TooCute
09-19-2006, 07:26 PM
Just becauuse that picture cracks me up every time I see it.
Anyway, the vodka thing - it's bene floating around on the internet a while,
the whole filter your cheap vodka through a brita and it will taste great
thing. Well, I tried it (only through a Pur filter, not a Brita), and sure you
need to filter about 4-5 times, but it makes a HUGE differences - everyone I
had sniff/taste the vodka was immediately able to pick out the filtered and
unfiltered ones. I used Crystal Voka ($9.99 for 1.75L) which was the
cheapest I could get my hands on.
Anyhow, I wanted to make some flavored vodkas, so I did. Lemon zest/
rosemary: tastes like lemon pledge, no rosemary flavor despite letting fresh
rosemary infuse for two weeks. Ginger/honey/mint: good spicy ginger, some
mint flavor, no honey taste (I heated up honey and dissolved it in a small
amount of vodka before pouring it in. Chai: cinnamon sticks, cardamom
pods, cracked black pepper, whole cloves, fresh ginger and nutmeg: good
spicy flavor.
Those were all mediocre. The best ones I made were jasmine (I have
jasmine plants in the hallway; I just collected the flowers that had fallen off
and tossed them in) and then in my stroke of brilliance, Red Zinger - as in
celestial seasonings red zinger tea. I wanted to make hibiscus vodka, but
remembered the red zinger in the cupboard (it's mostly hibiscus and rose hip
flavored) and tossed a couple of bags of that into a liter in stead. No fuss, no
muss, no filtering, just pull out the tea bags after a couple of days and
you're good. It's really good with just seltzer, but it was particularly good
with pomegranate soda (which is made by Polar beverages and as I found
after writing to them, unavailable in the metro area, though they can be
found here and there on long island, and further upstate). I'm going to go
check out the tea section of the supermarket for other teas that look like
they might be good.
Anyway, when looking up infused vodka on the web I came up with lots of
ideas for how to infuse it, but none of them mentioned using herbal tea
bags, and since I tried it and it came out so well, I wanted to share.
I think infused vodka in nice bottles are going to make up the bulk of my
christmas presents to people this year.
<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by Fallon on 9-19-06 @ 11:37 PM</span>
Anyway, the vodka thing - it's bene floating around on the internet a while,
the whole filter your cheap vodka through a brita and it will taste great
thing. Well, I tried it (only through a Pur filter, not a Brita), and sure you
need to filter about 4-5 times, but it makes a HUGE differences - everyone I
had sniff/taste the vodka was immediately able to pick out the filtered and
unfiltered ones. I used Crystal Voka ($9.99 for 1.75L) which was the
cheapest I could get my hands on.
Anyhow, I wanted to make some flavored vodkas, so I did. Lemon zest/
rosemary: tastes like lemon pledge, no rosemary flavor despite letting fresh
rosemary infuse for two weeks. Ginger/honey/mint: good spicy ginger, some
mint flavor, no honey taste (I heated up honey and dissolved it in a small
amount of vodka before pouring it in. Chai: cinnamon sticks, cardamom
pods, cracked black pepper, whole cloves, fresh ginger and nutmeg: good
spicy flavor.
Those were all mediocre. The best ones I made were jasmine (I have
jasmine plants in the hallway; I just collected the flowers that had fallen off
and tossed them in) and then in my stroke of brilliance, Red Zinger - as in
celestial seasonings red zinger tea. I wanted to make hibiscus vodka, but
remembered the red zinger in the cupboard (it's mostly hibiscus and rose hip
flavored) and tossed a couple of bags of that into a liter in stead. No fuss, no
muss, no filtering, just pull out the tea bags after a couple of days and
you're good. It's really good with just seltzer, but it was particularly good
with pomegranate soda (which is made by Polar beverages and as I found
after writing to them, unavailable in the metro area, though they can be
found here and there on long island, and further upstate). I'm going to go
check out the tea section of the supermarket for other teas that look like
they might be good.
Anyway, when looking up infused vodka on the web I came up with lots of
ideas for how to infuse it, but none of them mentioned using herbal tea
bags, and since I tried it and it came out so well, I wanted to share.
I think infused vodka in nice bottles are going to make up the bulk of my
christmas presents to people this year.
<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by Fallon on 9-19-06 @ 11:37 PM</span>