What is your favorite candy? And have you ever made it into a cocktail?
A few days ago I posted a recipe for Caramel Apple Liqueur, which I made for a get-together with a theme of Halloween candy infusions and cocktails. This was all the brainchild of Evelyn over at Momsicle, who wrote a great post about our “drink up”, complete with a group photo!
I racked my brain for candy infusion ideas, and while it may not exactly be a popular Halloween candy, I have always loved the flavor of orange and chocolate. As a kid, I would get chocolate-orange truffles at the candy store and always loved those chocolate orange sticks (the orange jelly candies that were covered in chocolate). So it was settled, I would make Chocolate-Orange liqueur.
Chocolate-Orange Liqueur
Zest of 3 large Oranges
1/4 c. Cacao Nibs
1/4 c. sugar
2 c. vodka
Place all above ingredients in a glass jar, and close tight. Shake well and allow to infuse for abut 4 weeks. Strain through a filter, then cheesecloth, jelly bag, and coffee filters. This infusion clogged the coffee filters frequently, so be prepared to change the filter often.
This liqueur is delicious! It lived up to my idea of what I wanted it to taste like. And now for the cocktail…
Chocolate-Orange Martini
2oz. Chocolate-Orange Liqueur
2oz. Creme de Cacao (light)
Orange twist
Combine in a cocktail shaker with ice, and serve in a chilled martini glass with an orange twist. We also enjoyed them with a dark chocolate that was spiked with orange zest and orange oil. Delish!
You will also note that we served these in our “fun size” glasses so that we could taste each of the drink varieties at our gathering. They disappeared fast!
Cheers!
Boozed + Infused 
October 23, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Sounds great…and the color is very halloween, as well…
I am jealous of your patience..it would be hard for me to wait on this…
October 23, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Thanks, I thought the color was festive also. And the frequent tastings make the “wait” palatable.
October 23, 2012 at 9:27 pm
This sounds really good. My one question is that does it have to be nibs? I found this company that makes their own chocolate products and I was wondering if the baking chocolate would be good? The website is http://www.tcho.com.
Also for the filtering, I found on youtube a guy who did skittle vodka and used an Aeropress to filter. Do you think that might be able to save some time?
October 24, 2012 at 6:10 am
This makes me so happy!! I love the combination of orange and chocolate — used to love the orange flavor tootsie pops for that reason! How exciting!! Also, wanted to note that I’ve changed the name of my blog. Beyond The Green Door is now Green Door Hospitality! š
Kenley
October 24, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Thanks Kenley! And thanks for clarifying about your blog, I noticed a change and wasn’t sure.
October 24, 2012 at 10:43 am
“Fun size” — I love it!
I’m not much of a candy person, but I do like Heath bars. I wonder if one could make that into an infusion somehow…
October 24, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I think just about anything can be made into an infusion! I would probably try crushed up toffee, and cacao nibs. Would probably be delicious in bourbon…
October 24, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Usually any candy-flavored drinks are too sweet for me–give me gin! Gin!–but I could see myself making an exception for this one. I made an orange and coffee liqueur awhile ago, and it was great, so why not switch out the coffee beans for chocolate?
October 24, 2012 at 6:04 pm
I have seen recipes for the coffee-orange liqueur, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it. Now that you have endorsed it… I will need to try it. I know you know your infusions! And for the chocolate-orange, you could leave the sugar out entirely and wait until you strain it to decide if you want to add any sweetener.
October 24, 2012 at 5:51 pm
I like orange and chocolate – but I love raspberry and chocolate – wonder how that would taste?
October 24, 2012 at 6:07 pm
I live chocolate and raspberry too! And it just so happens that I did a raspberry-chocolate infusion this summer. It is AMAZING! I made a second batch it was so good! There are a bunch of raspberry recipes, so just keep scrolling…
https://boozedandinfused.com/2012/07/01/raspberry-infusions-a-little-splash-of-heaven/
October 24, 2012 at 6:15 pm
How did I miss that?!?!? I read every post – but then my memory is terrible these days ! š I will go over now.
October 25, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Sounds awesome! Question about the cacao nibs though…I have some and they are hard crunchy, non-sweet little bits (Nativas brand). Is this the what you used? Or something different? Thanks!
October 25, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Hi Jeni, yes! Those hard, crunchy, bits with no sweetness… Those are the right things! The chocolate flavor will infuse into the alcohol, and the added sugar will give it some sweetness. You can add more sugar if you want, or sweeten your cocktails (as we did with the creme de cacao in this drink).
October 29, 2012 at 6:58 am
Hi Alicia, the other day I saw some postings on Punk Domestics for candy infusions, including some with with Reese’s pieces that they made shots from. They looked pretty good. Plus, they had what they called drunken gummies, which looked really cool in the shots glasses. You might like it. I think they actually came from 1finecookie, but I’m not sure.
October 29, 2012 at 7:51 am
Hi Meg, thanks for the tip! Those do look really cute! Lots of fun candy infusions on there.
Pingback: Holiday Fun Time! « Boozed + Infused
Pingback: Holiday Entertaining Cocktails: Chocolate-Orange Martini « Green Door Hospitality
Pingback: Halloween Infusion: Caramel Apple Liqueur | Boozed + Infused
Pingback: Halloween Cocktails (51 Recipes) | Church of Halloween
October 10, 2013 at 10:03 pm
We make a quick chocolate orange vodka by melting a bar of chocolate orange and stirring in the vodka when it’s cooled a little. Works with loads of different choc bars too. Galaxy caramel is a good one!
It’s a rich drink though so is more of a shot than a long drink or cocktail
Pingback: Halloween Infusion part 3: Caramel Corn Liqueur | Boozed + Infused