Dirty Chai Vodka

Continuing last week's theme of infused vodkas, we'll take a look at the infusion that started it all.

There was an Austin bar / bowling alley / fancy restaurant / etc that introduced me to the concept of infused liquor. My favorite was a White Russian made with Chai Infused vodka. Because this local was a bit further than I like to drive for a drink (and I didn't always want to have to pay bar prices)  I decided to see just how difficult it would be to reproduce this at home.

Turns out, it was relatively easy. I even tweaked it a tiny bit because I prefer my chai lattes dirty. By which I mean that they have a shot or two of espresso in them, as opposed to wanting them muddy, or sexually deviant. Wow, that got strange quickly.

Anyway,  here's the recipe.

Dirty Chai Vodka
Based off the Indian tea of the same name, this infusion adds a spicy kick to vodka, with a hint of espresso flavor.

Fancy Spices

Ingredients:
• 1.5in cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 7 whole cloves
• 1.5in piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
• 6 black peppercorns
• 9 Cardamom pods, crushed slightly in mortar and pestle
• 2 whole coffee beans, dark roast
• 750ml unflavored vodka

Double Dose!

Most of these ingredients can be found in the bulk spice section of your local hippy grocery store, like Whole Foods or Central Market. If you don't have a place like that in your area, try the local mom and pop shop, or the local 'ethinic' or 'world' food market. If you still can't find this stuff, I don't know what to tell you.

You won't need anything other than your standard mason jar, funnel, and filter.

Add the spices and the vodka to the jar, let it sit for 5 or more days, shaking occasionally, and testing the flavor once you think you're close to ready. Once it has the taste you want, strain it back into the bottle, and enjoy!

So much vodka....

Drink well, be safe, and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments.

Spicy Chocolate Vodka

As many of you know, one of my favorite all time drinks is the Mudslide.

There are about 1500 recipes for Mudslides and I'm not sure which is actually the one that is a 'true' mudslide, but the one that I've found that tastes the best is a variation on the White Russian that replaces the cream with irish cream.

Naitalag's Mudslide

Yum. Seriously.

• 2 oz  Spicy Chocolate Vodka*
• 3 oz  Irish Cream (Coole Swan, if you can find it, but Bailey's works)
• 1 oz  Coffee liquor (Kahlua)
• 3 cubes ice

Add ice to glass. Add booze to glass. Drink. Repeat as needed. Don't drive anywhere. 

This drink is seriously strong and not the least bit healthy. Make at your own risk.

*You might be thinking "Wait a second, where do I get Spicy Chocolate Vodka?"  I'm glad you asked. Read on for this week's infusion. 


Spicy Chocolate Vodka
This rich, sweet infusion is prefect almost for any dessert drink that normally uses vodka. This is one of the more involved infusions that I've done (Pumpkin Pie still holds the title of 'Most Complicated'), but it is well worth the small amount of extra effort.

Ingredients: 
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder / nibs
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 3 dried chili peppers
• 750 ml vodka (I use Tito's or Dripping Springs, but unflavored Smirnoff works just fine)

Tools:
• 1 qt Mason Jar
• Filters, lots of filters
• Funnel

 The first part of the infusion process is fairly simple. Take jar. Add cocoa. Add brown sugar. Add vodka. Close Jar. Put someplace dark and cool. Shake thoroughly at least twice daily. Do this for at least 10 days.

"But what about those 3 dried chili peppers?" you might be asking. "Did you forget to add them to list of things to do first?" No, I didn't. It turns out, if you add the peppers too soon, all you wind up with is brown vodka that is too spicy to drink. This has something to do with capsaicin and chemical bonding. It was explained to me by a friend who's a bit smarter than I am. The bottom line is, just trust me on this one, I've made mistakes so you don't have to.

Back to the instructions. Now that you've babysat this concoction for 10 days (or more), it's time to add the chili peppers. Make sure you do this 6-12 hours before you have a few hours to set aside for straining. I wouldn't let them sit there for longer than 24.

Now comes the real pain in this process. Filtering. With some infusions, you can get away with mesh strainers, or a single coffee filter. With this bad boy, you're dealing with some serious sludge. Be prepared for a slow drain, and be ready to change out your filters a few times.

Sludge!

Once you get the heavy goop out, it may be worth a second pass before this infusion finds the bottle that will be its final home, but I've found it doesn't really need it.

After a few weeks of waiting and a few hours of straining, you finally have your very own bottle of Spicy Chocolate vodka.

Drink well, be safe, and feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions.

Apple Cinnamon Rum

The Apple Cinnamon rum is quite possibly the most popular of my infusions, and is certainly my favorite rum.

To make things even better, it is also one of the easiest infusions to make.

Ingredients:
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 Granny Smith Apple
• 750ml light (silver) rum

Seriously, that's it.

Tools:
• Vegetable peeler
• Sharp knife
• Cutting board
• 1Qt Mason Jar
• Coffee filter, cheesecloth, or mesh strainer
• Funnel

Pretty much your basic tools.

Directions:

Just like making pie

Wash your apple. This is to make sure it's free of any pesticides and things like that, but it is going to be peeled, so that's really a personal preference call. 

Peel your apple. The skin will add a hint (or more) of bitterness that really affects the flavor.

Slice your apple. You're trying to avoid seeds and core on this one, as they will both affect the flavor and could make your infusion slightly poisonous, which nobody wants. 

If you're doing multiple infusions,
don't forget to label.
If you label,  don't forget to spell check.

Break your cinnamon stick into a few pieces. I'm not sure if this actually does anything, but it helps foster the illusion that you're spreading your ingredients around. 

Place the apple slices and cinnamon stick pieces in the mason jar. Thank you Captain Obvious. 

Fill the jar with rum. Another obvious yet vital step. 

Let the sealed jar sit for between five days and two weeks. It doesn't take too long to get the initial flavor, but I've found it is worth it to age it those extra days. Feel free to taste it to see if it's ready, but remember that the flavor will be a bit stronger pre-draining. 

With the help of the funnel and your choice of filter, pour your infused rum back into the bottle. The flavor ingredients are large enough that a mesh strainer should be able to catch everything, unless you really went to town on the cinnamon. 

Note to self, classier bottles needed

Enjoy! I've found that it is perfectly enjoyable to sip this liquor on it's own, over ice, but if you really want to mix it with something, add a few ounces of ginger ale and you've got a drink that tastes like applesauce. 

Pumpkin Pie Rum

What is fall without a drink inspired by holidays?
Inspired by my wife's love of all things pumpkin and the barrage of Thanksgiving advertising, I decided to infuse some pumpkin pie rum.

Since I've never actually made pumpkin pie, or infused anything this complicated, I took to the interwebs to follow in someone else's footsteps.

That someone was Claire Bertin-Lang, who posted a receipe to The LEVO League, a site for professional women. Not only do I follow her recipe without any alteration, but she also has some tasty drink recipes so you may want to click through the linky-link and read it straight from the source. About all I've done is added some pictures of the step-by-step and changed the flavor text.

The first thing you need to do is gather your ingredients (and your tools). It will be very similar to making a pumpkin pie from scratch, or so I've been told.

Ingredients:
• 1 medium sugar or pie pumpkin (don't grab a decorative one, you'll be disappointed)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon allspice
• Pinch sea salt
• Ground black pepper (I used 3 turns of the old grinder)
• Vegetable oil 
• 750ml Rum (something light and as flavorless as possible, I use Bacardi Silver)

Tools:
• Sharp Knife
• Cutting board
• Grapefruit spoon (not needed, but helps)
• Mortar and pestle (or a small bowl)
• Oven
• Cookie Sheet
• Cooking Brush
• Coffee filters
• Funnel

Directions:

Holy crap! Pumpkins are pretty gross inside

De-goop the pumpkin. This will involve cutting it in half, scooping out the insides, and either pitching them or setting them aside. I found a grapefruit spoon is perfect for this. This being the scooping. Use a knife for the cutting.

Grapefruit Spoon = Teaspoon with teeth. Nom-nom-nom

Pre-heat your oven to 450°F. Depending on your local weather, this will either pleasantly warm up the house or make it unbearably stuffy.

Using that knife from step 1, cut the pumpkin into crescent shaped slices about an inch thick.

Little tasty moons

In your bowl / mortar, mix up all of the spice ingredients (everything but the pumpkin and the rum).

Lay out your pumpkin slices on the cookie sheet, making sure they don't overlap. I covered my cookie sheet in foil to make clean up easier. Brush a light coating of oil and sprinkle your spice mix on both sides of the pumpkin crescents, then put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Your house will smell delicious. This may infuriate people living with you when they find out they can't eat it. 

Cook the slices for 20 minutes, flip them over, and cook for another 15 minutes. They should still be a bit firm once they're done. Make sure you don't over cook them or else you'll be trying to filter pumpkin mush out of your rum. Filtering is difficult enough for this recipe. 

Science! or something

Let the slices cool completely. This generally takes about 30 minutes (or less). Once cooled, line the mason jars with the spiced baked pumpkin slices.  Claire's recipe indicates that you should only use one jars worth, but I've found this leaves me with both an excess of pumpkin and an excess of rum, so I stretch it out to two. Having that bit of extra will come in handy, as long as you know one or two people that likes pumpkin.  

Oh, and keep the bottle. You'll need it later.

Now we play the waiting game.

... 

[Two weeks later (or so)]

Now it's time to filter out all the oil and bits of pumpkin and get some rum you can drink. Because this particular infusion has so much spice and oil, I found it works best to double filter. 

Using cheesecloth (if you're fancy) or coffee filters (if you're like me) and a funnel, I pour the rum into another set of mason jars, and then grab a fresh set of filters and pour it into the bottle. 

If you're short on jars (or really want to be thorough) you can pour from the jar into the bottle, clean the jar, change your filter, pour the infusion back into the jar, clean the bottle, change the filter, and then pour back into the bottle.

Either way, you're now the proud owner of a fifth of pumpkin pie rum. 

Enjoy! 

Be prepared, it goes fast.