Experimental Fail: Canteloupe Infused Vodka.

Well, it sounded like paradise in a glass (for those of us who like melon, as I was reminded). Something to play with during that lean week before payday with what I had on hand. The canteloupe half was a dollar at my local grocery store; the Burnett's vodka wasn't dear at the package store, but in the freezer not being consumed. Vodka, to me, is the vanilla ice cream of the liquor world. There are quality variants, but from hot fudge to adzuki beans to your morning coffee, it goes many places.

I thought it would at least keep me out of trouble. Keep me from thinking about the bag of Skittles I've been carrying in my purse for weeks and all the time I've spent reading Mix That Drink. I'd already envisioned some sugarplum dreams as to what I wanted to do with this . Liberally spike some sweet tea, sweeten a Screwdriver, muddle with mint and add Sprite.

My dreams all vanished like fog when I opened the test sample after a week of sitting around and detected no tell-tale aroma of canteloupe from the liquid. Dang. The olfactory warning repeated itself when I tasted it and found that..it tasted no different from the plain vodka in the Burnett's bottle. Double dang. So sad.

Maybe I should have used riper canteloupe. Or maybe I should have busted into the bottle of Grey Goose instead, the one I've been saving for a rainy day (I mean, I moved to Georgia from Seattle. My rainy days have become far fewer). Either way, I called this one a bust. The sample's still sitting in the back of the fridge, taunting me with the vain hope that one day I'll open it and it will be a canteloupe-flavored butterfly. Who knows.

Next project up on the list is a request from a friend of mine, and some cocktail experimentations with the infusions chilling in my freezer.

At the beginning.

(left to right) Earl Grey vodka, Cucumber Vodka, Rooibos gin.


Inaugural post. Inaugural experiment.

This was my first attempt at infusing liquor with stuff from my kitchen. My roommate and I are both tea afficionados, and I was inspired, in part by a chamomile vodka blend from High Wire Lounge here in Athens. It was heavenly mixed up with Fever Tree tonic and a splash of orange juice.

For the tea infusions, I covered the bottom of the little 8 oz jar in loose tea and filled the rest with booze. No precise measurement, just winging it for the moment. The cucumber infusion got 5 or 6 mandoline slices of cuke and the same treatment. I let them steep in the fridge for a week, which may have been about 6 days too long, but they're all palatable.

The earl grey infusion tastes very strongly, but pleasantly of bergamot. The cucumber is light and refreshing, but the rooibos gin runs a little bitter. Mixed in a cocktail with some citrus or sweetness might help that.