The Cocktail Test

As you may remember, our recent sampling produced less than optimal results, particularly of the apple- and coffee-infused vodkas. However, we feel that the tests were tainted by several factors. Namely, the fact that we were already somewhat intoxicated when the sampling took place (during our New Year's Eve party), and that we sampled the vodkas as straight shots, which in retrospect is not the most realistic use of our flavored vodkas (at least, among us and our friends).

So, we decided to subject our creations to another round of tests, this time incorporating them into cocktails as we likely would in general practice. This will be our standard testing method from this point forward. In this post you will find our first three tests (with recipes), performed over several nights during this week.

NOTE: We are aware that the following drinks are not, strictly speaking, martinis, but we use the naming convention because we're not very good with titles. Feel free to suggest alternative names if you wish.

Cocktail #1: Cinnamon-Apple Martini

This is a test of the cinnamon vodka only. We decided not to use the apple vodka in this drink for control purposes; that vodka will be tested in another cocktail.

The drink consists of:
1 oz. Mad Scientician™ cinnamon vodka
1 oz. sour apple schnapps
2 oz. regular vodka

Wayland mixes and serves the drink.





This drink was pretty good, but we think the recipe needs tweaking, as the cinnamon was not quite as distinctive as we hoped. Next time, we'll use a higher proportion of cinnamon vodka.

Brendan's score: 3 flasks out of 5
Wayland's score: 3 flasks out of 5
Overall score:

Cocktail #2: Saturday Morning Coffee

Here we are testing the coffee vodka. I was weary at the onset of this test, since the initial test of the coffee vodka sent my stomach over the edge at the party. But I knew it was time to bite the bullet and give the infusion a second chance.

This drink contains:
2 oz. Mad Scientician™ coffee vodka
2 oz. Irish cream liqueur



We were pleasantly surprised. The drink tastes very much like a mug of coffee spiked with Irish cream, a Saturday morning favorite of the Mad Scienticians. Wayland declared this his new favorite cocktail.

Brendan's score: 4 flasks out of 5
Wayland's score: 5 flasks out of 5
Overall score:

Cocktail #3: Apple Pie Martini

This was our most ambitious test to date. Based on a flavor combination suggested by our friend Jason, we set out to assemble a drink made entirely of our infused vodkas.

The drink contains:
2¼ oz. Mad Scientician™ apple vodka
1 oz. Mad Scientician™ caramel vodka
¾ oz. Mad Scientician™ cinnamon vodka

Brendan sips.... carefully.



Wayland nailed the taste! The cocktail tastes just like Mama's apple pie. Unfortunately, being an 80-proof cocktail, it bites back pretty hard. We nursed these drinks for a long time, taking small sips. In the future, we will try to find a way to cut the drink without losing the flavor.

Additionally, the apple vodka tastes a bit... aged. It's not quite offensive, but we believe the infusion could definitely be better. We have finally obtained some airtight jars, so hopefully that will improve the next batch. We will probably also try infusing it in the refrigerator next time.

Brendan's score: 3 flasks out of 5
Wayland's score: 2.5 flasks out of 5
Overall score:

Now, which of these damn bottlecaps is which?



Lastly, a heads-up: the Mad Scienticians will be out of town this weekend to attend Arisia, so our next experiment will not commence until Tuesday. In the meantime, check out The Vodka God's blog; he's gained some inspiration from our progress and begun two experiments of his own -- garlic and bacon vodka! Check out the posts so far: [one, two, three, four, five]