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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.
So last night we were looking through our liquor cabinet and I found the buttershots and said to Daniel, "this is pretty much my favorite thing ever." Daniel replies, "we should try butterscotch vodka."
This is your typical lightbulb-on moment, and we decided that there was absolutely no reason not to continue with this idea. So I was off to Kroger at 3am on a quest for butterscotch candies, which were reasonably priced at $1.50 per bag.
I decided that the best way to approach this infusion (or solution, rather) was in a similar fashion to the Honey infusion, which was essentially a 2:1 ratio of vodka to honey (just a bit less than one part honey per two parts vodka). My rough calculation was that 5 candies were equal to 1 oz. of volume, so I put 20 candies in an infusion jar and poured 10 oz. of vodka over the top.
I played some Guitar Hero to pass the time, and about an hour and a half later the butterscotch candies had completely dissolved and created about 275mL of wonderful butterscotch awesomeness. I forgot to take photos of the bottling, but the color is exactly as you would expect it to be, and it looks like liquid butterscotch candy.
I was eager for a tasting, so I quickly poured a half shot, and the result was nearly as wonderful as the Honey experiment, with a wave of butterscotch accompanied only slightly by a mild vodka burn. The burn, though, was negligible and not unpleasant, in my opinion.
Part of my excitement over Buttershots, of course, is the ability to make a buttery nipple, which is one of the greatest shots ever invented. I couldn't help but make a butterscotch vodka alternative:
In a true buttery nipple, the irish cream is floated atop the buttershots, but apparently in this case the opposite occurs, which is fine. The taste was quite pleasant, though lacking from a true buttery nipple. I can probably tweak it somehow and make it great.
I wanted to try another recipe I've known for a while... the oatmeal cookie! Now, Jägermeister says that 1:1:1 ratio of Jäger, Bailey's, and Kahlua makes an oatmeal cookie shot, but it's not quite right and really just tastes like a white russian + Jäger. But, the recipe I'd always heard was 3:1:1 of Buttershots, Bailey's, and Goldshläger, respectively. So out came my nearly-ready cinnamon vodka, and I quickly shook a double shot:
I thought this was fantastic. It's quite strong, given that it's mostly vodka, but the vodka burn you'd expect wasn't really present. Either that or I was already drunk from the previous shots I'd had. It doesn't really matter.
Butterscotch experiment: SUCCESS.
My two roommates, Daniel and Bryan, were intrigued with the whole vodka infusion idea after tasting my honey vodka and seeing my cinnamon and apple experiments, and they proceeded to join my idea and start their own experiments. Daniel, having looked over the guys' experiments at Infusions of Grandeur, decided to try their vanilla-caramel infusion, which they said was a grand success. Bryan wanted to go out on a limb and try something crazy, and he came up with his Orange Sweet Roll idea (orange, vanilla, cinnamon), which could potentially be amazing. Or a complete failure. Time will tell.
