Tag: vodka

  • Easy Camping Cocktails for Memorial Day

    Easy Camping Cocktails for Memorial Day

    It’s Memorial Day weekend, and for many of you that means it’s the first big camping holiday of the year. When I think of camping, it’s drinking that comes to my mind. While beer is most definitely the easiest way to imbibe while enjoying the great outdoors, there are plenty of mixers that are perfectly simple and even easy to pack. If you only have room for one bottle, that’s okay! Muddling, shaking, straining, and garnishing aren’t always necessary when you have the right combinations.

    Beergarita

    The most complicated drink on our list, the beergarita is perfect for those of you who are looking for a different take on the standard margarita. Plus, maybe those beer lovers at your campground will enjoy it. If you don’t have a blender, you can always mix this on the rocks, it’s just as nice, maybe even better.

    Ingredients:

    1 oz gold tequila
    1 oz triple sec
    1 oz lime juice
    12 oz bottle Corona® lager

    Mix all ingredients except the lager in a blender with ice. Pour into a large pilsner/pint glass, then add the Corona (which should be chilled) over the top. Garnish with a slice of lime, and serve.

    Cuba Libre

    Sometimes I think they named the Cuba Libre because “rum and coke” doesn’t sound as nice.

    Ingredients:

    1 part rum*
    1 part cola

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    *Whiskey is a good alternative.

    Dark N’ Stormy

    Ginger beer is so refreshing, and rum relaxing, that the combination may put you in a vacation mode immediately.

    Ingredients:

    1 part dark rum
    1 part ginger beer

    Pour ginger beer in a cup over ice. Add rum. Mix with your straw as you drink, slowly combining rum and ginger beer to create the best taste.

    Screwdriver

    You probably packed orange juice for breakfast anyway.

    Ingredients:

    1 part vodka
    1 part orange juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Greyhound

    If you don’t have orange juice, you probably have grapefruit juice.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts vodka
    1 part grapefruit juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Gimlet

    This is one that you probably should garnish. Cut up a lime and toss a few slices in.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts gin*
    1 part lime juice

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    *Alternatively, vodka can be used.

    Gin and Ginger

    Since you’ve got that ginger beer already…

    Ingredients:

    2 parts gin
    1 part ginger beer

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Whiskey Sour

    Nice and refreshing.

    Ingredients:

    2 parts whiskey
    1 part sour mix

    Combine in a cup over ice.

    Bourbon Sweet Tea

    In the afternoon, nothing is better than sitting around the picnic table having a nice refreshing sweet tea. Why not liquor it up?

    Ingredients:

    2 parts bourbon
    2 part flavored sweet tea

    Combine bourbon and your choice of flavored sweet tea in a cup over ice. If you’re garnishing, garnish with lemon.

    Foodie extra

    Smoreos

    A new take on an old classic. Recipe courtesy of Andi Ponkey.

    Ingredients:

    Irish Cream
    Marshmallows
    Oreos

    Dip marshmallows in Irish cream before roasting. Instead of graham crackers, place the marshmallow between two sides of an Oreo.

  • The Galileo Cocktail

    Today marks the 404th anniversary of the day that Galileo discovered the four moons of Jupiter. Seems like as good of a reason as any to go ahead and drink. In fact, I’ve got a cocktail just for the occasion!

    Galileo

    Ingredients:

    1 part Galliano
    1 part triple sec
    1 part vodka
    10 oz orange or pineapple juice
    1 oz grenadine
    1 lime, wedged

    In a shaker, combine Galliano, triple sec, vodka, juice, and juice from one wedge of the lime. Shake well and pour into a glass over ice. Top with grenadine. Garnish with lime wedge.

  • Vodka Infusion Update

    Well, it turns out I am absolute piss at infusing vodka. The blueberry infusion barely infused besides in color, and while the banana infusion worked very nicely for taste, it was so murky I don’t think I could get anyone to drink it if I paid them. There was also an unfortunate and quite embarrassing situation in which I dumped the banana out on accident, so there won’t be any pics to prove how absolutely worthless this first attempt went.

    Below, however, is a picture of the blueberry infusion. As you can see, the coloring is quite nice (although this pic doesn’t show it as much as I’d like). Unfortunately, the taste is very thin and there really wasn’t much left after I took the blueberries out.

    Improvements that I will implement next time are as follows:

    • A better filtering system for the banana vodka. Most likely a coffee filter to pull out the murkiness.
    • Use more berries. I didn’t want to overdue it, and only put in about two handfuls of berries, clearly there should be more.
    • But up the berries into smaller sections in order to release juices better and get a better flavor.
    • Use more vodka
    • Follow directions more closely

    If any of you have any tips for better vodka infusion, please feel free to comment or contact me at crafting@drinkmatron.prjct.info.

     

  • Guest Post: Donna Matthews and her tasty strawberry rhubarb infusion

    In my dream life, my family and I would live in an old Georgia plantation home on 100 acres complete with a pond and an orchard of peach trees. I would throw weddings in my beautifully restored big red barn and be a telecommuting contributing editor for women’s magazines. My pantry would be fully stocked with home-canned fruits and vegetables; my freezer full of primal cuts from an animal whose name I knew. The garden would be plentiful in excess, to the point that I would use the surplus to trade with the neighbors for some of their fresh eggs or raw milk.

    To dream. Until then, we live in our tiny two bedroom apartment in southeast Michigan. I implement tiny pieces of my dream life when possible – most recently, in the form of strawberry-rhubarb infused vodka. There’s something very mid-century Southern summer picnic about the combination of strawberry and rhubarb that I absolutely adore. I had to take advantage of the seasonality of strawberries and wanted to extend my time enjoying their flavor. Time and space constraints abound, and as such, a vodka infusion – as opposed to canning – was the way to go.

    This was my process, which yielded a-ma-zing results.

    StrawBarb Vodka

    Hardware

    • Cutting board
    • Knife
    • Vessel (I chose the vodka bottle itself)
    • Extra container for straining vodka into – like a pitcher or carafe

    Software

    • Half gallon (1.75 L) mid-grade vodka – You don’t want to go super cheap and have it taste bad, but the flavor the fruit will provide is enough to eliminate any need for a more expensive brand. I chose a certain very common red-labeled brand.
    • Fruit – for each phase, I used 2 pints of strawberries and two large stalks of rhubarb.

    Process

    1. Dump half of the vodka out of the bottle and into whatever you’re using for overflow. In my case, I refilled a recently emptied pint. This is to make room for the fruit, which will displace the vodka in a big way.
    2. Rinse and cut your fruit. The smaller the better, as increased surface area is the friend of flavor. Also, if you’re using a vessel with a long, narrow neck as I did, you want to be able to shake the fruit out when it comes time to switch it out. If you have to coerce it in, you’re probably not going to get it out (and that is a bad thing.)
    3. If there is a straining screen piece on your bottle – keep it! It will be your friend later. Put the fruit in the bottle. Close it up, stick it in the fridge for 3-4 days.
    4. 3-4 days later, strain the vodka into a pitcher or carafe. This is where the straining screen piece that may or may not have been provided with the cap assembly on your vodka bottle. If not, you can just loosely hold your thumb over the opening of the bottle, or heck, use a pasta strainer. I discarded the fruit, though I had many people scolding me for this. If you have a use for it (maybe stick it in the freezer and toss it into a sort of frozen margarita later), keep it, by all means.
    5. Put the (now pinkish red) vodka back into the bottle.
    6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you get a flavor that makes you crazy happy. For me, this happened at day 11. Your mileage may vary.

    Serve any way you want. It is great as a vodka tonic or screwdriver, and downright dangerous with cranberry juice.

    picture by Donna Matthews

    There are a million variations on this and many different methods. Some people opt for keeping the same fruit in it the whole time. My reasoning for changing out the fruit is this – I’m infusing vodka, not making a wine. I want the flavor of fresh fruit, not fermented. Some people opt for keeping the fruit at room temperature, but this again goes back to the flavor profile I was looking for. Lower temperatures slow the fermentation process. Really, do what gets you the results you want.

    Other fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices do equally well. Just remember: surface area and damaged cells are your friend – the more you can chop or otherwise rough up your ingredients, the better. So slice that cucumber, squeeze those raspberries, crush that basil. And have fun!

    Donna Matthews is a little nerdy, a little rockabilly (nerdabilly?), and a lot booze enthusiast. She is a culinary grad using her powers mostly for good, and spends her days herding her toddler daughter and studying the art of bean counting. As soon as she acquires an operating TARDIS, she will only be found during the months of September-December, probably tailgating. You can follow her on Twitter @trooper346.

     

     

  • Why Does Cheap Vodka Give Me Such a Terrible Hangover?

    Since announcing this week’s Booze of the Week is vodka, I was asked by a friend “Why do I get such miserable hangovers from cheap vodka, but not from premium vodka?”  This is a question that has had scientists at each others throats for years.  My first response to this question is that if a person is drinking premium vodka, its because they want to enjoy their drink, so they tend to drink a LOT less.  When you drink cheap vodka, you’re really only looking for one outcome: to get drunk.  So the reason you get worse hangovers from cheap vodka as opposed to premium vodka is because you drank more of it!  But that’s not what you want to hear.  You want to hear about cogeners and fusel oils.

    Cogener is the term used for acetone, acetaldehyde, and tannins produced during the fermentation process.  These impurities, when ingested, can exaggerate the symptoms that present during a hangover.  In other words, they make the hangover worse.  A byproduct of the distillation process is a fun little liquid called fusel oil.

    Fusel oil is present in the first and last few ounces of the distallate and has long been considered to be hangover-inducing at best, toxic at worst. Fusel oil isn’t actually oil, but higher order alcohols produced during fermentation that travel into the distilled liquid.  While it hasn’t been proven that fusel oil is any worse for you than ethyl alcohol, there is also no proof that it isn’t.

    There are many other contributing factors to a hangover, but these two are the only relevant ones to this conversation.

    Cogeners are produced during the fermentation process, but tend to not pass through the distillation process.  If they do, only small amounts will, and generally only through one (maybe two) processes.  Fusel oil, will always pass through the distillation process, but will only be present at the beginning or end of the process.

    Many premium vodka distillers will boast about how many times they distill and filter their vodka.  To cut costs, the cheaper brands of vodka are only distilled once or twice, and may not even be filtered.  The more you distill it, the less impurities will be present. The same goes for filtration.

    So, there you have it. In short, cheap vodka gives you nasty hangovers because it has more impurities that make the hangover worse.

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  • What is the Difference Between Potato and Grain Vodka?

    I was recently asked by a friend what the difference between vodka made from potatoes and vodka made from grain was.  The short answer? Nothing.

    The fundamental distillation process is to extract the alcohol from a fermented liquid.  Some spirits, like rum, depend on some of the mash making it into the final product to add to the flavor.  However, vodka is ideally flavorless and odorless so it is distilled until it is 95% ABV or higher, filtered several times (typically through charcoal), and then diluted with spring water down to the acceptable 35-40% ABV.  Because of this, you ideally end up with a diluted ethyl alcohol.  So it doesn’t matter whether you’re using potatoes, rye, molasses, sugar beets, or any other base plant matter used to produce vodka all over the world.

    Why, then, is there such a prevalent misconception that vodka is made from potatoes, when most of the world’s vodka is produced from grains? Cost.  You see, vodka has been around since the Middle Ages in Poland.  Back then, they used the cheapest thing available to them: grain.  Every farmer had it and Polish grain was some of the cheapest in Europe through the 15th century.  During the 18th and 19th centuries, three key things happened:

    1). The price of Polish grain increased.

    2). The potato was introduced to Eastern European agriculture.

    3). Vodka production was realized as an actual industry.

    Since the potato was so cheap and grain was becoming more expensive, vodka producers started experimenting with the potato as a replacement for grain in vodka.

    In the mid-19th century, it became a standard practice amongst the industrial producers to make vodka from potatoes.  At some point, using potatoes fell out of favor and the original grain recipes began to be used again, but not before the whole “vodka from potatoes” thing became general knowledge.

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  • New Four Loko… Without Caffeine?

    In November, the US Food and Drug Administration deemed beverages like Four Loko, a malt liquor infused with caffeine and taurine, to be unsafe for the general public calling it a “public health concern.”  Since that announcement, the brands were given time to reformulate their products in order to comply with the new federal regulation.  The Four Loko answer?  New flavors with no caffeine.  Currently, only Green Apple is available, but keep an eye out for Blueberry Lemonade.

    Having only tried Four Loko recently, I can say that the only thing it had going for it was the fact that the caffeine was already in the drink.  Before that, the closest you got to what Four Loko had going for them was vodka and Red Bull.  Now, Four Loko is just a sickly sweet malt liquor.  I don’t see the appeal in drinking a lemon pez flavored malt beverage, but then again I’m not the new generation of imbiber either.

    After reading about the new Four Loko formula, it got me thinking: How easy would it be to get the caffeine back in?  This new FDA regulation means the general public will have to revert back to vodka and Red Bull as their drink of choice, and that’s easy to do: you buy vodka, you buy Red Bull, you mix them together, you drink your “unsafe” concoction, rinse, lather, and repeat.  But Four Loko has the alcohol and not the caffeine.  How do you add caffeine to a drink, but no flavor?  This is something the Four Loko marketing team should be trying to solve.  Imagine walking into a store and sitting right next to the Four Loko XXL Blueberry Lemonade is a small vial of Four Loko Unflavored Caffeine Water, and look at that!  The new caffeine free Four Loko packaging account for just enough open space at the top of the can to pour a vial of caffeine water in.

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