Two for one combo deal!

We've been talking about doing a dual-flavor vodka infusion for a while, but we've wanting to stick with flavors that we already know are successful solo. At this point, we feel that we have a pretty broad base of infusions to experiment with, and are ready to start mixing it up. This doesn't mean we're going to stop creating new flavors; on the contrary, we've got several planned for the next few weeks. But we'll probably try a new combo every three or four experiments or so.

This week, we're attempting to create vanilla strawberry vodka. By pure chance, the original strawberry and vanilla vodka experiments each ran for exactly four days, so the timing of this experiment is easy. Some future dual-infusion experiments will have to be offset, with one ingredient added several days or longer after the first.

We began this experiment by slicing one vanilla bean in half lengthwise.



Next, we thinly sliced ten fresh, rinsed strawberries, discarding the leafy tops.



The strawberry slices tend to float, so we put the vanilla bean halves in first, to ensure the berries don't push them up over the surface of the vodka. Then, we added the filtered vodka.



The strawberries did not float at first. By the morning, however, they had risen to the top, and the vodka was already bright red. We're looking forward to this one's results.