Fun with Alcohol

I absolutely love making (and drinking, obviously) fancy cocktails. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I peruse the cocktail menu and see if anything jumps out at me.

However, it can get very expensive to get fancy cocktails at fancy restaurants. So, I took it upon myself to learn to recreate these fancy cocktails at home. First I started with things like what I've decided to call a Dark and Stormy Daiquiri (recipe below), which is delicious, but only has a few basic ingredients. But then I decided to take it a step further, and make my own flavored alcohols.

I can often be a kind of food/alcohol snob, and therefore think that, often, flavored alcohol is pretty gross (Like that gross Smirnoff vodka that comes in technicolor bottles that everyone in college dorms thinks is delicious. I disagree). But I do like the idea of flavored alcohol, if it's done well, so I figured I try to make my own, because it didn't seem that hard. And, as it turned out, it's not.

As always, this is just a sort of outline of how you could go about making your own flavored liquor. Everyone has different tastes, so go crazy with flavor combinations that excite you. However, some foods don't lend themselves to much to infusing (I tried to make my roommate apple-spice vodka, but that failed miserably and just tasted like vodka). So I would advise using particularly aromatic or strongly flavored things (like oranges, berries, herbs, etc). But feel free to experiment. Maybe you'll succeed where I failed.

Here I'll tell you how I made my orange-anise whiskey, because it is the favorite one I've made so far.

Orange Anise Whiskey

1 bottle whiskey (I wouldn't splurge on top shelf stuff here, but also don't get swill, because no amount of flavorings can make that taste good)

1 orange

1 tsp anise seeds

Using a vegetable peeler, zest the entire orange, taking care to get just the orange part of the peel, and none of the white pith underneath (it's bitter and won't make your whiskey delicious and orangey).

I find that it's easier to make this all work if you transfer the whiskey to a large tupperware, but if you think you can get away with just plopping stuff in the bottle, go for it.

Add the orange zest and the anise seeds. Let them sit for 3-4 days (though letting it sit longer wont hurt), and strain out the orange zest and anise seeds. If you have it in a tupperware, return to the original bottle.

I enjoy drinking this straight, or with some ice (my friend says it tastes like Christmas).

Other flavor combinations that would be good are:

Cucmber-lime gin (I have made this and it's delicious. Just zest 2 limes, peel and slice one cucumber, and infuse for a few days)

Blackberry-anise gin (I haven't made this, but it sounds fantastic and it's next in line to be made)

Rosemary or thyme gin (This would be a good thing to use in this recipe. Gin tends to pair fantastically with herbs like this)

Christmas-spice whiskey (Taking my friend's description of my whiskey as inspiration, I want to try to make one with stuff like cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice and maybe anise, because anise is delicious)

Ginger rum (Again, I haven't made this yet, but I want to try, because it would be perfect in the Dark and Stormy Daiquiri.) 

Speaking of which, I haven't given you that recipe yet, so here you go:

Dark and Stormy Daiquiri

1 part dark rum (I like to experiment with new and interesting types of rum, though my current favorite is Old Monk)
1.5 parts lime juice
a dash to 1 part ginger syrup (it really depends on how sweet you want it to be)

To make ginger syrup, take equal parts sugar and water. In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and water until all the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, and add 2-3 slices of fresh ginger, and let steep for 5-10 minutes (the longer it sits, the stronger it gets).

Shake all ingredients with ice, and serve in a glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

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Music again this time (if you don't like it, boo hoo). Foals, one of my favorite bands, has recently released a "mixtape" album (emulating an old cassete mix tape). It sounds kinda random (and really, it is), so I was pretty dubious. But upon checking it out, I was pleasantly surprised. This 10 minute 'sample' is has a really cool collection of music that you might not think would work together (like afropop and techno).