Split opinion on rosemary vodka

The Mad Scienticians subjected the rosemary vodka to two tests, one a preliminary tasting to check its status, and the second an official sampling after bottling. The first test was conducted last Friday, two days into the infusion.

At the time of this initial test, the vodka had not quite achieved much rosemary flavor. I found the vodka to be the primary taste, but even that wasn't very strong; the flavor of rosemary was subtle, but with much potential. Wayland described it as "odd but mild," also noting that the vodka taste was not overwhelming. I decided it shouldn't need more than another day.

We did not have time for another round of tests the next day, but we did take a moment to bottle it, to prevent over-infusion.



We finally were able to give it a final test last night. As you can see above, the vodka attained a pale green appearance from the infusion.



I found this vodka to be smooth, with no vodka burn at all. The rosemary flavor was much more pronounced than in the first test, but it was still subtle. I like it, though it needs another flavor to compliment it.

Wayland did not agree.



Though I have reacted to several of our experiments in this way (including the spearmint vodka, which Wayland rather liked), this is quite rare for Wayland. In fact, I cannot remember an infusion which I liked and Wayland disliked, especially to this degree. His only verbal reaction to this one: "I do not like it, Sam I Am."

Ah, well. I doubt if I will convince Wayland to try this in a cocktail, but I'll try to whip something up for myself and rate it. I'll also try using it as a marinade.

Rosemary's Vodka

This vodka infusion is the first of our experiments to have its own soundtrack. Any time the Mad Scienticians make anything that involves rosemary, we get automatically earwormed. I get the song "Evil" by Interpol stuck in my head, whereas Wayland usually gets Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair."

We began thinking about a rosemary-infused vodka after using our garlic and jalapeño vodkae to cook a beef roast. We marinaded the roast overnight in the two vodkae, then combined the leftover marinade with other ingredients to pan-cook the roast. (We used a variation of this recipe, substituting the vodka for the wine.) Needless to say, the roast tasted delicious. We considered what other vodka infusions would work well as a marinade, and naturally, rosemary (one of our most commonly used seasonings) was the first we thought of.

Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into a cooking blog! I'm sure we'll come up with a drink to use this in, too (other than the obvious choice, yet another bloody mary variation). But there's more to alcohol than beverages, and as scienticians, we want to put our experiments to every possible test.

We began this infusion by acquiring some fresh rosemary. We found a package of three sticks, each thickly covered in the narrow leaves. We used only one of these sticks.



I washed the rosemary and stripped the leaves off of the stick.



Once all of the leaves were removed, I discarded the stick itself and poured in the vodka.



We doubt if this will take more than three days; perhaps four at the outside. We made the mistake of infusing our spearmint vodka for five days, and I find it unbearably strong. To prevent this, we intent to take a small sample of the rosemary vodka after two days, and then daily until it is done. At that point, we'll post the results.