I never under­stood why you would buy, use, or con­sume arti­fi­cially fla­vored liquors. This really goes against my style. The vodka boom is still going strong and many Amer­i­cans love their fla­vored vod­kas. Well I’m try­ing to change people’s minds. Infus­ing your own spir­its is easy. It just takes some time, but in the end you will have real fla­vors and some really fresh cocktails.

I used Infused by Susan Elia MacNeal’s for reference.

Always use ster­il­ized mason jars, shake once a day, and keep away from bright sunlight.

Blue­berry Vodka and Blue­berry Bourbon

• 750 ml of booze
• 1 quart fresh organic blueberries

Slightly cook the blue­ber­ries until some of the nat­ural sug­ars start to release. The blue­ber­ries should be slightly firm not mushy.

Infuse away from sun­light for 5 days.

Lemon infused Vodka

This fresh infu­sion will blow your mind and you will hope­fully never buy a cit­rus vodka ever again.

• 750 ml of vodka
• 5 lemons

Zest lemons with no white pith.

I use a potato peeler and then a knife to remove excess white pith. You could use a microplane zester here as well.

Infuse for 5 days. Strain and rebottle.

Yes, it’s that easy and tastes like real lemons.

Jalapeno infused tequila

• 750 ml of blanco tequila
• 1 red Serrano
• 3 jalapeno chiles

You’ll only need to infuse the tequila for two days. Once you have your jalapeno infuse tequila you’ll have ammo for some seri­ously tasty cock­tails that pack a punch.

Pecan Infused Bourbon

• 750 ml of bourbon
• 2 cups of pecans

Here’s the prepa­ra­tion for the pecans. First soak your pecans in water for 30 min­utes, then strain. Place pecans on a bak­ing sheet and pre­heat the oven for 300 degrees. Sprin­kle with salt, pep­per, and cayenne pep­per on the pecans for fla­vor. Bake for 20 min­utes. Allow to cool and place in a ster­il­ized mason jar. Top pecans with bour­bon and infuse for 4–5 days. Strain with a cof­fee fil­ter or Brita fil­ter to remove any sed­i­ment. I’m cur­rently look­ing into agar clar­i­fi­ca­tion to help remove sed­i­ment and improve the over­all appearance.

Cock­tails

Here are some recipes I used with these infusions.

Park­side Fizz

• 2 oz Cit­rus Vodka
• 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
• 1/2 oz Orgeat
• Mud­dled Mint

Shake and strain into a collins glass with rocks

top with soda

Gar­nish with mint and a lemon wheel

Rem­ing­ton

• 2 oz Blue­berry Vodka
• 1 oz lime
• ¾ oz simple

Mud­dle mint & blueberries

Shake and strain into a chilled cock­tail glass

gar­nish with blue­berry sugar. Dehadrated blue­ber­ries then crushed with mor­tar and pes­tle, com­bine with sugar.

Recipe invented by Bal­ti­more bar­tender Paul Palumbo

One Hot Minute

• 1 ¾ oz jalapeno tequila
• ½ oz Lillet,
• 2 oz Apple & Cucum­ber juice
• 1 tea­spoon agave
• 1 tea­spoon Jalapeno hot sauce

Shake and strain into a collins glass with rocks

Gar­nish with cucum­ber slices and a jalapeno

Blue­berry Thrill

• 2 oz House Infused Blue­berry Bourbon
• 3/4 oz Lil­let Blanc
• 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
• Dash Peach & Angos­tura Bitters

Stir and strain into a chilled cock­tail glass

Gar­nish with 3 blueberries

Recipe invented by Josh Sullivan