5/8/2023 0 Comments Infuse spirits![]() ![]() ![]() The lighter the tequila the more adaptable it will be to a diversity of flavor infusions. Anejo is aged over a year and is more smooth yet. Reposado has been aged less than a year in oak and is a bit smoother than Blanco. Gold tequila is Blanco with a little caramel color added, typically. It is a good choice for infusing with bold and assertive flavors that might overwhelm more subtle, aged tequilas. Tequilaīlanco is unaged with a typically straight forward flavor. I love cucumber and star anise – this makes a simply lovely drink served neat over ice. Personal favorites: I infuse Gordan’s Gin. The good news is, gin was meant to be mixed, and if you think about the type of gin mixed drinks you like to drink and what would be appropriate garnishing flavors, you’ll be led to infusion combinations that make sense.Ĭlassic infusion flavors: cucumber, citrus of all kinds, floral (lavender especially), herbal – think basil, fennel or lemon verbena – apple and pear, and green tea. Add in the diversity of flavors in gin – that mix of botanicals varies by brand and can range radically in make-up and complexity – and you have a base that requires a bit more thought to infuse. This does make gin slightly trickier to work with from an infusion standpoint. To people like me, this makes gin something like “vodka with a point” because the spirit has a substantial flavor punch all on its own, or in minimalist concoctions like the martini (which, unless specified, should be made with gin and vermouth and ice and nothing else). The cocktail lover’s booze, gin is a mix of herbs and botanicals typically distilled with neutral grain alcohol (vodka). I particularly like infusions of coffee and vanilla bean, fresh cherry, citrus of all kinds, ginger and dried pear, and many variations of “spiced.” Gin Personal favorites: I typically infuse Findlandia but recently tried the Kirkland Signature American vodka at Costco. Bacon? Dill Pickle? Oatmeal? Bacon-Dill-Pickle-and-Oatmeal? You name it and someone has done it. There are no limits to what you can infuse in vodka. For all these reasons, if your heart isn’t already set on a particular non-vodka base creation, I recommend that you start your infusion experiments with vodka.Ĭlassic infusion flavors: anything and everything. For folks who see little point in drinking something basically flavorless, infusions can give vodka life. Ignoring the flavor evil that’s being done in the name of commercial flavored vodkas, this neutral spirit plays extraordinarily well with most infusion ingredients, and is highly mixable as a spirit. You can see this at a commercial level in the liquor section, where things like cotton candy vodka, bubblegum vodka, marshmallow vodka and other My Little Pony flavored spirits take perfectly good shelf space away from single malt Scotch. I haven’t worked with the super-overproofs, but if you can speak to their use in infusions, please chime in! VodkaĪ decent vodka is notable for it’s lack of flavor, which makes vodka the perfect beginner’s base for infusions. If you are looking for maximal extraction of volatiles, as for a medicinal or culinary extract, 190 proof Everclear may be of use. So an overproof gin or bourbon will pull more flavor from your infusion ingredients than an 80 proof version. With all base liquors, the higher the proof, the more extraction power you’re looking at. Top shelf isn’t necessary, but no infusion ingredients will make terrible rot-gut booze taste like anything other than a drain cleaning solvent, so find a comfortable middle ground of price and quality. I recommend a nice mid-shelf, mid-price alcohol. Your base is the booze that you’re going to flavor. If you want the complete guide to everything I’ve learned about making my own infusions, read on. That’s really all there is to it, so if you learn best by doing, feel free to stop reading now and go play around with whatever’s in your liquor and spice cabinet. Once you have those infusions on hand, you’re some ice and a mixer or two from a Cucumber Gin Gimlet (very refreshing in late August) or a Chai White Russian or a Cherry Manhattan. ![]() If you can make tea you can make a cucumber gin or a chai tea vodka or a cherry bourbon. Infusions are also a great DIY holiday gift if your crowd is a little more scotch and speakeasy than santa hat and sugar cookie.īooze infusions are very simple – you soak ingredients in a base alcohol until you like the taste. If you like the creativity of cooking and combining flavors and you drink hard alcohol then booze infusions are a natural place to play around and have fun personalizing your liquor cabinet. But these cocktails? They are simply research, baby – this is all for you. This is one of those posts where I will come off as a lush, and an opinionated one at that. ![]()
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