Updates on Apple, Coffee

I AM DRUNK RIGHT NOW.

So today Andy comes over to get something from me, and we decide that we should sample some vodkas because... well, why not. He's super pumped about the butterscotch, so I pour us some shots. His response was, "holy crap. this is good. we need to go to the liquor store right now so I can get some vodka and make this."


So then I made him a buttery nipple, which he said was wonderful. Then we moved on to the coffee vodka, which I never really mentioned here because I still don't think I've come up with a good solution that the problem everybody seems to have. Most people are taking coffee beans and crushing them a bit, them letting them stew for a few days. Then they complain of bitterness and just... weak, not very good vodka. So I took some freshly roasted (by me) espresso, ground it to a coarse grind, and basically let it steep (like with a french press) for about 24 hours, and I was left with what looked like coffee. The smell is delicious, but unchilled it tastes heavily of vodka, and there is quite a burn present. However, when you shake it with ice, it's quite pleasant in mine (and Andy's) opinion. The burn of the vodka is nearly gone, and it tastes mostly like chilled coffee.


From here we moved to the cinnamon, which I've been excited about. I poured two shots, and Andy and I agreed that it tasted like watered down cinnamon, which isn't quite what I'd hoped. We plan to add some sweetener to try and make it great. From here it was time to change out the apple again in my apple experiment, so I got to work with the some process as last week. The apple was again brown and the vodka looked gross.


As I was throwing out the apple pieces, Andy says to me, "you know, we should try pressing those apples and try to save some volume since you're losing so much. Really you can just press them between two hard surfaces, or put them in a food processor and see what the result is." So he insists that he wants to try it, and as I'm preparing a ziploc baggy in which to put the discarded apples, Andy starts pressing the apples between a bowl and a frying pan.


A quick taste of the resulting liquid brings the following conversation (for the most part):

Andy: Oh my.
Jason: So it's disgusting?
Andy: Oh my. That's horrid.
Jason: So do you still want to take them home? Or...
Andy: No.
Jason: No? You're sure?
Andy: No.

Out with the apples. I ran the vodka through a filter again, which took a while, then we sampled a half shot each.


This tasted like apple juice. There's just no flavor or burn of vodka left. It's just... so good. Andy immediately wanted to run to the liquor store to purchase several handles of vodka with which to make this, so we did that. I was drunk. Thank god I wasn't driving.

Anyway, we're going to start working on something that will make this whole thing even better than awesome, so here's hoping that it's a success. The final tasting of apple and cinnamon will happen this weekend.