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I've been playing Super Mario 3 for NES all day today, and after beating in Koopa's face after 3 hours of trying to beat the maze that is World 8, I felt inspired to start a new infusion to symbolize... you know... being awesome at Super Mario 3.
. . .
I'd been wanting to do an infusion with strawberries for about a week now (since I tasted how well the apple was coming along), and since strawberries were on sale for $1.88 at Kroger, now was as good a time as any. I didn't really have a feel for how many strawberries I needed to use to get the proper flavor, so I just kind of chose an arbitrary amount, and if I decide it needs more in a few days, I'll add some more. Anyway, I took all the leafy green parts off, and started slicing. I ate a few pieces along the way. What of it?
I added them to my jar and sprinkled some sugar on top, just as you'd do when preparing strawberries to eat yourself. Then I filled the jar with almost exactly 750ml of vodka.
A quick stir and it was done. I've read that this can be done in as little as about four days, but I'll check along the way as usual. Look for updates.
Bryan's Orange Sweet Roll Infusion
Bryan checked on his orange sweet roll infusion again today after having taken the cinnamon out earlier in the week; he suggested that the cinnamon flavor was coming along way too strongly. Anyway, he tasted it again today, and said it was still a little strong of cinnamon, and that he'll probably add some more orange to the mix.
To speed things and add some sweetness, he decided to add some sugar, which should be nice.
And that was that.
We're worried that the nice lady at the liquor store is becoming curious of our alcohol habits and the combined total of 12,750mL of pure vodka that we've purchased in the past two weeks (your basic math skills will tell you that is equivalent to 17 750mL bottles). Either that or she thinks we're all PARTY MACHINES!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!
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.
