Friday, January 26, 2007

Strawberry vodka conclusions

We sampled the strawberry vodka today, and declared it a success after a four-day infusion. As you can see, most of the strawberries' color has transferred to the vodka, which turned red, while the strawberries themselves are practically white.



I tried the vodka first. It took a beat or two to analyze and come up with an opinion. The strawberry taste is pronounced and pleasant, though the vodka kick is still present in nearly full strength. Overall, I enjoyed it. The longer we maintain this blog, it seems, the more I get used to straight vodka shots.



Wayland didn't dislike the strawberry vodka, but was not enthusiastic either.



I strained the vodka through cheesecloth to bottle it. I tried eating one of the strawberry slices; not only have they lost most of their color, they've lost most of their flavor, too. It was like eating a slice of vodka.



Once the experiment was bottled, Wayland worked some of his mixology magic and came up with a drink using it.

Strawberry Creamsaver

With ice, shake:
2 oz. Mad Scientician™ strawberry vodka
1 oz. Mad Scientician™ caramel vodka
1 oz. Irish cream
Splash of grenadine



We finished off the first bottle of caramel vodka earlier this week, and started a second batch last night. We've been shaking it periodically throughout today, and while the caramel cubes are not entirely dissolved, it was close enough to use for this drink.



We didn't think of the grenadine at first, and since the caramel vodka and Irish cream are both thickly colored, the red of the strawberry did not show at all. As it turns out, the flavor didn't show up much either.



We think the Irish cream is primarily at fault for overpowering the strawberry. Unfortunately, we couldn't think of anything else to cut the vodka with. We did give the drinks some color and appropriate flavor by tossing it back into the shaker with some grenadine.



That's one of the strawberry slices floating in the drink. Please, for the love of Delilah, don't eat the strawberry slice.

The grenadine improved the drink considerably, though grenadine has more of a cherry-like taste. Even after the modification, though, it's not one of our favorites. It grew on us as we finished our drinks, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

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

7 comments:

Gooden Uggla said...

Strawberry mixes with sweet&sour and clear sodas.

Brendan said...

We'll give those a try. We've found that it also mixes well with cola (see yesterday's entry). Thanks for the suggestions.

Tamarai said...

Do you guys keep the fruit to eat afterwards or do you just throw it away?

Brendan said...

I tried eating a couple of the vodka-infused strawberry slices, but they were pretty harsh. If we think of something else to do with them, we'll try it, but so far we've been throwing them out.

Carey said...

I made some strawberry vodka this week and it's true .. the strawberries look pale and sad. But here's my thought: after the orginal berries have infused the vodka, what if you strain them out, toss them and add frozen berries to the mix, keeping the vodka in the freezer ... you think they'll keep their color?

Brendan said...

That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure if the strawberries would stay fully frozen or not; though the temperature is below freezing, the contact with liquid vodka may thaw them, leading to the same issue. I could be wrong, though. We've never tried anything like that, since we always strain out the ingredients upon completion.

bryony-and-teddy said...

i no the post is old but iv got a batch of this next to my slow gin and you can liquidize the strawberries and mix with fresh strawberries and have it over ice cream just freeze it in an ice cube try and add sugar if its to tart :)