Project 5: Infused Booze

For starters, I’d like to note that making “infusing liquor” your new hobby is really ill-advised unless you have a plan of what you will do with all of it! I decided in late December 2019 that infusing booze would be my 2020 hobby – especially after how much fun I had with making the vanilla in 2019. Unless you plan to gift your infusions, this can be a project but definitely not a hobby. If you’re wondering, the beverages pictured above are all still sitting on my counter about half full because two people cannot drink that much liquor in a short time!

That said, infused beverages felt super luxurious and these are fun to drink so highly recommend and I’m considering making more infused beverages as a 2020 holiday gift. And on second thought, these don’t expire so I guess we do have a while to drink them! Cheers!

Quick project summary: For my first infusions, I used the pt.1 cocktail infusion kit. This made the process very easy as the mixes are premade and all you need to do is pick your favorite beverage, flavors and mix (literally, that easy)! The infusions kit itself makes a great gift and so does the infused beverage, too. These mixes have really complex flavors and they look gorgeous too (see picture above).

For my second infusion, I actually followed a recipe for chai pear brandy but substituted the brandy for bourbon. It was delicious and super easy because it only used chai tea bags and a pear (making this a fun project that you could do with items you have around the house on a day when you’re feeling a little bored). To do this, you infuse the bourbon with the chai tea bags first for several days or a week, then infuse with the pear for a week or two after that. Here’s a page that contains the chai pear recipe and a few others that I still want to try.

Things I loved about this project: First, this definitely fits in the “easy but snazzy” category – infused alcohol isn’t something you get to experience often (at least not me, maybe other people are less boring?!?!) so it felt like a bit of an occasion just having this at home. Second, this was fun for sharing at a girls night and I think if you were really into it, you could have a pretty kick butt tasting party. Finally, I’ve left these out on the counter because they look like a decoration – mostly thanks to these awesome bottles I was gifted to store them in, too. They’re not making the bottles I used anymore but here’s something similar.

What I would do differently: For the pt.1 infusions, I wish I had infused them for a longer time and had done more taste tests along the way. They definitely require more time than the directions on the kit say. After the first round of infusions, I infused for weeks at a time rather than days. I also took the advice of the recipe above and taste tested every 5 days or so – huge help!

Things I also enjoyed while doing this project:

-Decorating the apartment for Valentine’s Day using some of target’s awesome vase fillers (seriously, target seasonal vase fillers are the best).

-Also, decorating related – starting a new photo wall of all black and white art/photos. Note that this is our third apartment photo wall – I’m running out of walls to decorate. Send help.