Girl Meets Glass

Thanks for all of the infusion help!! I’m gonna go with bourbon. Now to find some recipes…

I’ve done 4 vodka infusions so far. Help! What liquor should I infuse next?

It is in the high 60’s today!! Yesterday was National Margarita Day!! It’s almost the weekend!! So many things to be excited about right now. With that said, I wanted a crisp drink and something kinda celebratory and I wanted to use one of my vodka infusions. I came up with Crisp & Cran which uses Cranberry-Lime infusd vodka. And to celebrate the great weather, a bit of sparkling wine.

Crisp & Cran

2 oz Cranberry-Lime infused vodka

1/2 oz Peach Schnapps

1 oz of Cranberry Juice

shot of Sparkling Wine

Mix the first three ingredients in a shaker. Pour into glass. Top with the sparkling wine. Garnish with a lime wedge. Enjoy!

This drink used up the last of my Cran-Lime vodka, wonder what should I infuse next?

This sparkling wine is made from the white Airen grape that is native to Spain. I’ve often heard the stat that Airen is the most widely planted grape on the planet. To make Fleuraison, the 1^st fermentation for the base occurs in Spain at cool temps. This produces a base wine with crisp, fruity flavors and great acidity. Once the wine is stable, it is sent to Languedoc where it then undergoes the 2^nd fermentation under pressure. At 4 atmospheres of pressure, the wine is bottled, put under cork and finished off with a foil capsule. Also called ‘Vin Mousseaux’ the finished sparkling wine has an amazing perfume, floral aroma which is quite appropriate as Fleuraison means ‘flowering’. I found yeasty, bread dough flavors on the palate with sort of a hazelnut finish. Fleuraison is very delicate in flavor so while I do enjoy this alone, it is my favorite sparkler to add orange juice for a Mimosa or crème de cassis for a Kir Royale. Either way, at $12, this is a sparkler to keep on hand for my ‘just because’ days.

It’s cold now! Which is fine with me, I love this weather. I love boots and scarfs and coats and sweaters…so I’m good! But for those of you that need a little something to warm you up, from the inside…Hot Buttered Rum does the trick every time!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 oz Rum
• 1 tbsp Hot Buttered Rum Batter,* frozen
• Boiling water
• Glass: Mug

PREPARATION:
Add the rum and batter to a mug. Fill with boiling water and stir.
 
*Hot Buttered Rum Batter
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb Butter, at room temperature
• 1 lb Brown sugar
• 1 lb Sugar
• 1 tbsp Ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ground cloves
• 1 tsp Ground nutmeg
• 1 qt Vanilla ice cream, softened slightly

PREPARATION:
Add all the ingredients except the ice cream to a bowl and stir to combine. Add the ice cream and stir again. Transfer to a container with a lid, seal and store in the freezer. (Ideally, the batter is prepared at first frost and finished before the robins arrive. Bring it out for parties, or whenever the temperature drops below 25 degrees.)
 
Recipe from Wayne Curtis, the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails.