibrous fruits such as mangoes, pineapples, most berries (blue, black, straw and raspberries) or peaches. These items take about a week to infuse. Lemons, oranges, limes, grapefruit and herbs take only a couple of days. Some great herbs for infusion include ginger, mint, basil and vanilla beans. What you choose to infuse your vodka with is only limited by your imagination. Chili pepper infused vodka is great for a Bloody Mary. Lemon infused vodka makes great Cosmopolitans. E-mail me at bartender@sonomasun.com if you come up with a bizarre infusion that works. I’d love to hear about it.
With temperatures soaring lately in the triple digits, here’s a simple and tasty cocktail recipe you can make at home. Add approx. 1 oz of vanilla bean infused vodka in a chimney glass with ice and top with ginger ale. It should taste so close to a cream soda that you’ll forget that you’re not at an A&W drive-through.
Infused edibles
As for edible booze, there are lots of options. Going to a baseball game? Inject an orange with your newly infused vodka using a marinade injector with the tip as close to the center as possible and chill the orange overnight to let the flavors meld together. Please use a Sharpie to mark the oranges so kids do not get into them by accident.
Jell-O shots have matured from kitschy frat party offerings to swanky cocktail party centerpieces. With flavors such as gin and tonic, B-52’s and mojito, hostesses serve them as hors d’oeuvres cut into little cubes or pyramids. The process is laborious and time intensive and if interested you can look up the recipes online. Do not substitute Everclear (151 proof) for the vodka in these recipes as it could cause moonshine-style side effects such as blindness or death. Google alcoholic gelees or jellies for a more informative walkthrough.
This recipe, though simple, is not for the faint of heart. Long time Sonoma residents may remember a restaurant named Uncle Patty’s. The bar had Atomic Cherries available for a dollar a cherry. These maraschino cherries had been soaked in Everclear for a couple of weeks. Four or five cherries could knock down a rhino. A more modern recipe calls for soaking cherries in Maker’s Mark bourbon and using the cherries as a garnish in a Manhattan.
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