Infusions work best when the skin contains a lot of flavor... berries have most of their flavor on the inside. But, if you slice it, you're not really infusing anymore... you're just making a juice mix.

If I were doing a cranberry infusion, I'd experiment with the following 3 options, and pick the tastiest one:

1. Use very small whole cranberries. Go for tiny organic cranberries if you can find them... you want maximum flavor per pound.
2. Smash whole cranberries to extract the juice, and do an infusion with the cranberry skins.
3. Use dried cranberries (aka, cran-raisins) instead of fresh cranberries.

Infuse the first one for 2 weeks, the second for one week, and the third may only require a few days. Room temperature is best, but keep it out of direct sunlight.

Now... to enjoy a cranberry infusion, I'd recommend drinking it straight in a cordial glass, with a few frozen cranberries floating in it. Another option is a twist on the mimosa: champagne, a little orange juice, a little cranberry vodka, and (of course) frozen cranberries as a garnish.

Enjoy!

woah... I'm going to have to try that one... that's less of an infusion, and more of a "tincture" tho... I'm wondering if infusing it with caramelized sugar would be sufficient? I'd try this:

1. Heat up a saucepan to LOW heat
2. Pour in 1/4 cup pure sugar
3. Stir until it melts
4. Leave it on the heat for just a few more seconds to slightly burn the sugar
5. Let it cool
6. Mix in vodka, to dissolve the caramelized sugar
7. Pour the mixture into a larger vessel, and add vodka as needed

You'll probably also want some vanilla... caramel also has butter, but clarified butter (Ghee) might be better if its for an infusion. I'm gonna try that next week... thanks for the tip!

I've been making infusions for a couple of years now. The longer you wait the smoother it will be. Also with some of the berries (blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc) alot of them it helps to crush them, then let the berries sit for about an hour (so you can get the most of the flavors out of them). Also for things such as sloe gin, and pear liquors it helps to poke it with a fork (maximizing the surface area! Enjoy! =)

that would take some experimentation, I'd bet...

First test I'd suggest using a gourmet, high-cocoa content chocolate. Like 70% cocoa... shred it finely, and place it in a jar. Sample it every hour or so to make sure it doesn't get bitter. Filter out ALL of the chocolate, and store the vodka separately.

Now... that might yield a very bitter vodka, no matter how much you try. In which case you might want to try to get a hold of some chocolate with high cocoa butter content... in other words white chocolate. Try the same thing as above.

Let me know how it turns out!

I've infused Pineapple and ginger vodka. Both are so delicious.

The Pineapple is very sweet already. It takes from one to 2 weeks to infuse, but once it does, it's so sweet any cocktail you make with it does not need extra sugar. Try just the pineapple vodka, a little triple sec and shake it.

The ginger takes 2 weeks to fully infuse, but it can go even be longer. I love ginger infused vodka shaken with either lemon or lime and a little simple syrup to cut the tartness of the fruit.

For the Vodka I am using Nemirioff (Ukraine) and Tito's (U.S). I believe both are wheat vodkas. In Brooklyn you can get a 1.75L of either of them for about 25 dollars.

Just done a coffee one beans sugar and vodka oh it is soo nice

Great article!
I was wondering if it would be possible to infuse vodka with tea leaves? Would you have to heat the vodka?

Thank You!

haha, I really enjoyed your post...
I've done about 70 different infusions and am trying to figure out a couple of new techniques for different items, just wondering if you have any advice.

First one... I want to infuse vodkas with juice... For instance, a pomegranite infusion doesn't really taste like pom... so I want to infuse vodka with pom, but without loosing the alcohol content. I'm trying to infuse them and then freeze out the water (alcohol freezes at a much lower temp then water) and strain it out... but it doesn't actually work as well as it sounds. Any ideas short of making a distilling machine and blowing up my house?

Second one... have you had any success on getting rid of cloudiness from oils? Alot of nuts and chocolate have a good amount of oils in them that add cloudiness to the liquor... freezing doesn't congeal them and cheesecloth doesn't capture them. Now that I think about it, maybe a brita filter, but that might filter out some of flavor also.

Thanks for the helpfull advice.

Never use activated charcoal when making infusions. It will filter out the flavor and/or color. Your best best is heat up the vodka slightly using a hot plate, and then add whatever to it in small increments so as to not oversaturate the vodka (and cause cloudiness). For things like vanilla bean and nuts I'd grind them with a mortar and pestle first, adding small increments to warmed vodka and stirring frequently in, say, 1-min intervals before adding more. Of course the vanilla bean/nut won't dissolve or dissociate completely in the vodka, but you'll read a point where you can stop and begin filtration. At that point removing oils and clearing the liquor should be simple.

Anyone have recipe or advice on making a Caramel vodka infusion? Thanks so much!

Technically, filtering through charcoal is a good way to improve the flavor of vodka. Mythbusters did a show on it:

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/04/episode_50_bullets_fired_up_vo.html

Their conclusion is that you can make a cheap vodka better by filtering it, but it won't be top-shelf vodka. Once you do the math on it, you're better off buying quality vodka, rather than wasting a bunch of water filters.

My personal favorite vodka for infusing is the "generic" Costco brand vodka -- aka Kirkland. I think that's the best price point for high-end but cheap infusions.

I made a coffee vodka infusing it with whole coffee beans overnight. The vodka has a great flavor but it's quite bitter. How would you sweeten it to take away some of the bitterness?

Excellent question! I had to experiment quite a bit before I solved this one... the trick is to grind the beans in a very coarse-ground setting, and infuse them for no more than 15 minutes! The grinding part means the infusion works faster, and the 15-min limit means you avoid the bitterness. A French Press vastly improves your odds of success.

Please check out my tips on espresso infused vodka for step-by-step details...

i'm very tempted to try it... never done anything like it before.....never posted a question or comment before either....
what i want to know is...
can i use a plasticis bottle? i have a new one that has a spigot on the bottom that is supposed to be for margaritas.
what is the reason you mention mason jars... which are glass?

Oh god! how horrible!
OK- I say that because i don't like either one. But if you try it, let everyone know how it works! i'd be interested to find out. The cheese part makes me nervous...

Using a britta will SLIGHLTY improve the quality of a vodka, but cheap vodka has so many impurities in it that it will become "spent" very quickly. You should also NOT be using fish tank carbon.

check out http://www.brewhaus.com:80/Activated-Carbon-Book-C106.aspx

I have NO affiliation with them, but they have a free e-book that teaches you how to carbon filter. You basically take a 2" pvc tube about 3 feet long and turn it into a giant britta filter. Also, dry charcoal is 100%-150% less effective than well saturated charcoal. So you want to boil your charcoal in water, then let it sit overnight. Put it in the tube, pour WATER in to fill the tube, then the vodka on top (then the water is just at charcoal level) then when the vodka is down to the top of the charcoal, push it down and through with more water. NO- it won't dilute your vodka. It will flow in layers. Check out the book for a much better explaination. Long story short, with this method, you can take the CHEAPEST vodka out there and make it better than the best. But you should plan on doing a LOT at once or it is not cost effective. It will also take hours for the filtration process.

I have been experimenting with candy infusions. I used to make these years ago at a bar I worked at, but am having issues remembering exactly how I did them all. I figured it would be a good Halloween promo for a friend's bar. I have seen various articles on Skittles infusions, but I want to get a bit more variety. I am trying about 8 different concoctions ranging Starbursts to Swedish Fish. But, if anyone has any advice or ideas, please let me know.

So far Nerds has the best flavor in my opinion, but looks like dirty green water :)

Starbursts: Okay, but requires a lot of filtering once they dissolve.
Skittles: Mixing Red, Orange, and Yellow seems to have the best taste. Doing all flavors individually looks really cool though if you have the time and patience to separate them.
Swedish Fish: Not too bad, but a LOT of filtering bc they will not dissolve fully (at least not in a week's time)
Gummy Bears: Pretty Decent, but thick (almost simple-syrup consistency) and takes a while to dissolve.
Nerds: Dissolve quick and yummy, but looks gross.
Twizzlers: I recommend using the Nibs, bc they dissolve quicker, taste is eh just bc Twizzlers are no too flavorful.
Sweet Tarts: Pretty good.
Jolly Ranchers: Mixing all flavors makes it taste like cough syrup.

If people are interested, let me know and I can share rations of candy:vodka that I am working with now. :)

Can you use a colored glass jar while infusing? I bought some decorative ones and want to give them to family/friends for Christmas but don't want the color effecting the infusion!

any ideas tried it at bluewater the other daybut was selling at 20 pound a bottle any ideas of what to use for the toffee