Happy Halloween Infusion Part II

Continuing from where I left off from my Happy Halloween Infusion Part I post from October 29th, the Candy Corn Vodka infusions sat overnight. What I found curious was that most of the candy dissolved in the vodka, leaving some residue on the bottom of the jar. The Peanut Butter Cup Candy Corn Infusion not only had residue on the bottom but also had residue floating on top.

How to resolve that? Double straining.

For both infusions I strained the vodka with a metal mesh strainer to catch the large pieces and then strained what was left through a paper coffee filter. What I found is that as the filter sat there doing its job, it started to get hard and sticky. So halfway through I had use a new filter to finish the job. So after a few hours of filtering, here is what I was left with:

Both vodka were very colorful, clear and free of any residue. Now on to the taste. I can only describe the taste in two words: Sickly sweet.

I am not a sweet tasting booze kind of person. While I used to have a number of sweet cocktails in my repertoire when I used to bartend, I never drank any of them. My palate when it comes to cocktails falls along the tart side of the taste spectrum. So not surprising, I did not like the sip of either infusion that I tasted. But I still wanted to find a cocktail that I could make that would make the infusions shine.

I took the recipe that I found on the website with the instructions for the infusions and added a little fizz to it. Here is what I came up with:

Candy Corn Cocktail

1½ ounces of Candy Corn Infused Tito's Vodka

½ ounce of Pineapple Juice

Soda Water Top

Pour vodka and pineapple juice into an ice filled cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously and pour into a glass with fresh ice. Top with Soda water. 

As you can see from the picture to the right, the cocktail has a very bright Halloween Orange color to it. I have to admit, that this version was the second one that I made. I made the first one with equal parts of vodka and pineapple juice. I found that the pineapple juice overpowered the drink. Sorry about that folks, I am a little rusty when it comes making cocktails. So I lowered the amount of the pineapple juice to a half ounce and found that the flavor of the Candy Corn vodka stood out. The soda water gave the cocktail a light feel though to be honest, it was way too sweet for me.

I think that maybe a white cranberry or even a sparkling white grape juice might work better with this cocktail than the pineapple juice in terms of lowering the sweet factor. But if you like it sweet, rock it with the pineapple juice. I didn't even make a cocktail with the Peanut Butter Cup vodka. I would recommend using it in a variation of a White Russian or something else containing booze and cream.

I'm going to pass these infusions to along to Ju-Ju and Stella and see what that they think of them. I'll post what they tell me in a later post.

For those of you who have little ones, be safe while you're out there Trick-or-Treating with them. And for you bigger ghouls out there, be safe as well as you roam the streets.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
#siscovanilla
#siscovanillaatthemovies

Happy Halloween Infusion Part I

Its been awhile since I have posted anything infusion related. I have to make a confession...I've come to the realization that I am a cocktail snob. Having worked in the bar industry for as long as I did and trying to carve my own niche in the business, I found that in trying to "keep my edge", I was not having fun. Well, since we all know I no longer work in the bar business in any capacity, it's time to have some booze related fun. Here goes.

I recently came across an infusion recipe on Pinterest. The post called for the making of a Halloween Candy Corn Cocktail which I found on the Betty Crocker Recipes website. The recipe called for the combination of 1½ cups of Vodka and 1 cup of Candy Corn to sit in a jar for a period of roughly 4-hours. Strain the candy corn from the vodka. I want a full flavored infusion so I plan to keep this concoction to sit overnight and see if the candy corn fully dissolves in the vodka. So I went to my local Rite Aid to get some Candy Corn and found something else to play with.

As you can see from the above picture, I not only found old fashioned candy corn, but I came across a bag of Peanut Butter Cup candy corn that I am also going to infuse with Tito's Vodka. So here is the recipe I used based on the one I found on the Betty Crocker website:

Candy Corn Vodka
1½ cups of Vodka
1 cup of Candy Corn 

Place in a airtight jar, give a shake every couple of hours and let sit overnight. 

Now I gave it a good swirl, shake in vigoursly and you'll notice that almost immediately the Vodka started to take on the color off of the candy corn. To be honest I'm not sure if that is a good thing. LOL. Here is how it looks after said swirling and shaking:

I'm going to look into the infusions during the evening and see where it stands. Tomorrow I'll see what I come up with in order to drink these infusions. I also have a few unorthodox infusions on deck so keep an eye out for those as well. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

#siscovanilla

#siscovanillaatthemovies