This past Christmas my mandate was simple: I would only make homemade gifts for my friends and family, and at least with my family, they could only make homemade gifts for me. Being an incredibly indebted law student, I figured it would be a great way to save money, and also to give people gifts that were more personal and thoughtful because a lot of time and effort had gone into each one. My Stepdad is probably the toughest person to find a gift for; he’s the sort of person where if there’s something he wants, he just buys it for himself. The one thing I know about him is this: he loves “glamping” in the summer (it’s my own fault for teaching my parents what that word means), and he loves playing bartender and looking after everyone’s drinks at any gathering. With that in mind, I took to pinterest to find ideas to combine those two things. I came up with home-infused vodkas, which he can use to make mixed drinks of various sorts.
Since my Stepdad often likes Vodka with a little Chambord poured over, the first two flavours I made were more fruit-focused. The first was a blackberry, strawberry, basil infusion with a little simple syrup to sweeten. Next was a pomegranate infusion, again with some simple syrup. The last was geared toward his love of Ceasars (or alternately, Bloody Marys), and was a hot chili pepper infusion, made with a combination of Jalapenos and red Thai chilis.
I first combined all ingredients in each jar and let sit for a few weeks to infuse (about two weeks total)
After the two weeks, I strained each infusion through cheesecloth to keep out any solids and to achieve a nice, clear liquid at the end.
The final product looked great, although I’ll probably top them up with extra vodka to replace the space used up by the solid ingredients. A taste test revealed some pretty dangerous liquor – the fruit flavours no longer tasted like vodka and went down like juice; the chile vodka was a pretty intense heat with a strong pepper flavour, perfect for mixing into a Ceasar or Bloody Mary (and replacing the need for hot sauce or horseradish). Next year I might experiment with Cinnamon, Cucumber, and other fruit combinations.
