Good Morning!

I had a neighbor stop by to drop off an article he saw about wine in the paper and when he walked into the kitchen he looked around and saw a bottle on the counter that had “stuff” in it and he said what is that? I said it is infused vodka. He said what is in there? I said a vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and candied ginger. Is it good? I said yes, want to try it? He said, it is 7:45 AM. I said, So? and got out two shot glasses.

After taking a swig, he said that is smooth, how do you make vodka? I said, that is a whole other story, I buy the vodka and I infuse with the flavors I dream up. He thought that was kinda fun and I said I started doing this years ago. We had a long conversation but he left the house headed to work and had already done a shot! He was gonna have an awesome morning.

About 10-12 years ago, I was waiting for a table at Sullivan’s in Indianapolis, IN. When we walked into the bar and on the middle of the bar was this massive glass jar filled with pineapple slices and I ask about it and the bartender made me his special “Stolie Dolee”, it was a pineapple martini. This is strange for me because I have never really been a hard liquor drinking person up to that point, mostly a beer drinker and starting to really like wine with meals.

When I returned home I was thinking about how fun the drink turned out to be and I was having a party in a week and I went to Target to find a big glass container/jar with a lid. It was harder to find than you might think at that time, they are everywhere now. Finally, I found one and went to the store bought a gallon of vodka and 2 pineapples….Took it home cut up the pineapples and poured the vodka in. The next Saturday night I go to pour the pineapple vodka and it still mostly tasted like booze, so I got out the punchbowl and made a killer friendship sangria…(in college you might have heard the term Hairy Buffalo). It was fine, but I really wanted to serve a higher end cocktail.

Back to the drawing board. I bought a second jar and 3 gallons of vodka and 6 pineapples, I filled each jar with sliced pineapples and pour vodka to the top. (Note…always cover the fruit completely with vodka or the fruit will break down turn brown and just make the vodka look gross plus the fruit will start to ferment and then you have a whole new level of booze to contend with). Over the next couple of months I noticed that the pineapple flavor released into the vodka. Then I took the pineapple out of the jars and put it in freezer bags. The vodka was ready for the fridge and then ready to serve! It was clear and pineappley and my friends went crazy for it.

It was summer and I decided I would now take the frozen pineapple out of the freezer and make a little frozen treat for friends on the porch. Oh my Lord…this stuff was pure booze! You could light a fire from the alcohol or at least it felt that way. So I opened some Sprite and poured it over the pineapple slushy and it was a perfect way to beat the heat!

This started my beginning of the vodka infusion and every visit to a liquor store I would see new flavors coming out, Lemon, Orange, Lime, vanilla, pepper you name it I make my own. I make a great garlic, jalapeno infusion for Bloody Mary’s, I make a wicked Mango/Pineapple infusion for fun by the pool and I also have figured out the perfect Lemoncello…many friends have renamed the lemoncello, the Panty Dropper, enough said. I just like to have fun with my friends and try out new ideas on them. I am playing with more savory flavors now as well.

I also have about half a dozen different flavored oils I have created on my kitchen counter currently. When we started to design our “retirement” house, I said I am most interested in having a huge pantry for all my projects, like vodka, oils, hanging my chili peppers to dry and other stuff I like to experiment with.

Anyway, today’s blog is not about wine, but if you want to play with infusing vodka give it a try….make sure you let it sit with the fruit in it for several weeks and I say anything over a month or two will give you the most flavorful vodka.

Much LOVE and wine or vodka,

Tammi

PS….I always use Finlandia Vodka, it seems to absorb the flavors best for me!