Cocktail Hour: Infused Spirits

You may have noticed that infused spirits are quite a feature on cocktail menus at the moment. You might also have assumed that making your own would be a bit of a faff, but really that couldn't be farther from the truth. They're one of our favourite bar items when hosting a party at home because they're easy to make AND impressive without blowing the budget.

The first thing to remember is that it's fine to use the cheapest supermarket own brand spirits you can find. 

 

                                                    

The infusion of other ingredients works wonders, really smoothing out the flavour - in fact people often assume that we've used an expensive spirit. We tend to go for gin and vodka, but you can infuse any spirit you like.

Next you need to decide on some flavours. For Polly's recent birthday we made:

- Vanilla and date gin

- Dill, peppercorn and garlic vodka

- Plum, lemon and basil vodka

- Dill and honey (we had a lot of dill)

Put your ingredients into jars or wide mouthed bottles (since you want to be able to get them out again once you've finished infusing), then fill the containers with a spirit, seal and stash in a dark place, like the back of a cupboard.



Turn the container each day, and on the third day they'll be ready for straining. We recommend straining twice - once through a sieve, to get the big bits out, and again through a sieve lined with a clean tea towel, to remove any sediment. Then re-bottle your infused spirits (remember to label them) and store in a dark place until you want to try them out.

The nice thing is that it's really easy to experiment with different flavours - just use small jam jars to make test batches, then there's no wastage if you hate one. There really isn't any particular rule of thumb when it comes to how much of each ingredient you should add to your spirit for infusion, although we tend to err on the side of 'a lot' since the whole point is a flavourful end product. Don't leave green things, like herbs, in the jars for more than three days as they'll go a bit icky. Fruit can be left longer if you want (sloe gin has to sit for aaaaages, for example) but we think the speed of the process is part of the charm.

Guests love to sample the different flavours, especially since they're not available commercially, and it makes you look like a super smart party host. Our typical party bar includes five or so flavoured spirits, half a case each of white and red, a few bottles of bubbly and a good stock of tonic and ginger beer. Super easy to put together, most bases covered and best of all you don't spend all night frantically making up cocktails.