A couple of weeks ago my friend, Caroline, and I decided to give infusing alcohols a try. This has been the summer of cocktails -- all of our friends are finally 21 and we've been enjoying experimenting with different ingredients in mixed drinks. We decided to make 5 different infused alcohols using both vodka and tequila and were super happy with the results. Over the next couple of weeks we will be sharing 5 different yummy cocktails we came up with using these! See below for the details of each infused alcohol!
1) First, we made a small batch of jasmine tea infused vodka. We just threw in a couple tablespoons of the dry tea (see above) with the vodka. We left it in for 3 days but this made it wayy too strong...because it's tea...duh (honestly we kind of forgot about it...). It worked out ok because we can just dilute it with plain vodka. We mixed about a third of a shot of this with 2/3 of a shot of plain vodka to get a good strength. If you just leave it in for 24 hours it should be fine to use on it's own.
2) One of the riskier concoctions we threw together was jalapeños and rosemary in tequila...In the end this one ended up being one of our favorites, even though it took a bit longer to perfect a cocktail using it since the flavors are a little different. First, we put around 5 or six sprigs of rosemary in with a little tequila and muddled it. Then we added in a couple chopped up jalapeños and the rest of the tequila. Definitely take the jalapeños out after 24 hours or it will get too spicy. We left the rosemary in for 3 days which may have been a little too long--it is a pretty prominent flavor. I would suggest taking it out after 2 days, but if you want it to be a very subtle flavor you could take it out on the first day with the jalapeños.
3) We also made some vodka with just jalapeños. Just throw in a couple of chopped up peppers and leave them in for a day.
4) One of our favorites was cucumber vodka -- so refreshing and summery (quick, go make it before summer is over!). We just threw a chopped up cucumber into some vodka and let it sit for 3 days.
5) Last but not least was ginger pear tequila. We cut up a pear and a couple of inches of fresh ginger and let them sit in the tequila for 3 days. The flavors weren't super distinct so I would suggest muddling the chopped up ginger in a little bit of tequila to get the juices out before you add in everything else.
Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for some yummy drink recipes using these!
