Monday, March 5, 2007

When Citrus Attacks: Lime vodka infusion results

After five days of infusion, the lime vodka experiment was ready to be tested. We debuted the vodka at a party at our laboratory on Saturday night. Our loyal comrades Matt and Jason, who some readers may remember from our New Year's Eve party, agreed to forgive that experience and assist us once again. We took care to perform the test early in the evening this time, to minimize (but not eliminate) intoxication bias.

First, Wayland and I carefully strained four shots' worth of vodka through a coffee filter. Though we sometimes skip this step in the initial test, it was absolutely essential in this case, due to the loose lime zest present in the vodka.





The four shots strained, poured and distributed, we made a brief toast to fallen comrades.



With that, we tipped the shots back and drank them.



The initial taste is very sour, hence Wayland's reaction. "It captured the flavor well, he said. "But the sourness was overwhelming."

Once the sourness abated, I found the taste to be quite nice. There's hardly any vodka taste at all; it's much like taking a bite out of an actual lime. The sourness makes it inadvisable as a straight shot, unless you really like sour things, but I think it will make an excellent mixer.

"Very, very limey," Jason described it. "It needs to be added to something sweet to cut the sour."

We did not make a cocktail using the lime-infused vodka that night, but we will experiment with it during the week and post an example later. Also, we will begin our next experiment tonight, and post its introduction tomorrow.

1 comment:

DoctorFedora said...

A thought: try combining your lime vodka with some simple sugar syrup (dissolve plain granulated sugar into water, 1:1 ratio, over low heat until it's all dissolved) to make lime schnapps. The sweetness would certainly cut the sourness.