Who needs a Monday cocktail? It is (finally) a gorgeous, sunny summer day here in the Pacific Northwest. And a cool, refreshing drink sounded just perfect.
We’re bringing back a few infusions that we made a while back, but they are perfect for this summer beverage.
If you’ve been following along, you know that we started a Strawberry Rum infusion about a month ago. The strawberry flavor is now quite nice. And while I’m not quite ready to strain and filter the entire infusion, we can easily pour off some of the liquor to use in cocktails.
And to kick-start our holiday celebrating, we decided to test out some strawberry mojitos on July 3rd.
Muddle mint with 1-2 ice cubes in a sturdy glass. Add sugar. Squeeze 3 of the lime wedges into the glass, add the rind and muddle well. Fill glass with ice, add Strawberry-Infused Rum and club soda. Stir, and garnish with final lime wedge, and if desired more mint or fresh strawberries.
This drink turned out just as good as I had hoped. We loved them so much, we quickly had another! I have a feeling this Strawberry Booze will not last long…
If you are hoping to make these for your holiday festivities, you could muddle a few fresh strawberries into the glass, and just use regular rum.
The first liqueur I ever made was Raspberry. I guess I should say the first four liqueurs I made were all Raspberry!
A few years ago, I went to my parents’ farm to pick some raspberries for jam. I came home with a LOT of berries. I made a few batches of jam, and it seemed like I had not even made a dent in the volume of raspberries. So I started going through my liquor cabinet, selecting anything that seemed like it would taste good with the berries.
I ended up with Raspberry Vodka, Raspberry Brandy, Raspberry Cachaça and Raspberry-Mint Gin. I left all of the infusions in the back of our coat closet for three months. And by the time we filtered them, they were heavenly. (Follow recipe for Simple Raspberry Liqueur below) Each year, the volume of Raspberry Liqueur in my pantry seems to grow.
As I started to infuse a wider variety of ingredients, the Raspberry liqueurs have remained some of my favorites.
I spent a good part of the day yesterday picking raspberries with my mother. (And I’ve got the scratches all over my arms to prove it!)
I ended up with about four pounds of amazing, sweet, delicious raspberries. If you have never infused raspberries before, you are really missing out. These wonderful liqueurs really are a little splash of heaven.
Simple Raspberry Liqueur
750 ml bottle of 80 proof booze (vodka, gin, rum, brandy, or cachaça)
3 1/2 c. raspberries
1/4 to 1/2 c. sugar (or more depending on your preference)
Combine all ingredients in a large glass jar. Shake or stir every few days, allowing to infuse for up to 3 months, or until it reaches your desired taste. Add more sugar if desired. Strain and filter well. The straining process can take a while with raspberries, but the jelly bag (or lots of cheesecloth) and coffee filters will produce a clear result.
Follow directions above, same as Simple Raspberry Liqueur.
This is a favorite of ours, and tastes amazing in a gin and tonic.
This year I decided to try out some new variations and flavors. I don’t quite know how they will turn out yet… I guess we’ll have to wait a while before we know. I hope these inspire you to get creative with your raspberry infusions as well.
Raspberry-Lemon Vodka
2 c. Raspberries
Zest of 2 lemons
2 c. Vodka
1/4 c. Sugar
Follow directions above, same as Simple Raspberry Liqueur.
ROB Rum (Raspberry-Orange-Blueberry)
1 c. Frozen Blueberries (cut in half or roughly chopped)
1 1/4 c. Raspberries
Zest of one orange
2 c. Rum
2 TB Sugar
Follow directions above, same as Simple Raspberry Liqueur.
After these have infused for a while, we may alter them with more sugar or simple syrup. We also may add more zest if necessary.
And finally, one last treat…
Chocolate-Raspberry Liqueur
1 1/2 c. Raspberries
1/4 c. cocoa nibs
1/4 c. sugar
2 c. vodka
Follow directions above, same as Simple Raspberry Liqueur.
We will let you know how these new flavors turn out… but it may be a while before they are ready. We will try tasting them before the three months are up to see if they infuse quicker than we think. But I think they will need at least a month.
Do you have any raspberry infusion flavor ideas? What are your favorites?
Wow! Time flies, doesn’t it?! This week is a blur. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure ready for the weekend…
Several months ago, I found a recipe for a Rosehip Tipple from Wildcraft Vita. If you are not familiar with this blog, you should check it out. In addition to some amazing ideas for infusions, there are many other inspirations for flowers, herbs and foraging.
Back to the rose hips… I don’t happen to have any roses of my own. I have some friends with lots of lovely rose bushes, and have already laid claim to their rose hips. But the rose hips have not formed yet. And I’ve really been wanting to make a rose hip infusion.
As it turns out, I was able to find some dried rose hips. And the infusion could not have been easier.
Rose Hip Vodka
2 TB Dried Rose Hips
1 c. Vodka
Infuse for approximately one week. Strain.
This infusion is very nice. The flavor has hints of citrus, floral, and a bit like fruit leather. If you enjoy rose hip tea, you will like this. And the cocktails are fabulous.
The infusion will end up looking quite a bit like tea… and tastes good with tea as well. I started out with a small batch of this to test it out, but will definitely make more.
As a canning addict, I have been a fan of Food in Jars for quite a while. So after seeing Marisa’s post last year on Chive Blossom Vinegar, I had been longing to infuse some chive blossoms of my own.
As much as I wanted to try the Chive Blossom Vinegar, we do have certain priorities here at Boozed + Infused. So when my chive blossoms finally started opening up, the first ones went into a booze infusion. There would be plenty more blossoms for vinegar later.
I was going for something reminiscent of a Gibson with this infusion.
Chive Blossom Martini Infusion
1 c. chive blossoms (about 12 blossoms)
1 c. gin
1/3 c. extra dry vermouth
Following Marisa’s instructions for the vinegar infusion, I soaked the blossoms in water to help remove any sediment or insects. Remove from water, toss in towels, and allow to dry. Add chive blossoms, gin and vermouth to a pint jar. Infuse for a few hours, a few days, or up to a week depending on how strong you want the flavor. Strain and filter the infusion.
I infused this for 6 days, and this has a very strong onion flavor. I have made a few cocktails with it, but so far the jury is still out on this infusion. It is not for the faint of heart.
I think my favorite cocktail with the chive blossom infusion so far is a variation on a Bloody Mary.
I now have a jar of white wine vinegar infused with chive blossoms, and another jar of distilled white vinegar infused as well. It was very interesting how much more vibrant the vinegar is than the gin/vermouth infusion. The booze infusion is the one that is just faintly pink. For the vinegar infusions, I left the blossoms in for about three weeks.
Be sure to check out Food in Jars for lots of great ideas on canning and all manner of foods in jars. I recently purchased the Food in Jars cookbook and can’t put it down!
Several months ago we made a kiwi liqueur. And with warmer weather (finally) upon us, we used this tasty, fruity liqueur to make a simple Kiwi Vodka Tonic.
For summer parties and cookouts, fruit liqueur and tonic make for easy entertaining. The fruit gins (blueberry, raspberry-mint, tamarind-orange,) as well as the vodkas (cranberry-orange, raspberry, pineapple, mango) can quickly be turned into fun and festive summer drinks.
I didn’t forget about the strawberries, I promise! I took a little mini-vacation, hiking and beer-tasting my way through Central Oregon. (Both were amazing!) Now I’m back and have just sampled the gorgeous red strawberry infusion.
Our last post on the Strawberry Booze infusion was at Day 5, and it still had a fairly weak flavor.
At Day 17, the strawberry flavor is starting to get a bit stronger as is the color. I am hoping that the flavors will continue to enhance with more time, so I am still waiting… (fairly) patiently.
One thing that I did notice after looking back at the photos from Day 5, is that the strawberries have now sunk to the bottom of the jar. I’m no chemist, so I don’t really know what that means. I’m guessing there is more rum in the berries, and more of the fruit sugars in the rum at this point.
So, with the first day of summer almost upon us, we are not quite ready for those strawberry mojitos over here at Boozed + Infused. Maybe by the 4th of July? That would be quite festive! We can hope…
I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but I happen to be a bit of a canning addict. So with everyone touting their delicious jam cocktails, I decided to try one of my own… with Green Tomato Jam!
We made this jam last fall, long after we had picked our green tomatoes. They sat on the kitchen counter for what seemed to be forever, and we finally decided to can them. At first I wasn’t sure what to think of the jam. And in fact we left it in the pantry for months. We finally brought it out a little while back and tested it with a delicious Parrano cheese and baguette. It was fabulous! And it was wonderful in this cocktail as well.
Stir the Heather flower vodka and green tomato jam with ice, add tonic and garnish with a twist. Add more ice if needed.
This was very tasty and refreshing. The green tomato jam added a lovely tangy lemony sweet flavor, and the heather flowers paired nicely.
I think this is a great cocktail to drink during next week’s #GartenderChat! If you haven’t checked it out yet, the next one is Thursday, June 21 at 6:00 pm Pacific time.
We like to try lots of new flavors over here at Boozed + Infused. When out shopping for groceries, I often scour the shelves looking for ideas of things to infuse. I go to certain stores looking specifically for interesting flavors. One of my favorite stores to find different ingredients is the local Home Brewing supply store. You may be surprised to find that there are a lot of home brew stores out there, and many of them sell online.
At a recent trip to the Homebrew Exchange, I picked up bunch of fun bottles, ingredients, and some inspiration! One of these ingredients was dried heather flowers.
While I didn’t really know what heather flowers would taste like, I was excited to try a new infusion.
Heather Flower Vodka
2 TB Dried Heather flowers
1 c. Vodka
Infuse for about 7-9 days, strain and filter. Enjoy in cocktails!
The result is a lovely golden color. The flavor is only slightly floral. It has a nice taste to it, but is hard to describe. I can tell you that it makes a great cocktail… recipes will be forthcoming. In the meantime, try a heather flower infusion, or better yet let us know about something new and interesting that you have infused.
Remember a few months ago when we made a Chocolate Bourbon? Well, it was fabulous! But some people tell me that they don’t like bourbon. And since one of them is my mother, and she happens to be a chocolate lover, I decided to test out a Chocolate Brandy.
The recipe we made was nearly identical to the Chocolate Bourbon.
Chocolate Brandy
2 c. Brandy
1/2 c. Cocoa Nibs
2-inch piece of vanilla bean, split
(if desired, add simple syrup)
Infuse for 4-5 weeks. Strain through cheesecloth or jelly bag, and coffee filters. We did not add any simple syrup. I think it would be delicious with it, but we wanted to be able to use this in cocktails, and thought it would be more versatile this way.
If you have trouble locating Cocoa Nibs, please reference the post on Chocolate Bourbon.
Bourbon v. Brandy… what’s your pick?
I have written before that I have a much improved appreciation for bourbon now that I infuse with it. There had long been a few bourbon cocktails that I really enjoyed, but it was never at the top of my list. But when infusing, bourbon is often my favorite spirit to use. It brings so much flavor and nuance to the end result.
We did a Prune liqueur show down a few months ago where we taste tested Prune Brandy v. Prune Bourbon, and although they were both delicious, the bourbon was the clear winner.
In the case of Chocolate Brandy v. Chocolate Bourbon… I declare the winner to be… Brandy!
I’m sorry bourbon lovers. Both of these are really amazing, and I would encourage ALL of you to start infusing with Cocoa Nibs. As much as I really enjoyed the Chocolate Bourbon, the Chocolate flavor shines through better in the brandy.
But, that is just my humble opinion… have any of you infused with Cocoa Nibs? How about a Chocolate Vodka? I think it would be delicious!
Boozed + Infused 