![\"Three](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/vodka.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
From berry whiskies to cucumber vodkas, flavored liquors have been around a long time. In the past, they\u2019ve been known more for their cheap price (and cheap quality too), but lately even higher-quality brands have been doing flavored spirits. This is especially true of vodka. My local liquor warehouse in fact has a whole aisle for flavored vodkas. <\/span><\/p>\n The cheapo brands use syrups to impart flavor, but the higher-end products get their distinct taste via infusions: whole fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs are soaked in the liquor, allowing the spirit to absorb some of their essence. <\/span><\/p>\n While those products are indeed plenty good, and not even all that expensive, necessarily, you\u2019re limited in the flavor selection. When you do DIY infusions at home, on the other hand, the flavors are limited only by your imagination — and willingness to try quirky new things. Plus, it\u2019s just fun to do it yourself — makes you feel like a mad scientist mixing up new concoctions! <\/span><\/p>\n Vodka is the ideal spirit for making infusions, as other liquors are more fickle. Whiskey and tequila have such strong flavors on their own that trying to mix anything else in is risky. With whiskey, something like vanilla or cinnamon can work well, but it\u2019s a far more limited \u201ccanvas\u201d in regards to what actually tastes good. Vodka, with not much real flavor of its own, can take on a broad palette of different flavors. <\/span><\/p>\n Below I list out the supplies needed to get started making your own vodka infusions, a few general tips, as well as 5 great recipes to try. Not only will you enjoy sipping on these DIY infused vodkas yourself, they make for great gifts to give to others. <\/span><\/p>\n Start small. <\/b>Using about 12oz at a time \u2014 in a 16oz jar \u2014 seemed the perfect size for experimenting. That amounts to about 375ml, which is half of the normal 750ml liquor bottles that most of your spirits are packaged in. If you go smaller than that, it\u2019s sometimes hard to get infusion ratios right \u2014 you need to use very small amounts of things, and possibly end up with a bunch of leftover supplies. And if you try to infuse a whole bottle at a time, you risk not being happy with the end result and being stuck with a whole bottle of something you don\u2019t care for. <\/span><\/p>\n Taste your infusions every 12-24 hours. <\/b>Since different infusions require different steeping times (more on that below), and everyone\u2019s tastes are unique, you should be tasting your infusions every 12-24 hours. It\u2019s amazing how much can change in that time period. You don\u2019t want to let something sit for 5 days, only to realize that 2-3 days would have been better (yes, I did that with my first batch of coffee vodka). <\/span><\/p>\n Differing ingredients need different steeping times.<\/b> Peppers and coffee only need a day or two, while most fruits and non-spicy produce (like cucumber) can use a full 5-7 days. Keep this in mind especially when mixing ingredients. For the pineapple jalapeno infusion that I made, the pineapple steeped for about 5 days on its own before jalapeno was added for a single day. <\/span><\/p>\n Strain everything through cheesecloth.<\/b><\/p>\n Line a strainer with cheesecloth and place it over a large measuring cup.<\/p><\/div>\n Pour your infused vodka through. 1-2 times does it for most infusions.<\/p><\/div>\n After you’ve poured all the vodka through, squeeze all the liquid out. Those last drops will be extra concentrated!<\/p><\/div>\n No matter what kind of infusion you make, the final step in the process is always to strain it through cheesecloth. You set up a strainer on top of a measuring cup or bowl, line it with cheesecloth, and pour the infusion through. The higher the grade of cheesecloth, the better the final product will be. I used 90 grade, which seemed perfect. For fruits, one straining seemed enough. For messier infusions like bacon and coffee, two strains should do the trick. <\/span><\/p>\n Package into nice 375ml bottles with custom labels for gift-giving.<\/b><\/p>\n Mason jars aren’t all that easy to pour out of, nor do they look the best for gift giving. Buy a few 375ml bottles for this purpose, and print some custom tags. Crushtag.com offers a ton of options, and it’s cheap. I left a space on the bottom right of the label to handwrite the particular flavor.<\/p><\/div>\n These vodka infusions make for excellent, unique, inexpensive gifts come Christmas (or birthdays, to give to hosts, etc.). I\u2019m of the opinion that 375ml is the perfect amount for gifting. A $25 1.75L bottle of vodka will get you a few smaller bottles (though probably not perfectly 4 \u2014 whatever you\u2019re infusing is bound to soak up some of the vodka). Buy some empty bottles, make custom stickers (they\u2019re cheap and look nice from crushtag.com<\/a>), and hand \u2018em out to your favorite people! <\/span><\/p>\n Most James Bond aficionados know of the unique martini order he gives in <\/span>Casino Royale<\/span><\/i>. It contains both gin and vodka, but also Kina Lillet, which at one time was a \u201ctonic wine\u201d that contained quinine. The current recipe for Kina Lillet doesn\u2019t include that quinine, so it has to be found elsewhere in order to make a true James Bond Vesper martini<\/a>. To do that, you\u2019ll make a cinchona bark infusion (the cinchona tree is where quinine comes from). <\/span><\/p>\nSupplies<\/h3>\n
\n
A Few General Infusing Rules<\/h3>\n
![\"Cheese](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4376.jpg\")
![\"Straining](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4377.jpg\")
![\"Squeezing](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4379.jpg\")
![\"Infused](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4548.jpg\")
Quinine Vodka (for James Bond Vesper Martinis)<\/h3>\n
![\"Quinine](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2018-01-07-21.57.41.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Pineapple](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4327.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bacon](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4310.jpg\")
![\"Blackberry](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4444.jpg\")
![\"Coffee](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4311.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-06-at-8.31.23-AM.png\")
![\"Different](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG-4447.jpg\")