Day 150: Drink the Rainbow

Today I finished and sampled my latest infused vodka: Skittles!

This one looked disgusting while the skittles were dissolving. I mean really gross. But after much filtering, it's no longer cloudy and it tastes like liquid skittles.

Within seconds of mixing the vodka and skittles.

In mid-infuse. Yum.

Ta-da!

I can't wait to try some skittly drinks, but that will have to wait for another day.

Day 149: PB&J Minus Chewing Plus Booze

Tonight for dessert I made a shot combining my homemade peanut vodka with grape vodka.



It was amazing. The smell, first of all, was exactly like a peanut butter and jelly sammich. And the taste was just as perfect. Tiny vodka burn, but not too bad.

I will definitely be having more of these.

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Day 146: Nut Liquor

For a long time, I've had a dream. It's a dream of making my own infused vodka.

It all started when I decided I needed peanut butter vodka for a variety of drinky inventions I had in mind. Amaretto (almond) and Frangelico (hazelnut) just don't cut it.

I've heard a rumor that peanut vodka exists somewhere, but not in my liquor store, so I had to take matters into my own hands.

So here's what happened. On Tuesday, I started with a jug o'vodka and some unsalted peanuts.



I put them together in a plastic drinking bottle.



I let the bottle sit, shaking it up a few times each day.

Today, I decided I'd waited long enough, so I pulled out a strainer and coffee filters and started the filtering process.



It was still cloudy after the first pass, so I filtered a total of three times.







And here it is in its pretty little bottle, flanked by mom and dad.

And I dare say my peanut vodka is a success. Very peanutty. For my first drink, I mixed peanut vodka with chocolate liqueur and a bit of milk. Reese's peanut butter cup - voila!




Now I'm ready to infuse all kinds of stuff into vodka. Stay tuned for results.

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Day 146: Root Beer for Grown-Ups

Today I broke open a bottle of whipped cream vodka and mixed it with root beer. Well, not the whole bottle. Yum!




Almost like a root beer float, but without the brain freeze. Maybe some vanilla would make it perfect.

I have many more whipped cream vodka ideas, and a whole bottle to play with.

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Day 141: Sparkleberry

Today I made a drink. I'm not sure yet how I feel about it.




The Sparkleberry = vodka + Cointreau + cranberry juice + club soda + Keglevich forestberries liqueur, whatever that is.

I inherited the forestberry stuff when my mom was cleaning out her liquor cabinet. Who knows what decade it's from.





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Day 136: Chocolatey Minty Boozy

I tried to do some new stuff in Photoshop, but various forces were conspiring against me. Instead, I invented this delicious drink, which I like to call the PMS Special, for reasons I don't need to go into.



Vodka + light creme de cocoa + green creme de menthe + milk.
Serve with Girl Scout thin mint cookies.

You could crush up the cookies and use them as a rimmer, but then you have cookie crumbles, which aren't nearly as satisfying.

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Day 133: Fuzzy Sun Tea

This drink is a variation on my Fuzzy Sunshine, but it uses Sweet Tea Vodka instead of plain vodka. It's quite tasty.



Ingredients: Sweet tea vodka, Sunny Delight, and peach schnapps.


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Day 131: A Secret Spy Drink

Looks like iced tea, don't it?




That's what happens when you combine vodka (orange flavored, in this case), cranberry juice, and midori. You get a drink that tastes pretty good and looks just like innocent iced tea.

Not that I would ever try to pass off a boozy drink as iced tea. Not me.

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Day 127: Some Things You Can't Undrink

Today I tried a new drink suggested by Mr Pascual, who said that his friend tried it. Well, Mr Pascual, your friend is a sick, sick person. This drink is not good. In fact, it's bad. It's so bad, it went back around to good again, but then went back to bad and destroyed everything I ever loved. I almost took a picture of my face after drinking this, but I didn't want to give anyone nightmares.





Yes, it's bacon vodka and maple syrup. And I had to use a whisk to make the clearly warring factions play nice long enough to go down my throat. I should've taken their hint and let them stay separated.

Excuse me, but I'm off to wash my mouth out with soap now, and maybe get my stomach pumped.

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Day 126: Spritzy Spritzer

This Cucumber Lime Spritzer was adapted from a nonalcoholic (boring) version I clipped from a magazine long ago.

It was pretty good to start out, fresh and zingy. But after kinda forgetting about drinking it for a while as I was doing my homework, the cucumber took over and it became an almost unbearable flat cucumber water. I guess that'll teach me to drink slowly.




By the way, the ingredients are vodka, fresh lime juice, club soda, thinly sliced cucumber, ice, and half a packet of splenda.

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Day 121: Hell's Cocktails

Today I invented two drinks. The first is Cerberus (pictured on the right), which is a Greyhound (vodka & grapefruit juice), but with gin and rum added. Get it? Three-headed dog from hell?

Second is the River Styx (pictured left). It's like Cerberus, but it's red because it has cranberry juice instead of grapefruit juice. Also rather hellish.




You can't tell from the photo, but Cerberus is a cuddly pink color while the River Styx is devilishly red. Both are hard drinking. I had to add a dash of triple sec to each to cut the nasty gin-ness. It wasn't entirely successful.

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Day 114: Unorthodox Clamdigger

Today I made a Clamdigger, which I've enjoyed countless times since stealing the recipe from a rooftop bar in Friday Harbor. But today, in honor of Easter, I made it with Bakon vodka instead of plain vodka.




For those keeping score, the Clamdigger is made of vodka, Clamato juice, worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, celery salt, and black pepper.

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Day 105: Three Servings of Fruit

What do you get when you mix grape vodka, applejack, and peach schnapps with a bit of apple juice? Why, the Fuzzy Grappletini, of course.





With three kinds of fruit, it must be good for you. Plus, it's green, so it's just like eating broccoli or asparagus.

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Day 93: Care Bears FTW!

Today I broke out my vintage 1983 Pizza Hut Care Bears glasses and let them fulfill their lifelong destiny as booze receptacles.

Here they are with Grumpy Bear holding a Slightly Fuzzy Sunshine and Funshine Bear holding a Pink Greyhound. Aren't they the happiest looking drinks you've ever seen?




And here's round two, with a drink I swear I invented on my own: vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and fresh lime. Until I realized I invented the Cosmo. Oh well. I bet there aren't a lot of cosmos made on the rocks in Care Bear glasses.





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Day 70: The Grape Cod

What can you mix with grape vodka? What can't you mix with grape vodka?



The Grape Cod is like a Cape Cod, but with grape vodka instead of regular vodka. Technically, it should have a lime wedge garnish.

Grape Cod
1 part 3 Olives Purple grape vodka
2 parts Cranberry juice

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Day 55: Sparkling Grapple

Another tasty grape vodka concoction. This time it's green.









3 Olives Purple grape vodka
Apple juice
Tonic water

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Day 48: Alexander the Grape

At the Halloween party at the PNK Ultralounge in Seattle, our bartender made us way too many deliciously sippable shooters using grape vodka. Today, Mat bought some grape vodka, so I had to try to re-create that dangerously awesome concoction. I think I nailed it, but my memory of that night is a bit fuzzy. Of course, mine's a cocktail in a martini glass instead of a shot.

All hail Alexander the Grape:



Basically, it's a cosmopolitan using Three Olives Purple vodka. And its name comes from the fact that it tastes a lot like a grape Otter Pop. Yum.

(And doesn't it look lovely in Mat's Dorothy Parker martini glass?)

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Day 41: Frog in a Blender

Today's drink is brought to you by the letter L. For laptop death. Again. So I need a drink.

I give you...Frog in a Blender.







Ice + vodka + Sunny Delight + blue curaçao in the blender. Then drizzle on some grenadine.

Poor frog. Poor dead, delicious frog.

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My Signature Drink

Name of Drink: Mellenini

Ingredients:
3 parts Crater Lake vodka
1 part dry vermouth
large splash green olive juice
small splash cocktail onion juice

Served straight up in a martini glass
Garnish with a pick of alternating green olives and cocktail onions

Pass/Fail: Pass

Notes: This was my first invention. I love dirty martinis and the oniony goodness of gibsons, so here's my combination of the two. If you don't have Crater Lake vodka (why not?), you can substitute another premium vodka, like Grey Goose or Belvedere.

Day One

Welcome to my new blog. Here is where I'll document my various adventures in inventing drinks. So let's get on with it.

Name of Drink: Clifford

Ingredients:
1 part Absolut Apeach Vodka
1 part pink grapefruit juice
1/4 part grenadine

Served on the rocks

Pass/Fail: Fail

Notes: I'll focus on how I named this drink, because that's much more interesting than the taste. From Peach I got Fuzzy (like fuzzy navel), from grapefruit juice I got Dog (like greyhound and salty dog), and from grenadine I got Red (because it's red, duh). So that makes a Fuzzy Red Dog. Which is Clifford. Kinda.

Anyway, the peach and grapefruit flavors don't play together very nicely, much to my disappointment. The grenadine helps add a touch of syrupy sweet to drown it out, but it's just not my thing.