You've probably all heard about students making Skittles vodka. I had. It occurred to me that it might also be possible to make vodka with other sweets, and guess what? The internet is alive with stories confirming this is indeed possible. Needing another cool gift for my dentist friend who only gets seriously excited about gardening, teeth and booze (and for whom I have bought a jazzy gardening fork and Mr & Mrs tooth-face badges in previous years), I decided to get all George's Marvellous Medicine and give it a go with (the far superior) Barratt's Refreshers.
Guess what? IT'S REALLY EASY.
You do need to invest some time, however.
I bought a four pack of Refreshers and a 750ml bottle of vodka, which I decanted into an large, empty plastic pop bottle (I bought 2 litres of ginger beer precisely for this purpose, and had a jolly time drinking it too). I then sat in front of Come Dine With Me and popped about two tube's worth of sweets through the top of the bottle. Left the whole thing on the worktop overnight, and all of the sweets had been dissolved by the next day. I tasted it neat (in the interests of science, you understand) and finding it still far too alcoholic, I put another two tubes' worth in. A day later, and it was perfect. You could easily experiment with quantities to taste, you just need to leave plenty of time and go slowly - add too much and it could easily get overly sickly so it's worth taking your time to get it perfect.
Next up, getting rid of the hideous looking layer of frothy stuff on the top. You need to sit a funnel in the top of your vodka bottle, lined with either a paper coffee filter, or a clean tea-towel. Then HOLD ON TIGHT and pour the lot in, gradually.
That's it. It'll look a bit like urine, so make a pretty label:
I promise you though, it will taste delicious. Even Sam could drink it neat, and he's not into spirits at all.
Apparently you can make it with all sorts of boiled sweets (if Barratts want to send me any more to try it with, or any vodka companies want to send me any of their wares to dissolve it in, I'll happily sell out for alcohol). I'm planning on making some more flavours to take to Beat-Herder next month, and will report back with my findings.
Anybody else tried to make flavoured vodka? Think I'm a grubbby student? I'm not, you know.
I've had skittles vodka, and plum vodka but I am now on a vodka experimentation mission... I'm thinking Jelly Tots (yes, I may have a small obsession with Jelly Tots). Yum!
ReplyDeleteJelly tots!!! Jelly babies are also supposed to dissolve well... I'm thinking rhubarb and custard for the next batch...
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*drools* just yum! Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas this year?
DeleteI've tried Jelly Baby vodka, it's goooooood. Jelly tots are a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard you can make Mars Bar vodka, which sounds kind of awesome and wrong.
K x
Penny I squealed when I saw this post! I worked in a bar in Glasgow when I was a student that sold lots of flavoured vodkas and I was shocked the day I saw the chefs making them!! As soon as I got home I told my flatmates and we started making them ourselves :) A few favourites were Campino Vodka (remember campino boiled sweets the strawberry and cream ones?), Wine Gum Vodka which we got quite scientific with separating out the flavour combinations and making lemon and lime or what not and pineapple cube vodka. Happy memories!
ReplyDeleteAll the ones we made involved melting sweets over a pan of boiling water though, didn't know you could do it the way you described xx
I have so much i want to say about all of this, but the thing i really cant get over is CAMPINO.....where did they go?? Campino! I'd forgotten all about them. Marvellous.
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Well I had to goggle them, just to check I remembered the name right, and although they come up on various sweet websites it appears they have been discontinued!! There appear to be a lot of people upset by this, maybes we could start a Bring back Campinos (we need them to make flavoured vodka with) campaign?!? x
DeleteWerthers caramel sweets dissolve PERFECTLY in vodka as I found out to my peril on New Year's Eve 2010 when friends of ours did it, and also served raspberry flavoured gin using those wee raspberry sweets. I think the sugar makes the hangover worse, though ;)
ReplyDeleteBoom! Werthers is on the list.
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DeletePlease be careful guys! Not thinking, we put ours in a sealed Kilner bottle. We went out for tea and when we came back,, it had exploded throwing glass shard all over the kitchen and spraying the sweetie vodka all over the cupboards, surfaces etc.
ReplyDeleteThankfully we were out or we would have been making a trip to A&E! Had to warn everyone!
Disappointed too, we'll have to make it again safely!
Seeing as someone on here mentioned making infused vodka as Christmas presents, thought I'd mention that the best vodka I've ever had was candy cane infused vodka. A friend and I made it one Christmas to take to a party. We took a bottle of vodka perhaps 3/4 - 4/5 full, then filled the rest of the bottle with broken up candy canes. They dissolve fairly quickly with a bit of vigorous shaking. If you were keen on shaking the bottle non-stop for close to an hour that would just about do it, if not, shaking it off and on over a day would do the trick also. No filtering etc required. Easily drinkable on it's own. Have never tried making it into cocktails, but I think it may go nicely with something chocolate based. Mmm.
ReplyDeleteI saw someone had made marshmallow vodka x x
ReplyDeleteThe quickest and easiest way I make flavoured vodka is by putting it into the dishwasher lol..
ReplyDeleteOnce you've added your sweets to the vodka, put the lid back on and wrap in cling film OR you can get 1Ltr glass bottles with lid in Ikea for £2.50 which are ideal as the lid is fixed to the bottle and can never be lost, then pop into the dishwasher for a cycle. Obviously don't add any detergent to the washer lol. Once its done let it cool down then filter to get rid of the froth then serve.
almost anything can be used to flavour vodka, and if you're thinking of doing this for Christmas gifts then even things like Christmas pudding, mince pies and candy canes all work great.
From personal experience I would say gummy based sweets are the worst to use, they are still usable but things like jelly babies etc leave you with the most froth at the end and the flavours are never super strong. Boiled or hard sweets are by far the best, they always dissolve great with very little froth and the flavour is always great. I suggest putting boiled sweets in to a blender so they are like a powder, or lacking a blender smash them up in a bag into little pieces. xx
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ReplyDeleteMy brother and I made two types using the 'dishwasher' method. One was Black Jacks and the other was Cadbury's Caramel Buttons. We added the sweets/chocolate directly into the vodka bottles (unfortunately we had to drink some vodka to make space) Lids back on, chuck the bottles in the dishwasher with your normal load of dishes. The warmth helps speed up the dissolving process. Remove from dishwasher and give a bloody good shake. Leave to cool. Filter into a jug then pour back into the bottles. Give them another good shake, filter again if needs be. ENJOY! :D
ReplyDeleteJust a little side note, Skittles are supposed to work really well and apparently tastes really nice, this is my next mission, I will be separating the colours into 5 different bottles. TASTE THE RAINBOW!! :D
We did Parma violets and it was frothy as hell .... really tasted the sweets but vodka tasted well hot and strong on the after taste - next time no powdery sweets and will try - black jacks - tootie fruitys and rosey pineapple cubes
ReplyDeleteI saw someone , years ago on tv make pear drop vodka , pear drops , to me , are disgusting , so I tried it with Sherbet lemons , tasted lovely but looks like you've peed in a bottle , I told a friend about it , we got in his car , went to Aldi for some vodka , then to a sweet shop that had 5 shelves full of jars of sweets , ended up making vodka with sherbet limes , aniseed rock , Rosy apples , liquorice & blackcurrant and pineapple chunks , that was ages ago , he's now got a shelf in his flat with loads of bottles , different colours
ReplyDeletethought the woman in the shop was going to kill us , she was up and down a ladder 3 times
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